RX-8 228 Question

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GreenArrow

Original Poster:

3,551 posts

116 months

Sunday 29th November 2015
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..Been reading up on RX8s recently, as I was pondering buying one as a toy, before I actually went for an old mk2 MX-5....lot of people suggesting the 228 model only makes 180/190 BHP at the flywheel?! really? Is this true? When I drove one these a few years ago, it felt a lot pokier than 140/145 BHP per tonne...do they lose power badly with miles? Be interested to know as these cars are still very tempting at current prices! Couple of PH for £1695 just now.....

rotarymazda

538 posts

164 months

Monday 30th November 2015
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GreenArrow said:
..Been reading up on RX8s recently, as I was pondering buying one as a toy, before I actually went for an old mk2 MX-5....lot of people suggesting the 228 model only makes 180/190 BHP at the flywheel?! really? Is this true? When I drove one these a few years ago, it felt a lot pokier than 140/145 BHP per tonne...do they lose power badly with miles? Be interested to know as these cars are still very tempting at current prices! Couple of PH for £1695 just now.....
I had an RX8 engine installed by WGT in an MX5. The company did an awful lot of engine dyno work on it and were surprised how low it was. They could only get 195rwhp on a good day with custom intake/exhaust/tune. They even went to the bother of getting in some stock RX8's for comparison purposes.

They found one as low as 115bhp (wheel hp) due to clogged cat, and the best was 170bhp (wheel hp).

So 170bhp (wheel) for the one in decent condition is around 200bhp fly. Seems a long way from the 228bhp spec, even to allow for ancillaries and anything else.

Eventually, I had mine street-ported and ended up with 210bhp (wheel), 240bhp (fly).

Just from reading up on the engine, they don't seem to lose power due to mileage, just due to failing coils and blocked cats. Replace those and you will be OK.

Rebuilds are needed anywhere between 40K and 120K miles. That isnt good enough for a mass production model. When rebuild costs are £2500-3000, that means they are disposable.

The later models with extra oil injector are far better so if I had an earlier one, I would just add premix to the fuel and expect to get a decent mileage out of it.

delta0

2,334 posts

105 months

Monday 14th March 2016
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It is RWD and with a LSD so losses are around 20%.