I've had many, many people asking to drive the 8 just to experience the thrill. Overwhelmingly, they've commented on how tough it is to find the reverse gear. That's fine...most of them come from the world of automatic transmissions.

Here's my concern. Is it at all possible to throw this car into reverse when they're trying to find sixth gear? I know it takes some time to push down on the gear **** and hit reverse...but is there some sort of protection built into this car to keep someone from accidently pushing down on the **** and taking the gear from fifth to (GULP) reverse?

It's my first six gear tranny....previous cars had reverse at the far end of first gear, not sixth.

Thanks

 

I don't think it would be possible. In my 5 speed that i have now, reverse is below 5th- when you are in 5th, there is a locking mechanism that blocks reverse. I would think that if my POS car has this feature, the 8 has something similiar. Thats just a guess though, others will be able to give you more specifics.

That, and have you tryed a search on the subject?

 

you cant throw it into reverse, but you can grind it if you get it wrong...

beers

 

No dont worry about it. It is impossible to put this car into reverse from any gear but neutral. Since this car has a short throw gearbox and it has 6 gears the reverse has to be pushed down in neutral then slid into the proper reverse gate that way. So going from 5th to 6th it would be impossible to hit reverse unless you are so new to manual cars and this is your first that you put it in neutral from 5th and push down by accident and slide it in to reverse. If you do that you should not be driving this car anyway. So with that said, dont worry.

 

that would be one heck of a mistake...i'd think that you would almost have to do that on purpose. It specifically takes effort to 1) push the shifter down, and 2) slide it over and down WHILE keeping it pushed in. I'm almost completely positive that you'd have one heck of a time getting it in reverse, and that's even assuming that there ISN'T a lock aside from pushing it in. I'd be more concerned aboue needless wear on the clutch from rough clutch/gas engagement...that's likely to be yur biggest concern.

 

ive seen things happen, I was autoXing and an mcoupe got into reverse somehow flying down a straightaway, he shredded his gearbox. but yeah in the 8, you have to be in neutral and you need to push it down to get it from neutral to reverse. also the reverse isnt below any gears like it is in alot of 5spd's.

 

If by "mcoupe" you mean an M3, then I can tell you that BMW trannys have reverse dangerously close to first gear. Downshift from third to first and you're not careful, it's easy to slip it in.

 

No, I'm pretty sure by "mcoupe" he means an M Coupe, the Coupe version of the Z3-based M Roadster. Also, there is a locking mechanism on the transmission so that if you are in gear you can not just go into reverse, and you have to specifically push (from neutral) hard and way past first and only then does it pop over to the correct gate for Reverse. I had a '99 M Roadster, and am quite familiar with that gearbox, and having owned other BMWs with manual transmissions ('91 M5), I can tell you that it is not "easy to slip it in" to reverse. In fact if you were in gear and not just leaving the 'box in neutral, it's almost impossible.

The dude who messed up his gearbox would have had to miss his shift back into first, either leave it in neutral for a sec. and then go over pushing hard enough left to find reverse, or must have pushed so hard that he basically just manhandled the transmission into reverse, which would suggest he wasn't shifting from second into first, he would have to be shifting from 3rd into 1st, and that he's completely unfit to driving a manual car.

 

can't be stupidest question ever, wasnt posted by Bunnygirl

 

To me the stupid part is letting others drive your car that don't know what they are doing

 

HAHAHAHAHAA.... oh... lordy, my sides hurt.

Back to topic, yea I grinded getting into 6th once, I suspected cuz I might have been pushing down on the ****. All I did was go back to neutral, pump the clutch once, and into 6th, no huge deal.

 

The inept and mechanically challenged are capable of just about anything. Never say never.

 

My first post! Lot of lurking and have learned a lot from these forums. Wanted to comment on this since it has happened to me several times. At first I would shift from 1st to 2nd to 6th because it seemed pointless to use all 6 gears just to get to 35 MPH which is the speed limit on my street. When doing this I would every once in a while find myself scraping reverse. I don't know if it was the way I was pushing it over from 2nd or what but since then I have modified my shifting to always include 5th gear before 6th gear and haven't had a problem since.

 

most sporting cars have a setup like this...i find it handy...like when i had to spin the tail of my 911 180 degrees in 1st at a stoplight and then throw it in reverse to evade someone who was trying to kill me and change the history of the future he came from...wait, i think that was from a movie.

 

Why are you in 6th gear at 35 MPH?

 

To save gas I guess? At least thats what I thought I was doing. I realize there is some debate about this. Do you know different?

 

OnRails - congrats on your first post! Prepare for you first flaming! 'to save on gas' . . . oh boy that's rich.

 

get the rp short shifter. makes this thread pointless. lol

 

nope, i have done it with rp shifter... it is just being sloppy.. my fault..

beers

 

 

The solution is, don't let anyone drive your car

 

^ yeah, you're definitely way too nice. Can I borrow $100?

 

I;'ve experienced the grind many a time. But haven't done it in a while thankfully. It sounds really bad.

 

I would think that if you are grinding rev when going to sixth, you're throwing the shift pretty hard. When cruising, I hardly touch the top of the shifter and just flip it through gears with my fingers. If I were driving hard and pulling the shifter hard, I probably wouldn't be looking for 6th gear.

 

I don't see why I should get flamed. I know the RX8 is not great on gas and neither are most performance cars but in general you do get better gas mileage if you use a higher gear when possible if you care at all about gas mileage. (Even if "better" means 16MPG instead of 15MPG) And yes I know that driving the 8 like your grandmother is frowned upon my most here (including me ) Sorry to hijack the thread.