(If this belongs in Tech Garage ... well, I'll look for it there!)

First dumb question: What parts of the RX-8 are by-wire?

If the speedometer is digital, does it have an upper limit?

Not really an RX-8 question, but, can you make a diesel rotary?

 

throttle is by wire, brake and clutch are still hydraulic, steering is electric assisted instead of hydraulic, and of course all the electronic gadgets that's on the car :o

IIRC, the manual says the speedometer is capable of displaying up to 999 (km/h or mph)

i'm not familiar with the workings of a diesel engine so I can't help with that question :o

 

Diesel Rotary -- interesting question. I'd suspect the problem would be compression. Diesel requires a much higher compression that might not be reliably attainable with rotary-type seals. If it were possible, I'd be interested in whether it might help solve the flame-front propagation issue.

 

on the mph/kph...

I think the first of three digits will only light up as a " 1 " so if anything I would think the max it could display is 199.

Then again u might be right because 199km/h is only around 119 mph which I know the rx8 can top.

 

The digital speedo will read in the 200's in the hundreds digit ... I've had mine to 210 kp/h before. Just because I wanted to see the 200-level numbers in the speedo. That's about a buck-thirty.

SC

 

Thanks for the answers, everyone.

I thought it was just throttle-by-wire only, but a comment on another thread made me wonder.

I definitely remember someone posting pics of his dashboard with the speed in the 200's (km, I think). If I ever did that, the pic would be my avatar!

 

BTW, how common is throttle-by-wire now? I know the new Accord has tbw, but there are probably a lot more out there.

 

diesel rotaries have been done, mostly turbocharged to dynamically increase compression and either glow or spark ignition

there have been experiments with them using almost every type of combustible fuel imaginable, alcohol, gasohol, gasoline, diesel, hydrogen, propane, etc