Just purchased an RX8 a few days ago and I have been driving it a ton everyday. I remember, before I purchased it, that everyone comment on how "smooth" the car is or how "smooth" the engine is. Jeremy Clarkson even went as far as to say that it feels like the car is running on "Double cream". What?

I mean through first and second gear I feel vibrations through the clutch, through, the steering wheel, and through the shifter. The car also makes all sorts of noise from the tranny and engine. What's smooth? Maybe if I shortshift at 35mph and cruise around in 3rd gear at 3000rpm then, yeah, it feels pretty smooth. Either way, first and second certainly don't feel smoother than anything else.


With the car in neutral and at a stop, if I rev the engine to 9k RPM its loud as hell and I feel little buzzing vibrations.

Drove my cousin's G35 today and that has a much smoother ride in my opinion.

Please explain, what about the car is soo smooth. Don't get me wrong, I love the car, just a little perplexed.

 

you got a lemon. i have a VQ35 in the Infiniti too and its nowhere near smooth compared to any rotary especially above 3.5krpm. the rx8 is about as smooth and easy to drive as you can get when it comes to sports touring cars.

 

I also notice, that when I'm at a standstill and I rev to 9k rpm and bring it down that the car gently shudders a bit.

 

Is it used?

 

you're kidding right? vq's are quite rumbly compared to the renesis except at idle.
go drive another 8, maybe it's just yours.

 

Yeah it's used. Has 5400 miles on it. It's an 05' that was built in May 2005 after the engine mount recall.

 

Ok the main things that bother me is the small vibration in the clutch and gas pedals at high RPMs and the little shudder after revving it up till it beeps and then bring it back down. You guys don't get any sort of thing like this?

I don't know if I should take it to the dealer I bought it from. They don't seem to be very experience with Mazdas as they just acquired the dealership. If I go to another dealer will they still charge for the inspection even though I've still covered uner Mazda's 4 year 50,000 mile warranty?

 

Mazda is the place you should go and it should be covered under warranty. Unfourtunatly Mazda's warranty support is hit or miss, no consistency. One dealer may treat you great and fix the problem with out a sweat while another will claim it is normal when it is not. Take it in and raise holy hell if they give you a hard time ask to see the district manager. Welcome top the wonderful world of Mazda service/disservice. Good luck.

 

At idle, the engine should be running at about 800 rpm or so - with the air off, it should be incredibly smooth - you'll see the shifter vibrating a bit (all cars do this though), but the overall car, you should barely feel a thrumming in the bodywork.

Yes, if you rev the engine to redline, you'll hear a huge loud rev and a good buzz in the body work. If you were a woman, orgasm would follow shortly after!

Where I think of the smoothness of the car is that the power delivery is very smooth from about 3000 rpm (when the torque begins to come on) all the way to redline - a steady, strong pull that doesn't end until the fuel limiter cuts the fun.

In comparison to your friend's Infinity ... well, that is an extremely smooth-running, well damped car. In fact, too well so - you don't get the feeling of involvement with the car that you get from the RX-8. Personally, I love the "symphony" of mechanical sounds this car makes:

- The "George Jetson's car" idle sound
- The the fact you can hear the gears inside the transmission spinning when it's in neutral and the clutch is out. And you can hear that spinning die off when you put the clutch back in.
- The gear box noise at all times - to me it sounds like the Hewland racing gearbox I had in a Formula Ford I co-owned about 20 years ago.
- The slight whine of the rear-end off-throttle at highway speed
- The little burble from the exhaust at low speed/off throttle

etc.

Smooth? Yes.

Church-quiet? Hell no. Nor would I want it that way.

I think it's all in how you define the word smooth.

Smooth like a hot babe with a brazilian bikini wax job? Yup! That's RX-8!

Smooth like vanilla pudding? Hell no. But that's the Infinity!

Got it?

Good.

 

So that's why everyone says the 8 is a chick car!

 

^^^ Brilliant!

 

I also think its very smooth, when shifting/cruising/etc... You kind of forget about it, or not notice it as much after you've driven it for a while. But drive something else for two weeks while your car is in the body shop. Then when you get it back, you remember just how smooth it is.

 

Smooth power delivery, smooth revving, smooth gearchanges.

The ultimate smoothness is in the high revs, when other cars start to clatter, chatter, buzz and vibrate as they approach redline (or, heaven forbid 'VTEC') the rotary just turbines on into the stratosphere!

Rev the G's VQ to its redline and tell me it's smooth.....

S

 

My 323 is a great car - love- will never sell it - but when I drive it following a day of RX-8 I wonder how I could have kept this wibrating, wiggling, slow, etc. hunk of metal when this was out there. I have driven my dad's Buicks, Chryslers, Cads, and mustang - heavy soild, suffocating, like bricks in the rear so that you hate to take them out - especially getting onto a freeway. Rental cars same - want my own zippy little 323 - but the 8 - quiet, almost spooky. Ask it for accelleration and it just needs a little more room because it is already there! No rattles, bumps, just a sliding gliding that doesn't disturb the wildlife - Oh it does scream like vacume sweeper transforming into a jetliner when you red line it - but that's when you want this monster to sound like Godzilla!

 

damn i want one of those old 323 GTX Turbo AWD.

 

When I bought my 8 I test drove a used one that had been in a "minor accident" according to carfax. It had a lot more miles than yours, but regardless there was certainly something wrong with it, and one of the things I noticed about it right away was vibrations and a coarseness that led me to question some of the review material as well. Then I drove a few new 8's and sighed with relief that I hadn't bought the used car... it was obvious there was something amiss after driving a new 8, the new cars were smooth.

After several months with a new 8, it is still very smooth IMHO. My last car was a current gen Acura TL and the engine in that was certainly not as smooth as the 8, but I am certain it was more isolated from the driver, and felt and noticed less... Perhaps what you are noticing in the Infinity is a little bit more driver isolation from the feeling of the machine, but not the lack of smoothness... the light vibration in pedals is not bad, I currently also own a Subaru Tribeca and when you rev over 4k in that the dummy pedal vibrates so much it makes my leg itch!

 

Having driven low RPM engines, high RPM ones, various SOHC and DOHC VTECs, french and italian 8Vs and 16Vs, and a 13B and a 13REW-powered cars, I am always amazed at the fact that I can be rapidly approaching the fuel-cut of the Renesis, and yet not even know it, if the MP3 is loud enough so that I don't hear the little buzzer

Now that's "smooth"....

All the other stuff (linear power output, smooth gearbox etc etc) are just icing....

 

Ok. So the slight buzzing vibration at 6-8k vibration in the pedals in normal?

When I turn it on, there is no idle vibration through the seats or anything. And it idles smooth at 800 rpms.

 

just imagin something turning at 8 thousand revolutions per minite. now if you dont get some sort of vibration... you either dont have any feelings at all and need to go to the docter or youre driving some sort of godly machine.

 

that little jolt you're feeling might just be torque, it'll flex a bit when you gun the engine at a full stop.

 

there is no problem here- what you are describing is FEED BACK. this is desirable in any car because you ar emor econnected to the driving experience. what you describe from the nissan is NUMB or absence of feedback. this is not desirable in anything that wishes to be called a sports car.

as far as smooth- gt up to a highway and take it to redlineup the ramp in first then in second(you'll be at 62 ish in 2nd at redline) then as far up in third as you can. then do that same thing in that nissan. if you cant feel/hear the difference then i am sorry for you.

 

I guess all the reviews and all the impression on this site gave me the wrong expectations. I was expecting a silky smooth ride. I wasn't expecting all the tranny noise at all, and coming from an automatic which basically has zero tranny noise, it made it all the more worse. I did expect sports car handling and braking and whatnot. But you guys made it sound like the engine built power as smoothly and efficiently as an electric motor.

The only time I feel the smoothness is in 3rd, 4rth, 5th, and 6th gears at around 3000rpms in each gear. Then I can barely hear the motor and when I toe in on the accelerator it feels like the car just wafts forward.

But 1st and 2nd aren't smooth at all with all the tranny noise and the vibration through the clutch pedals. There's no wafting away in those gears.

 

Rinkadink = Bluesky? I could've SWORN that the post above was JUST posted by bluesky. Care to enlighten me any admins?

 

No you're right. It is BlueSky=Me. I had to create another account because I wanted to change my email address.

 

you can edit your email in the control panel.