Oh yes the wait is over! Hit 1000km over the weekend and made full use of the engine last night! The power feels pretty constant throughout the range from 5k up. Above 7k the engine noise goes from a zing to a kind of growl - really sounds like it means business. If you're going fast you're better off with the windows shut to be able to hear the noise otherwise it gets masked by wind noise. The red-line warning chime is quite muted so not irritating. I only red-lined it in 2nd. By the time your doing 8k in 3rd gear you're really travelling way too fast in Japan!

You're probably all bored of my comparisons vs the S2000 but it's what I know so I'll carry on. Don't flame me but as the power delivery on the 8 is so smooth it's not as much fun as hitting VTEC in the S. It also doesn't feel as fast although it probably is. I'll need to have a run with my S2K friends to get a feeling for relative speed. I'm pretty sure the 8 will beat the S off the line but the S will come back through VTEC.

The power band on the 8 is broad, as we all saw from the graphs. So I don't find the need to go to the red-line and row the gearbox as much as in the S. Above 5k (around 10am position on the tach) the car pulls well, say for overtaking in 2nd. Due to this band you can stay in gear for quite a long time - keep the power delivery on rather than desperately snatching for the next gear.

For better or for worse a lot of my run in was on the highway. Not much I could do about it as I had a tight schedule meaning the back roads were out. In 6th your cruising around 4k rpm for 120km/h. Took it as far as 160km/h (100mph) and it felt good. On steep hills sometimes I changed down to 5th to get a bit more response as 6th is purely a highway cruising gear. An RX-7 I passed came past me at an obscene speed just to prove who is still the boss!

My only "problem" with the car has been that around the 800-900km mark on the highway, if I held the car at around 5k rpm in 5th the oil light would come on. This happened 3 times and made me a little nervous. Checked the oil the following day and it was still max so some glitch in the system there. Daily driving you naturally hang around 4-5k rpm I find.

Haven't had any problems with the seats since the first day. I think the first day I was so excited I didn't realise I was sat in the car for maybe 6 hours! Plus I didn't realise all the adjustments available. Been doing 3 or 4 hours without problems since. In other comfort terms the gear stick is slightly too far back. If I lay my arm on the centre console the gearstick is around my wrist whereas in the S the stick was directly at my palm. But maybe I have a funny shaped body!

I still find the brakes strange. You have to push so far to get the car to stop in a hurry - as if you're experiencing fade during the stop. Probably haven't broken them in yet as I haven't been doing much braking. It could just be they're normal and I'm used to the pedal feel of an S which may be too sharp for other people.

At highway speeds most of the noise is from the tyres. You get a little wind noise from the mirrors at high speed but nothing much. For long journeys it's much more comfortable than the S but won't be as quiet or cosy as a luxury cruiser. You have to turn the stereo up a bit to hear but not as much as the S or Miata.

So at the weekend was my one month service (after one week!). It cost Y7000 which is about $60 I think. I got oil change and oil filter. Plus there was loads of other stuff like checking brake hoses and transmission fluids. All a bit funny as the car is still so new nothing had been used! No oil used during run-in as far as I can tell. The oil itself was really lightweight - when wiped on paper it was almost like kitchen grease. No idea of the actual oil specs. I also took the chance to order the rotor accent package which here they call "crests"! They forgot to stamp the logbook but when I go back for the crests I'll remind them. Every time I go to the dealer there is someone climbing in their RX-8 for a test drive! There's a lot of interest.

Took about an hour and they washed the car for me! So instantly took the car out for above mentioned full reving. It's raining today so car will be covered in cr*p again when I get back tonight unfortunately!

AudioPilot definitely works. It's quite cool. Quitens the volume at traffic lights and then ups it when you pull off. Really had to listen for it yesterday so very unobtrusive. Effectiveness may depend on what sort of music you listen to I guess.

One of my wifes friends got the navi to do re-route so on the way home last night it routed us around a little jam through the back streets. Very interesting - learnt something from the navi as I always used to get stuck at that point on Sunday nights.

Fuel mileage? I get around 400km on a tank (50l). That's about the same as the S2000.

Congratulations to Yuhki on finally getting his car - that's all 3 of us on the board in Japan having our cars now. Must be having fun as I don't see many posts! Check his post for the picture of the keys that I promised.

Best thing about the car so far? Apart from the fact that the whole family fits in (!) - it has to be the noise!

 

Hi jsg and thanks for your posts i really enjoy reading them ,one question when gear changingdown from say 3rd to2ndis it smooth ,i have read that gear changes are not as smooth as say s2000,any problems in parking and opening and closing the rear doors .Last question are you going ar have you already joined the mile high club inthe back of your car????.ps you dont have to answer that.

 

I get backache just in the driving seat let alone anything else in the back! :D The RX-8 is defintely not your car in that department although maybe someone will start a thread on it sometime. :p

My gear changes aren't smooth yet but it's just because I'm not used to it. You have to be a better driver I think - rev matching seems more important with this one. It's good to learn - I was reading the heel and toe guide from the 318 site someone posted and will try to improve my skill. 3rd to high revs in 2nd is just as hard as the S - you need to be good to make that smooth.

Rear doors just have that "bouncing" thing when both doors are shut. Wife shut the front without the rear this weekend and it was fine - just bounced open again. It's all been well thought out.

 

I was wondering what that noise was. I could hear it when I was watching one of the in-car videos.

 

Rotaries have had that for a while; since the rotary is so smooth when it revs, if you're not watching the tach you really have no idea that you're nearing redline without the buzzer/chime - a big surprise who are used to the engine sounding like it's about to explode when it's near redline (like in the Honda S2000...)

 

JSG: Thanks for the report. Allow me to commend you on your excelent English. Have you ever lived in an English speaking country or did you just learn in school?

 

JSG is British! :D

 

My, don't I feel sheepish!:p

 

JSG, keep up the great reporting work! thanks for understanding that we're all very anxious for our cars and your help in satisfying those questions we'd like answered is greatly appreciated...

i was wondering if you ever got the chance to try a DVD movie in the DVD-Rom of the Navigation system? i know you told us that you can already watch TV on your Nav screen so i'm wondering how movies would play...also, does your Navi look like the one the US is getting? here's a picture:

 

First of all, thanks a lot for keeping us informed!

1. I've never driven a Vtec car but I've driven rotaries before so how does it feel when you get up to the high power cam and how does it compare to the rotary?

2. :D :D :D

3. Better get that checked on the dealer, you don't want the rotary to run without oil!! Maybe the oil pump is cavitating under that load or maybe its just a sensor problem...

4. Thats about 18.8 mpg for us non-metric ones! What kind of driving is it, mostly city or highway or an even mix?

 

dont forget you have to break the engine in! Redlining in the first thousand miles is not a good idea. Mazda reccomends you keep it under 4k for 1000 miles, do an oil change, then enjoy.

 

umm, read his post...the very first sentence states that he's gone through his breaking in period and has gotten his oil change

 

Hello JSG, many thanks for this bunch of info! And congrats to you! I am mostly concerned about mileage... Your 50ltr/400km makes 12,5ltr/100km which is not bad. Or 8,0 km/liter. Or 18,8 MPG (stated before). Could you provide us with more details for the consumption, pleeeeease?!? Quite exact figures and how did you drive? I know that some (many) other people care about this question, too. What I forgot: Do you have the high-power version? Which tranny?

Enjoy your car, but keep us posted Many many thanks. Cheers, Norbert.

 

At some time JSG, (because I don't want to be a pain in the whatever, hopefully not back), I would like also a fuller explanation "won't be as quiet or cosy" vs. a bigger "cruiser"??

My expectation is that the Press Kit use of the words "comfortably snug", would mean "cosy".

Also the road noise thing might be a function of
~4,000 rpm's at 120 kms/hr, as opposed to sound insulation/
chassis design.

 

some highlights
...it appears that JSG really likes to DRIVE his car... not fast, but certainly not slow either... i'm a sub-2000rpm to just-over3000rpm kinda guy for acceleration in normal driving (always cruising at lowest possible rpm), and i get mid 20's in mixed driving in my Echo/Vitz... heh heh, you really have to drive like a grandma to replicate EPA numbers (ie: WOT only for on-ramps, staying in cruising gear at posted speed limits, etc)

 

Yesterday I had to drive to BRAUNSCHWEIG here from HANNOVER, about 60 km. Crusin in highest gear (5th) over the autobahn at 130 km/h meant about 37 MPG, with cruise control (speed limit there 120). I have the 1,8 ltr. Audi turbo with 150 PS (installed in a Skoda Octavia). Well, not fun to drive, but I would like to see that you could come down to such a figure in a RX-8.....

 

well, maybe in the standard (low) power model, it would be possible... but yes, freeway driving with very little acceleration (cruise control) the whole way would be necessary.