AndyK

I like seeing the engine and all it's components. The plastic covers LOOK cleaner, but I'd rather see clean wires, valve cover, and exhaust pipes!
Vroom!

User 462021

is that really why?

soundboy4

i drove this black one, definitely a fun car to drive.

2+2

Anyone see that little blub in Car and Driver re. RX8? If your state requires a font license plate and the plate is light in color, the car looks like Bugs Bunny with the buck teeth and all.

97xray

Re. the plastic engine covers...
Our BMW has a SPOTLESS engine because of that engine cover. I had it off last weekend for O2 sensors and to replace two cables - everything still shines like it's never been started... which is deceiving as all get out (yeah, I wrote: "all get out").
I vote for keeping them, as long as they come off easily!

brrt50cal

My mom's Lincoln Town Car has a cover and it hasn't done diddly spit to keep it clean. Of course, she beats the car all to hell

Matt H

My 540i is damn clean under there. Then again I dont have to remove the covers as often as you do on a Lincoln :>)
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brrt50cal

I believe the Lincoln is a wonderful car. But my mom treats it like it's a military grade Hummer. I'm very impressed with the car personally. Don't get me wrong, i'm a GM guy all the way. But theres been times when I've check the oil and it was only running with a quart or two of oil. They are well built cars, but then again, they aren't Cadillacs

hacker-pschorr

A GM guy driving a 944? Did I miss something?

adrial

I had a chance to check out the Rx8 at the Mazda Rev it up event (http://www.mazdarevitup.com). The representative there said they made it have 4 usable seats because they feel that is the reason the old Rx7 died, not enough people wanted one. Obviously they thought making it a 4 seater and allowing it to be somewhat of a family car would make more people want it. He also said that they would be releasing a Mazdaspeed version of the RX8 and that it would be turbocharged.

Red 944

If this does well, I read, there will be a new rx7.

Matt H

Mazda has released an official statement about the downgrade of power in the new RX-8. This is due to ECU tuning to make it meet US emissions. This has been a problem with the rotary design for some time. The reason they lost sales of the RX-7 is that the price was skyrocketing and the market for sports cars was dwindling. Damn shame they think it had something to do with the number of seats. Further, by 1995 it was well known that the 13B-REW engine had problems lasting more than 50K miles. Dealers were replacing them under warranty left and right. While I love Rx-7s the engine design just isnt meant to last a long time. Oddly, the engine problem is more obvious in cars that are not driven hard. I looked at buying a white 3rd gen and the owner had had 3 motors in it. the guy was like 65 and the car had 42K miles.
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brrt50cal

I traded my Pontiac for a Porsche

MAS

It stikes me as surprising that a car company like Mazda, would at the last moment, have screwed up on emissions (although, of course, not impossible )...

...from what I've read, only the automatics have a downgraded HP output... something like 210hp. The standards were 250hp. I had assumed that this was due to Mazda changing the torque curve for the autos. I know the original Japanese prototypes had HP in the 280 range at 9,000 rpm, but I think this was lowered to 250 for the US production models.

By the way, regardless of what anyone thinks of the shape of car... the new rotary engine is pretty fabulous. None of the older rotary engines could match this kind of power output without either:

1) Turbo or supercharging, or...

2) Porting (etc.), which made the engines very very peaky, with virtually no low-end or mid-range power.

-MAS

Matt H

The rated HP is 247 and it has been downgraded on all of them. There are already tuners reprogramming ECUs. There are not that many changes to the new engine. The biggest is with the ports they are in the side housings and are 30% larger (i.e. ported). Therefore, your theory above is not any good. Porting can be done in a way that it doesnt create "peaky" motors. No rotary engine had any real amount of torque which is why the gearing is so high. The auto has been downgraded to 197 and the manual to 238.
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