I have recently been looking into purchasing a Rx8, but have noticed that some internet reports have the 2004 6spd manual rx8 listed as having about 40 less stock HP than the 2006-2007 6spd manual rx8's. Is this true or do they have equivalent horsepower?

 

if horsepower is your only concern then this really isnt the car for you anyway.

 

The engine is rated at 232hp for any model. Some claim that it was at first 238 when it came out. But that's a rating at the crank before any of the power hits the driveline or the wheels. Once it does though, some dyno's rate the engine at low numbers like 180hp. But the 180hp is what makes it to the ground. The other 40-50hp gets lost through the driveline.

 

They make the same power.

 

All 6 speeds have the same hp (from the factory)- there have not been any upgrades since the car first came out . There are slight variations in different markets but that is all .

 

The AT had about 40~ less hp than the MT. There is no difference with the MTs from year to year.

 

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses!

 

40 less at the wheel then stated SAE? Which numbers are we talking about?

As mentioned, the only HP dispute between the 04-07 8's would be that the manual dropped from a stated 238 to 232.

Howevere, the auto has changed HP numbers just a lil more drastically. It moved from like 197 to 212 due to changing from the 4 port to 6 port engine.

 

shouldn't the 06 and 07 model actually have a little more power than the 04 and possibly 05 models because around that timeframe the SAE started to calculate horsepower differently. So a motor with 230 SAE HP now actually makes more power than a motor that made 230 SAE HP in 2001 for example. i think this came about because manufacturers were calculating hp withouth powersteering and other stuff hooked so now they have made it different. Someone who knows exactly what i am talking about can back me up on this. I am not going through back issues of SCC to find where i read it.

 

SAE is useless when it is a mandatory adoption by car mfg. Classic example is if you look at the Nissan cars we all know that the VQ drops 10hp in SAE calculation but they still advertise as not.