RoXanneBlack8

wasnt there a turbo hydrogen 4 port runnin around somewhere? there was a button on the dasht hat could switch from gas to hydro instantly...it was white


werd. e85 sucks when it comes to hp and fuel economy, its only real ebenfit is emissions....


1G rx8 is weird. what would the chassi code be? SE? wtf man, then its SF for 2g rx8s>? whoa!


hope they ditch the 4 door and go couope with 2 seats....if its gonna be low volume sports car, make it appeal to THAT demographic....

whatev im a moron but a kerosene rx8 would be funny...think we can pour that into ours right now>?


JK!

Revolver

The whisper in Oz is that importation of the current model RX8 is to cease at the end of this year with rumour of a replacement model next year.

Talk is cheap and the cessation of importation to Australia may simply be a local decision (if true) but it is intriguing to think what may come next (if at all).

Don't like that 'sporty' word though...

EDIT - Just saw Gomez's thread below. Should have known the word would be out by now, lol.

donack456

...it will be a sporty application


Don't read more into this then it may be, 300hp non turbo I doubt it. I believe it willl some how have better mpg and 250-260hp with all the slick stuff that the RX-8 has.

And as a 2 seat coupe the RX-7 needs to be a lighter, sleeker and faster sports car with the balance and handling of the 8, sounds nice without the turbo to me. A factory turbo 300hp option would be nice though.

dmp

Translation: It'll still make 215-220hp...

rotary crazy

dont count on the engine making more than 250 hp, what would be cool is if the engine made 250 real hp and the car loses a few pounds

250 real hp is about 215 rwhp, thats 25-35 more than we make today

Floyd

Does anyone know what size of solar array it would take to produce hydrogen at on on-demand basis?

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

If you have "Electricity" why would you waste it by producing H2, compressing it, decompressing it, then inefficiently burning it?

Makes no sense.....

S

Shini

I'd be a little more afriad of you rear-ending Betty soccer mom after taking a corner too fast

Rear-end collisions would be a little dangerous.

But come on, as someone said earlier, 5 cents for fuel? I'd take the added risk, the extra 2.95 you save per gallon/cubic foot (whatever) you could just put into a savings account to pay for the hopsital bills when your tank explodes?

Once they start using it in a lot of vehicles it will be almost completely safe I'm sure. Or atleast we can hope it will. White Collar Crime for the lose.

dmp

On this drivetrain, 250 real hp should be about 220-230 rwhp.

rotary crazy

yep, I forgot about that

turbo944s2

The car could make the power safely cause of the higher octane rating but the 21-34 mpg is a dream. The audi/vw guys have free software that allows you to add or subtract timing and fuel. They are swapping in larger injectors and a larger MAF Housings and are making incredible power with no timing pull. Some people who are doing it are claiming that it is going to be difficult for the cars not designed for e85 to start in the winter. Do Rx8's have software that allows you to make timing and fuel changes?

champi0n

iTrader: (1)

the rotary wont die, its the best design for alternative fuel.

Renesis07

iTrader: (1)

Im just glad that Mazda isnt killing off the rotary, id like to see a 250 hp next gen RX thats naturally aspired, hey a man can dream right?

Str8cold

You don't have to worry about turning yourself into a suicide bomber if you want to go Hydrogen. There have been many new discoveries in regards to making this a viable alternative energy source.

http://pesn.com/2007/05/17/9500471_H...minum_Gallium/

mdw1000

I thought I read where the hydrogen renesis was only making something like 60hp though?

champi0n

iTrader: (1)

lol, i think its more like 110 or so... equivalent to a honda civic. But being dual fuel (hydro/gasoline) you can switch between the two.... its unlikely you'll care about the lack of hp when in hydrogen mode... i sure wouldnt.

champi0n

iTrader: (1)

Also i dont think the on demand hydrogen as linked above is going to go anywhere for passenger cars/trucks... MAYBE lawn mowers but it really doesn't sound that appealing just yet. Using aluminum... nah.. too expensive. I care more about saving money then i do saving the environment.

I'm cool with sitting on a carbon fibre tank of hydrogen at 5000 psi any day.

Typically say you spend $3500 a year in gasoline and to convert to hydrogen costs 5000 as an example (i dont really know the cost). Now with using hydrogen you would currently save around $800 on your gasoline bill if the price stays the same. So now 2700 a year in your gasoline hybrid rx8.

If the gas prices continue to rise and the hydrogen technology improves as far as storage and amount of miles you get from the tank, your savings are now much much greater.

Lets say those are realistic numbers, at that rate the hydrogen conversion doesnt really "pay for itself" for say 6-7 years if the price stays the same (which it wont) so realistically we could say in 4-5 years it'll pay for itself.

But as the technology improves and gas prices go up, it starts paying for itself much sooner. If the return on investment became closer to the 2 year mark you'd see a hydrogen economy becoming much more viable and sustainable and more "worth it" dollar wise.

If i could spend $5,000 today and in 2 years im at the break even point, where now i'm on par to what i would have spent in gasoline anyways, and now im saving a thousand or more a year, thats worth it to me. But again say 2 years from now it'll be cheaper and more viable anyways.

I would expect in about 10 years hydrogen will be more commonplace as an alternative fuel unless something awesome happens that forces the change sooner.

edfred

I agree. I hope that mazda will bring a upgrade kit for our RX-8 to run with hydrogen if we want. The bi-fuel thing will be very nice, if the oil (and gas) prices will climb to the roof within the next 3-4 years. The current rise is just a tast of that, which will come if oil runs REALLY short (or better : the rate you pump crude oil out decline). I think a hydrogen rotary then will be a great advantage to save the costs for fuel. Even here in AUSTRIA (no there are no kängurus here !) where the gas price is at 1.25 € / litre. As soon as mazda will bring such a upgrade kit, I'll place it into my 8 (the subbox then will be kicked out of the trunk)

I think we should start a wish mail to mazda to produce that hydrogen updgrade kit i think The community is great enough to be a good market for such a developemnt/ product.

JM2C
EdFred

btw : please mazda ... pack a turbo kit aside to get more than the 110 hp in hydrogen mode :D

RoXanneBlack8

the dual fuel engine shots ive evr seen WERE turbodcharged. ill find some pics and post them...

edit, best i could find within 3 minutes....

it made 210 ps on gasoline and 110 ps on hydrogen

skrubol

iTrader: (1)

I think the large majority of hydrogen is manufactured from natural gas, so until a cheaper method is found, its price is tied to fossil fuels. I think also that 5 cents per cubic foot figure is a little misleading. m/cf will not equal mpg. A cubic foot of hydrogen weighs about .006 lbs. A gallon of gasoline weighs between 7 and 8 lbs. I'm sure it takes somewhere around 100 cf of hydrogen to have the same power output of a gallon of gasoline.

edfred

I think that hydrogen will be get from biomass , electricity or as a result of water cleaning (waste gas at the cleaning phase with bacterias). Also some research heading to find a better way to get hydrogen.

Currently i must agree, that hydrogen is produced out of oil (carbon-hydrogen-chains).

But .. what other alternatives we have ? The combustion engine we use now in our cars is the most common in the world. Nearly all transportation vehicels are driven by them. We cannot replace all that cars, lorries, ship engines from today until tomorrow with a fuel cell or bio fuel (ethanol, etc.). The fuel cell technology isn't go far enough, and the bio fuels needs too much growing areas to replace common fuel in all of the engines we use worldwide.
So I think that hydrogen combined with solar, wind, water and thermal energy to produce it will be the cheapest and fastest way with a minimum effort to upgrade the engines to it.

Only storing is currently difficult .. but there exists some possibilities to match with that and research in that issue progress.

Maybe the cars of the future are driven by electricity directly .. but in the meantime we have to adapt existing technology currently.

With an upgrade kit for the 8 I think this car is right equipped for the future awaiting us.

frollo

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...y_(MYT)_Engine

/me puts on his flame retardant suit

2tone

iTrader: (3)

if we're lucky that is! we might be called ONLY-gen rx-8!

i think it sounds kinda cool - look how proud 1st and 2nd gen rx-7 owners are, even though the 3rd gen is typically viewed as the coolest one.

Rick

With an automatic transmission.

Spin9k

Hummm...

Boy I'm getting so excited now gee I can't wait for another real nice sportie vehicle from mazda one that sound great but is also pretty nice and practical as well, not too heavy, not too light, but not so fast, or economical, but is still pretty fun to drive around all the corners that sure is something new we haven't seen before thanks mazda for coming up with this revolutionary idea that will make me so happy that I will maybe think about it someday when it arrives here in a few years perhaps let us see a picture that was created by someone on drugs you know those pretty pcitures of cars with wings? Gee thanks alot.