Hi guys,

New member living in Kent, England. Been interested in the RX8 every since the first pictures came out. I have reads a lot of info on the car and now put my deposite down. I have a couple of question though;

1) What is the rotary engine like in 1) sound and 2) torque, the reports which are all positive don't fully clarify. For a newbie to the rotary engine this is important

2) I was told today that the 1st car in the UK will not arrive until August and the only available in 4 launch colour. Any update on this?

3) Anybody experienced enough to know how the new RX8 should compare to the TTC.

Cheers,

rael
(PS Present TTC 225 owner)

 

Welcome, you will find more info here than than with Mazda Uk.
Placed my order 16th January.

There will only be 4 colours initially
Red
Silver
Titanium
Black

You can see them all at your local Dealer except Red.

Interiors so far as we know are:
Black Cloth or Leather on all and
Black/Red Leather on Red car only.

This is as much as we know so far.

Initial batch will be only 1,000 and target for 2003 is 3,500 total between 157 Dealers.

Sorry can't help anymore.

Welcome again and you'll find some new friends who have ordered on Europe Forum.

Oilman

 

Welcome aboard, Rael. Use the search function to read the many posts concerning torque and power. You will also find a thread or two discussing the sound of rotary engine with some links to media. Can't really answer your other questions, and I'm not sure I know what a TTC is (TT Coupe?).

By the way, you aren't the REAL Rael are you? The one causing all this stink about cloning people and what not?

 

Thanks for the info.

I am after Mazda metalic blue so I think I may have to wait a bit, hope it is all worth it. Was told that silver and blue are best colours for re-sale although silver will be dark gun metal colour.

TTC = Audi TT Coupe 225 Horsepower

I presume some of you guys have had a rotary engine before. How does it compare to a normal engine or even normal turbo engine (ie TTC)?

In for the long wait.....

rael
(Taken from my group Dude Rael)

 

rael, the RX-8 should handle significantly better than the TT coupe. I think where you'll find the differences immediately will be in low speed tight cornering (decreasing radius turns where the inherent 'push' in the TT becomes all too readily apparent) and in exiting from corners where, given Quattro, you'd be able to get on the power a bit earlier than in a rear wheel drive car.

AWD typically doesn't feel as 'sharp' as a good RWD platform. Another issue with the TT is it's Golf underpinnings.

Not having personally owned a rotary, I'm not sure what's in store there.

However, as far as torque's concerned, the US rx-8 web site shows 159 ft lbs and the press release states 216 ft lbs (for the high hp motor). If you download the specifications from the site you'll see the bottom of the page marked, "MNAO Product Development and Strategy" and it too shows 216 ft lbs. How that comes out in the UK is unknown.

I did ask my editor what he thought of the low end grunt when he drove in the long lead at Laguna Seca and he thought it was OK. (In conversations prior to his spending time with the car it was evident that he was a bit dismissive of it, but not anymore.)

 

The RX-8 makes 159 lbf-ft (ft lb is force) of torque at 5500 rpm. The 216 is 159 lb-ft in Newton-Meters. This has been discussed on other threads.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Has anyone posted a torque curve graph yet?

 

Yes, Grimace is the specialist, go to here.

 

Excuse my ignorance. All these figures are very impressive but in real life what difference will I be able to tell from my turbo 1.8 engine? More acceleration, or less, better at higher or lower revs, quieter engine, less vibration etc.

Low Torque - does that mean I have to rev like hell to get any acceleretion or will be gearing sort that out?

rael

 

The rotary is a very smooth engine. It will be a pleasure to rev it to 9000. The engine has very little vibration and a very specific but pleasant sound. Power should be available in all gears, however under 3000 revs it will not be fast. The acceleration will be slightly faster than a 225 hp TTC. A very good review for the UK you will find here and URL=http://www.whatcar.com/default.asp?a=roadtest&b=searchresults&rt=4422&s=s electedroadtest&sort=9&thepage=1&admake=25&admodel =25149&makestring=MAZDA&modelstring=RX-8&editionstring=]here[/URL] .

regards

 

I've had a chance to drive a TT for a few days and wish I could say the same for the RX-8. So we'll have to extrapolate (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess) at what the RX-8 will feel like under acceleration (I guess the reviews in the buff books might be helpful).

I suspect that the 'pushed into the back of the seat' feeling in the TT won't be in the RX-8. But the RX-8 will probably have a better HP/Weight ratio and, given it's HP curve, ought to provide a real interesting feel of increasing acceleration as the revs build.

Geez louize, I want to drive one of these things!

 

The RX-8 will get better acceleration numbers than the TT, as it has more power and less weight. The engine will be virtually free of vibration, even at redline. The feel of a rotary is what I would call "deceptively fast", it often suprises me how fast I'm actually going because of the smooth, effortless feel of the engine.

This one is a little more tricky. True, you will have to get into the higher range of the tach to fully realize the engine's potential. However, keep in mind that the engine only has 1/3 revolution per revolution of the driveshaft, so redline is really 3,000rpm. Also, there is a reason why Mazda included both a warning buzzer AND a shift light, the engine will rev so quickly and effortlessly that many people are actually surprised to find that they keep hitting the redline.

 

What is being suggested (and confirms what I have read) is that below 3000 revs acceleration is not good but makes up above that. Accordingly, if I want a fast getaway I need to rev above 3000 (although 3000 revs in a rotary is presumably easier than 3000 in a ordinary engine) and after that its power all the way to 9000?!

Sound great.

Another question - anybody got a view on how European the interior material is? I am hoping they have tried to compete with Audi and Merc on the material quality and avoided the too plastic look.

rael

 

Hi Rael,

Welcome to the forum. None of us are experienced enough to know how the new RX8 will compare to the TTC since only 3 members have driven a pre-production model here. There is some pretty good software that can estimate things very closely however.

People have used peak engine hp:weight ratios to compare cars for a long time and it is actually more accurate than comparing peak engine torque:weight ratios even though torque is what actually "pulls" the car. Comparing drive wheel torque:weight takes gearing into account but tells you nothing about whether the redline is 6600 or 9000.

There is a good discussion of this stuff at http://rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=931 if you have the time.

I can do a TT Coupe comparison with the RX-8 in Cartest if you tell me if you have the quattro or the fwd version.

Brian

 

For great review look at;

www.4car.co.uk

and search for RX-8 review.

rael

 

Buger,

Quattro although front-wheel drive until the additional wheels are required.

Appreciated,

rael

 

Welcome Atr_Hugo,

The torque curve that Sheylen posted a link to is a graphical interpretation of an old prototype Mazda torque curve that was found on the Swiss Mazda media site (http://media.mazda.ch/dossiers/****...s/skizze-05.jpg) and was first posted by stan11003.

Mazda released later "production" torque curves on Jan 7 which I posted up here: http://rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s...9299#post19299

Brian

 

Hi Rael,

The Audi TT quattro has the advantage over the RX-8 for the first 1.25 seconds because the "quattro" AWD system. After the first 1.25 seconds, the additional weight of the AWD is it's disadvantage. Once the RX-8 has traction, it will push you back in your seat much more (see acceleration G's) because of it's higher wheel torque to weight ratio even though it has larger circumference wheels/tires.

6MT RX-8 SPECS:
hp: ............... 247 @ 8500
torque: ........... 159 @ 5500
redline: .......... 9000 rpm
wheels: ........... 225/45R18
driver weight: .... 165 lbs
fuel weight: ...... 30 lbs
drag coeff: ....... .30
Air temp: ......... 65 degrees F
curb weight:........ 3011 lbs (estimated - hopefully it is lower)

QUATTRO TT SPECS:
hp: ............... 225 @ 5900
torque: ........... 207 @ 2200
redline: .......... 6600 rpm
wheels: ........... 225/45R17
driver weight: .... 160 lbs
fuel weight: ...... 30 lbs
drag coeff: ....... .32
Air temp: ......... 65 degrees F
curb weight:........ 3208 lbs

 

Well, that is impressive information but overall there does not seem to be much in it with RX-8 having a marginal advantage over the TTC.

Many thanks.

rael

 

The rx8 is a drivers car - go on , take the plunge.
Rear wheel drive and rotary goodness - how can it fail ?

Each to their own and all that, and no disrespect intended at all - but the TT is a bit, well, 'passe' these days isn't it ?
I mean some people love the looks (some hate them) and given that you are a UK bod you must watch top-gear.
Look what happened to it on Clarksons 'cool-board'...

Take the plunge , buy the RX8. If numbers are as scarce as they say you can always out-it if you hate it and the way TT values are falling now you can get another one !

A win-win situation !

So - do we have a convert ?
Either way - let us know.... Come and visit at the Europe forum sometime.


Morgan.

 

it looks like the RX-8 beats the TT to 80mph by nearly a second... i wouldn't say that's "marginal", if you're talkin' about racing on paper: the differences aren't ever big (as some on this forum say "if it's 6.2s 0-60 i won't buy it, but if it's 5.9 i'll be first in line")...
over a longer distance, the RX-8 would really show a bigger advantage, especially in the 1320, where it'd probably put a good spankin' on the TT (looks to be about 5mph and a handful of tenths on Buger's graphs), or better yet around a +2.0mi road circuit, where it'd most likely embarrass it, AOTBE.

 

I am very keen and ready to put my money down although I still don't know how it drives, rotary engine noise etc.

Is there a European RX-8 site, what under? - although this one seems very informative.

rael

 

have you checked the UK Mazda RX-8 Site ??

there's a good informational section on the Wakel rotary there, and if you're into technical stuff try this site

 

Can anybody show me the silver colour out amongst the 4 launch colours. My first choice is blue but I'm not sure how long I will have to wait to get that colour.

I have been told its a darker 'gun' silver......

rael

 

There are two!

Titanium Grey (Gunmetal colour)
Sunlight Silver (Silver)

Both available at your local dealer, go and see him.

Cheers

Oilman