So true - that's why I bought mine (RX-8, that is) to begin with! It was my "comfortable" Miata while my Miata was my "race" car. Now, the Miata is gone and I've got coilovers & a racing bucket seat in the RX-8. I suppose I'm incurable.

 

yeah.. i believe if it had 30+ more whp, and more torque, it would be harder to get around the corners.. Maybe some of these turboed and supercharged cars on here should auto x and give us some results.

 

same here. and soon my miata will be gone, and the RX-8 will be getting the suspension goodies. i bought a Protege in '02 b/c it was the most "miata-ish" econocar on the market.

 

the same way spec miatas do...maintain momentum.

 

Well if you were in a class that allowed FI you would likely make chassis and wheel/tire changes accordingly. If a proper balance is kept you would keep the car very drivable.

 

Yep, the operative word for the stock -8 is "Momentum", ie. not enough raw power to get you *to* the corner, but superior balance to get you *through* the corner.

Got my metal *** handed to me on WGI's straights by high-power Porsches, took partial reimbursements running through the corners and esses with said German engineering. I got lapped, but it took cars costing four to seven times mine to do it.

That Pettit kit is starting to look better...

 

exactly U--its driveable and easy to get out of trouble/re-cover.
low h/p and tq means that mid corner and exit the throttle is not really much of a factor as in higher powered lower weight cars. braking is excellant--but add power to the car and the resulting higher speeds will turn the brakes into very good but not excellant.
Same with suspenion set up and aero. above 125mph or so , things change. Its not as near as solid of a car at those higher speeds.
Also in oem form there is not a great deal of lift throttle oversteer. Its still there but if to back of anywhere near gradual the chassis seems to not be affected.
I could go on
its a great little package.
OD

 

With triangle shaped *****....

 

You're not doing it right.

On street tires I'm carrying substantially more speed than a lot of other cars (mentioned in this thread) also on street tires.

 

1 or 2mph tops, there is no magic. Heck, my Corvette can carry more mph through a steady corner, but it doesn't make it any easier to drive or better in transition. Cars running 305s can generate a lot of grip too, but you also have to spend a lot of time braking and accelerating

 

what gen corvette?

Either way, pretty interesting we are talking about the same 2 cars when you compare the MSRP - and thats regardless of the answer.

 

C6.

If you compare price, you can say S2000, a C4 and many others, they are priced just as well as the RX-8. The question isn't about the cost of the car. It's just interesting how a car that doesn't accelerate very well and doesn't feel very fast can always put up respectable time, especially during autox. It still does okay at the track days for what it is. I guess you can compare the RX-8 to a hard nose ball player that doesn't do anything great, yet it would always find a way to finish in the top 20 of the standings every year.

 

we're not speaking the same language here and I'm too tired to get into it.

I hope your $50,000 c6 with 305's can hang a couple MPH on a $30,000 225....245....275 width rx8.

 

Of course, it also put 10 seconds on the RX-8 at VIR.

 

so was the whole point of this thread to point out the rx8 has less hp than a c6 vette and a Z car?

 

I think you were the one that brought up the comparison, not me

 

ohhhhh your one of those people huh?

the reason has already been explained to you at least 10 times in this thread

its the same reason the miata is the number 1 best handling car in auto x

on courses so tight and technical its all about weight, manuverability, and weight distribution and power last

which is why mazdas do so well, the miata for example is like driving a go kart

the 8 just like the miata has a chassis that was designed to take turns, watch any comparison video with the rx8, like the edmuns vid with the 8 vs the 350z

it may not be the fastest but it can take a turn faster and smoother because of its design and powerband

your vette may be fast but rex's have been smoking you on the turns for generations

 

I was?

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...0&postcount=14

 

You guys should have quit while you were ahead.

No, they're not doing it right. There should be very little difference between how much speed equally driven sports cars on good tires (be they Corvettes, RX-8s, or Miatas) carry through the apex. Track days aren't a good venue for comparing cars since driver skill and determination vary so much. If you're carrying "substantially more speed" than other cars, odds are they just aren't pushing as hard as you are.

You do realize that, per your own example, a Super Stock Corvette is one of the three fastest Stock-class autocross out there, right? A C5 Z06 will put a second and a half (a monumental margin) on an equally-driven RX-8 on a sixty-second autocross course? Someone's getting "smoked in the turns" all right, but it's sure not the Corvette.

Let's bring it back to two more comparable cars: the S2000 and the Solstice GXP. Both cars are comparable in dimensions, power, weight, and cost to the RX-8. Both cars are classed higher than the RX-8 in autocross. The Solstice is classed higher in road racing, and while the S2000 and the RX-8 are in the same road racing class, the S2000's handicapped with ballast to within 50 pounds of the RX-8 although it comes from the factory 200 pounds lighter.

Let's be realistic about what the RX-8 is and isn't. It's definitely a great package that's fun to drive and inexpensive while also handling well and having room to carry four people. A giant killer amongst sports cars it's not, though.

 

i can tell you this--i went fi and i am putting out about 300hp to the wheels and approx 200 tq.
i run 275/35 nittos(not the best track tire but ok) and track pads--you get the picture.
C6's that are driven well do not smoke me anymore. They still pull be coming out of the turns a little and also pull me a little on the long straights, but it seems like they are not as quick in transitioning and dont trail brake as well. Sometimes their gearing is off a little so they have to shift more.
C6's are great cars--dont get me wrong. But the RX8 with a little more power shows that its chassis, brakes etc can run in the same league.
The c6 seems to be a little more stable at speed over 120
OD

 

^The 8 needs more aero, everyone knows that Denny. I agree whole heartily with you though.

 

you see you didnt read my statement correctly, i said rex's i did not say strictly rx8's

so you see that brings into the equation the fully built fd's that have the power, handling and braking ability to match the vettes on the courses

and because of the fd's superior chassis design if you factor out driving abilities the fd will corner somewhat faster and out brake a vette

 

Firstly, this thread's about RX-8s, not RX-7s.

Secondly: prove it. What "superior chassis design"? What data do you have showing that an FD RX-7 will corner faster than, and outbrake, a modern Corvette?

I'm aware of very little recent competition data on the RX-7 (Best Motoring tests, random track days, and "my buddy smoked a Ferrari on the I-90 in his Accord" don't count). The only relevant data point I can think of is again from autocross, which is an imperfect measure but one heavily skewed towards agility. The FD RX-7 was a great autocross car and king of the Stock class hill until the C5 Corvette (non-Z06) came along and dethroned it. The C5 was itself consequently dispatched by the C5 Z06. That hardly suggests that an FD could "corner somewhat faster and outbrake a Corvette" when both cars are in stock or close to stock form.

 

Further muddying the water is the fact that the fastest way to drive a more powerful car around a track may involve a "point-and-shoot" driving style, with more of the turning getting done earlier in order to allow earlier throttle application. That being the case, even finding data indicating that a 255 hp RX-7 or a 232 hp RX-8 carries more speed through the apex on a given corner on a given track than another car doesn't necessarily prove that the other car isn't capable of matching the Mazdas.

 

See post #1, I responded to you based on
Quote:
Originally Posted by tmak26b View Post
You don't really carry that much more speed than other cars. It just feels that way because you don't have to spend time doing heavy braking
You're not doing it right.

On street tires I'm carrying substantially more speed than a lot of other cars (mentioned in this thread) also on street tires.
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