I want a R model. No air, no radio, no back seat, no sunroof, no ABS. Just a Six speed with LSD and 17 inch wheels

 

Not for me... I want it all, the reason I didn't buy an S2000 is that it's noisy being convertable.

I like the 4 seat configuration as for me it's an occasional sports car... but will be required to do quite a lot of high speed (80-90Mph) cruising over perhaps 250 miles at a time.

I once did an entire tank of fuel in my Accord in 1 sitting... that's about 450 miles... bearing in mind that England isn't much more than 1000 miles in any direction. I think I did over 800 miles in that weekend.

 

I don't know how profitable it would be for Mazda to offer a stripped down model. There would probably be a limited demand for it. I personally wan't mine loaded with everything but a Navigation system. Most folks will want a comfortable sports car that is the best of both worlds. It doesn't need to have rear seat air conditioner vents or anything, but the majority of people aren't willing to give up what are now considered standard features to save a few pounds. Maybe they could offer it as an option.

Another problem with a higher performance model that is stripped down is that it will be the one that the Automags want to review. Then they will slam it for not being refined, practical, or comfortable enough. This happened when everyone wanted to test the R1 optioned third-gen RX-7's. They gave it bad press for the stiff suspension, but they could have tested the touring mode. The RX-8 doesn't need any bad press from reputable sources like enthusiast magazines, because many people take their words for it on the final product.

Wow BlueAdept, it's probably hard for many of us Americans to relate to not having more opportunities to drive out an entire take of gas in one sitting. That is very different from our environment. I used to be a manufacturers representitive (translation=salesman) and my territory was Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee. I lived in Florida at the time and my girlfriend lived in South Carolina. I can't even count the number of times I've driven out an entire tank of gas in one sitting, and my Corolla gets great milage. I think the furthest I've done in one day was waking up in Venice Florida, driving all day and going to sleep in Tupalo Mississippi. I had an appointment early the next morning.

 

Yeah.... I think I've done an entire tank in the Landrover too but that's 3.5 Litre V8 (Ex Buick) and glides through the air exactly the same way that a missile doesn't

It's actually pretty hard to do it in a reasonably efficient car here.... there just isn't enough road... LOL.

Incidentally... what sort of speed to you really manage to cruise at these days... I know it was really strictly enforced at 55 at one point... but... hard to believe as it is, I probably know as little about the USA as you know about Europe....

The limit here is 70Mph, but on the actual road you'll see that about 50% of people sit just under 90... I think it's a psychological point with both the drivers and the police... I don't often hear that people got stopped doing 85-90... Friend of mine got pulled at 93, but they said they stopped him because they saw him slow down from "much faster"... LOL.

There was a funny article in a book about how Rover bought the rights to a Buick engine in the 60's... Apparently they employed some Buick engineers to help get it to rev higher... Buick people didn't understand the need for it... so Rover flew them over and drove them back from the airport at around 100Mph... In the old P5 that they wanted the engine for! Mind you, my father had one of those, and even 20 years old you could hear the clock tick at 70.

 

I'll take the 18s offered with the car instead

 

World politics crib sheet...

http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/200...8/us-news.html

For anyone else suitable unaware of other places in the world...

LOL.

 

"Yes, yes, there were those 9 November attacks which of course were hugely significant in terms of world events."

Um...9 November? If they can't get that right, I wouldn't put too much faith in anything they report.


In the US the speedlimits vary, as does enforcement. In Northern Virginia (near Washington D.C.), I'm usually holding up traffic in the slow lane when doing 10-15 mph over the limit (65-70 mph/105-115 km/h). In Colorado I'm usually flying past people when I'm doing 2-3 mph over the limit of 75 mph (120 km/h).

In general, interstates in cities are limited to 50-55 mph, in rural areas of crowded states it's 65 mph, and wide open western states are usually 70-75 mph.

As for enforcement, I generally do 4 mph over the limit unless conditions or traffic dictate otherwise. I've never been pulled over for that speed.

 

You are so right KayakDaddy. When the third gen. rx7 hit the magazines, all of them wanted to test the back breaking R1 model against the Z-turbo, Mitsu. etc. I vividly remember C@D putting the R1 second to the Z turbo, then they said, "It's only a couple of points behind the Z car, that's due to it's harsh non-refined ride, but it eats up the track though." Why the heck didn't they test the touring model! MotorTrend did the same thing, Automobile Mag., and Road and Track. I drove the R1, touring model and base model. To be fair to the Rx7 they should have tested the touring. Oh yeah, and for the person who wanted a stripped down R model with no air, etc. You must don't live in the South, especially Louisiana when at 8 am it's already 85 degrees. Naw.....gimmee all the goodies.

 

Well, not that I think it's a particulary clever topic to base any humour on... but you are aware of course that they were commenting on the US date format... in that it's wrong.

Day, Month, Year,,, now that's logical, surely you can see that? LOL.

You will somtimes find a slightly callous attitude towards the recent terror attacks in the US, from especially English people..... and it's somthing I should apologise for, the reasons are.... well not so unreasonable, however... it's not somthing I should get into here....

I will say that the "War on terrorism" has been used as a huge bandwagon by the media companies to justify new laws etc which are highly questionable... and from a US perspective, IMHO unconstitutional.

Now lets talk about the RX8 instead.... after all they are built in Hiroshima and we're all friends now aren't we?