I just took my car in for the oil change and tire rotation and the dealer asked if I had the Hi Power engine. I told him it was the 05 6-Speed 238 horse but that I hadn't heard of a Hi Power engine. When I asked him the difference he said it was the intake and said there was no rhmye or reason to which cars got the Hi Power engine. He said some autos had it and some manuals had it. If anyone else has heard of this please let me know.

 

your dealer/service guy isn't well-versed in RX8ness. He 'may' be talking of the newer, higher-than-they-used-to-be HP engines on AT Rx8s

 

All the MT cars have the "high power" 6 port motor. 04-05 auto's had the "low power" 4 port motor, and (I think starting in) 06+ auto's also have the 6 port "high power" motor that is still limited in rpm and power due to the tranny.

 

that guy is full of

 

Yeah I thought the same thing but had to ask. When I told him that the autos were rated low HP because of the tranny he said no that it was because of the intake

 

he's partially right. the older automatics had a 4 port intake manifold, the internal engine too had a few changes (for the worse).

now all US cars have the same hi-power engine with 6 port intake, but the automatic is still rated lower cause it can't rev as high as the manual.

 

you are both right. but he is wrong- there is a "rhyme or reason"

the cars with the 4AT have the "standard power" motor. the reason its lower power than the motor in the 6MT cars is because of its intake side- that motor has only 4 intake ports. they use that motor on the cars with the 4AT because the 4AT cant handle the higher revs of the "hi-power" motor and because they tuned the intake of the "standard power" motor to create more Torque.

 

It's a marginal amount of power. I'd hardly call it "hi power".

 

You would if you drove a "low power" motor.