This may be a stupid question and I'm not sure it deserves it's own thread, but I guess there are worse things I could post about (y dis car haz n0 torqs?! synthetic oil? etc).

One thing I've always wondered is what our mileage is under high stress conditions (like on a track) compared with other cars. I'd like to see a mpg comparison test of several cars on a race track. Is the RX-8 as inefficient at high load as it is driving around town? (Relative to other cars, I mean. Obviously it will use more gas on a track than on the highway.)

Would it be like this...
Road Track
RX-8 .......... 20 mpg ....... 10mpg
Car A ......... 30 mpg ....... 10mpg

or this?
Road Track
RX-8 .......... 20 mpg ....... 5mpg
Car A ......... 30 mpg ....... 10mpg


I'm just curious. I don't really care about mpg. I don't even bother to measure it, though I'm sure it's better than my rx-7 (which I have also never measured).

 

I get 6-8 MPG on the track....mostly WOT Worth every gallon I burn.......

 

^I get about the same as that. But most of the time I'm not measuring it.

 

It's more important to measure gallons per minute

 

I see about 8 on the track, giver or take. Depends on the track and the weather.

 

What about other cars like a 350z or M3? ...or a Prius?

 

Friends 335i got about 8-10...but I push a lot harder than he does...so say 8..

350's are about the same from what I hear...8-10

HP USES GAS.....there is no free ride

 

So at track speeds, the RX-8 isn't that bad compared to other cars?

 

I get 8mpg on track days.

 

5.5-6.0 w/stock ECM and 5.12 ring and pin.

6.0-6.5 with 5.12 and a lot of tuning effort.

Depends on track.

 

i havent measured exactly but i know when i do time attack its 3 runs of 3 laps and i burn a quarter of my tank on a 3/4 of a mile lap course

 

If you want a good comparison watch this...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmxUsGiGp3w

 

I laughed SO hard at that episode. God, I gotta catch up.

 

there is a top gear episode where they bash on the prius again.

on the track, with the prius trying to get its best time, i think it was like 10 mpg, and the m3 18mpg following it

 

all depends on the rpms you have to use.
At one track where my gearing is great I am getting 10mpg ( i have a lower redline than some) another tack i will get 8-9.
OD

 

I have seen a few MPG posts about track MPG. I remember 1 where the V8s that the 8 owner has tracked got ~5-6, where the 8 got ~8-9. It really boils down to this:
The more power your car can make, the more gas it will burn when using that power. Looking through the above list, the people with the more powerful 8s are showing a few MPG less than the others.


MPG that anyone cares about in the non-track world is really cruising MPG, where extremely low RPM torque lugs those cars around better than ours. Open them up, and their more power will require more gas than us.

 

Um. All you had to do was click on my link to watch that episode. That was the point of my post.

 

oh whoops :P

yeah click on that dudes LINK

 

Rotary engines throw more heat out the pipe then piston engines do no matter the load. At higher RPM's piston engines throw more heat away through the cooling system.

In "street mode" the RX8 tends to burn about 20-30% more then a piston of equivalent output. I don't know what the track comparisons are today, but back when I raced an RX7 in the Firehawk Sports class the RX7 burned about 10% more then a 944 and 30% more then the supercharged MR2.

Fuel/time is more relevent to a racer but among a couple other production cars I raced years ago, the E-Prod Porsche 914 (1.8 liter) delivered about 12 MPG and ITS Fiero (2.8 liter) delivered about 11 MPG. Both of those were about 50HP short of the RX8 FWIW.

Finally the Porsche 928 my RX8 replaced with all of 250 HP actually had worse fuel mileage then the RX8.