RE: PH Fleet Intro: Mazda RX-8

[redgriff500]

How are the fuel costs compared to the MX5 Turbo ?

I'd guess significantly more.

Also how do your lap times compare, I'm guessing that the MX5 had a weight and torque advantage.

[Spyder3400]

Looks good, and a nicely balanced car....I wonder if its roomier with a cage than a mk1 Eunos? (Eunos has surprising amount of leg and head space)
Best of luck with it ;-)

[Scottie - NW]

Alex said:

This is a really un-PH request, but I would be interested in what MPG you get during different types of driving.

It took me 280 miles to get to Dover. From filling to the brim each time it worked out as 28mpg, that was at an incicated 70 to 75 mph with a little stop start traffic on the M6, M1 and M25 near Dartford.

Generally I am sad enough to work out at each fill up, it's making 22 to 24 mog at the moment, but that is mostly stop start short cold runs in winter.

Can go as low as 18mpg depending on driving.

Strangely the rotary is more efficient on full throttle than a piston engine, so it is not too bad on a track day.

[kambites]

I've always loved the RX8 - one of few modern cars that I'd actually describe as interesting and they have a lovely chassis.

[redgriff500]

Scottie - NW said:

Strangely the rotary is more efficient on full throttle than a piston engine, so it is not too bad on a track day.

On an RX7 the guys who have swapped to V8's report far better consumption on track than with the turbo rotary but maybe that's a difference between the RX7 turbo rotary and the NA rotary in the RX8.

I'd be interested to know Dale's results as I currently run a supercharged MX5 at 25mpg and need 2 more seats but have discounted the RX8 due to reports of hard driving giving 18mpg.

Edited by redgriff500 on Wednesday 1st February 11:16

[Dale Lomas]

Fuel costs are similar on track to the Eunos - but I ran that very rich to keep it safe under load and altitude changes. The RX8 is doing about 24mpg on the road and 7-12mpg on track depending on how hard I push. The MX5 turbo averaged about 11mpg, but didn't need €5 of pre-mix per tank!

Everybody's raving about the Toyota GT86 (rightly so), but the only major advantage that car has over the RX8 is a conventional piston engine and a warranty because you just paid ten times more than a second-hand RX8. They're both around 1300kgs on the road with 200bhp-ish, RWD, LSD, 6-speed box and a real driver's chassis.

RX8 wins on brakes though; it has 911 size discs and can go racing with just upgraded pads and fluid.

[kambites]

Dale Lomas said:

Everybody's raving about the Toyota GT86 (rightly so), but the only major advantage that car has over the RX8 is a conventional piston engine and a warranty because you just paid ten times more than a second-hand RX8. They're both around 1300kgs on the road with 200bhp-ish, RWD, LSD, 6-speed box and a real driver's chassis.

To many people, that's a big advantage though. Rightly or wrongly, the engine in the RX8 causes a lot of people to simply discount the car.

[Scottie - NW]

Dale Lomas said:

Everybody's raving about the Toyota GT86 (rightly so), but the only major advantage that car has over the RX8 is a conventional piston engine and a warranty because you just paid ten times more than a second-hand RX8. They're both around 1300kgs on the road with 200bhp-ish, RWD, LSD, 6-speed box and a real driver's chassis.

RX8 wins on brakes though; it has 911 size discs and can go racing with just upgraded pads and fluid.

Plus you can actually fit two 6 ft adults in the rear seats in comfort.

The GT86 would be ok for friends in the rear seats if your name was Snow White.

[BMWill]

great write up! very insightful.. always been tempted by these but the money they go for and the fuel consumption on them, i'd rather have 6 or 8 cylinders... they're more reliable too, but who knows maybe at some point in the near future.

= )

[BrightonEd]

Good cars these, somewhat ruinous on fuel - my friend's got one and his MPG is the same (or slightly worse) than my 5 litre V8 M5.

Actually, I say he's got one, he lost the back end and wrote it off at the weekend. And he had a new engine fitted about four months ago (at great cost from RoTeknichs). Ouch.

So, if you want any spares, I know someone with a load! (And a guaranteed engine)

[Jimmy No Hands]

Miss my RX-8 a lot. Look after her she will look after you.

[redgriff500]

redgriff500 said:

Also how do your lap times compare, I'm guessing that the MX5 had a weight and torque advantage.

As you missed this question I took a quick look on your site and your best lap in the MX5 was approx 50 seconds faster at 8.05

OK the RX8 isn't prepped and is new to you but bearing in mind it cost the same as your MX5 how much more will you have to spend to get 50 seconds back ?

[alexpa]

Are you using the Racelogic Vbox or Vbox lite?

[anonymous-user]

Scottie - NW said:

AngryPartsBloke said:

I dont see how anybody could consider something that you need to check and top up the oil so much and even go to the lengths of making pre-mixed fuel to avoid engine failure as "Reliable" in anyway.

Its not that i dont like them, they look ace and i bet they are fun but id rather drive something that i dotn have to worry about after a thrashing quite so much.

You see I don't understand this, I only check the oil and top up as much as any other car I have ever had.

If you are doing a track day in any car you should be checking the oil regularly anyway.

And whereas my other cars require expensive oils, the oil for the annual service was less than £20, and I needed £12 worth to top up over 12months and 6k miles.

Compared to my friends modern company cars, the RX8 uses less oil than the average consumption across their prestegious German brands :-)

Here we go again!

[J4CKO]

This thread, compared to others has a that feeling of someone discussing a sick pet or relative and saying they will be fine, nothing to worry about, you know, that hopeless optimism and supportiveness despite the facts at hand.

Good luck with it though, seriously.

[danwhite]

I think I own the option dvd where the RX8 is compared to the S2000 in a Touge shoot-out, great car for the money you have certainly have me looking.

[johnpeat]

I loved reading that - I love the way he's accumulated a lot of opinions and 'data' and used them to disabuse himself of the notion that he's bought a known-to-be-troublesome car which has peaky power delivery and uses fuel like it's OPEC's sugardaddy...

All that stuff, prefaced with "not as bad as people make out" suggests a massive amount of personal spin-doctorness has been going on - and I can only hope it works-out for him!!

[GTiFrank]

Ace, would love to be able to afford the running costs on these

[toppstuff]

Nice driving. You sure know your way around the Ring. Good job.

Now get yer hair cut...!

[//j17]

kambites said:

Dale Lomas said:

Everybody's raving about the Toyota GT86 (rightly so), but the only major advantage that car has over the RX8 is a conventional piston engine and a warranty because you just paid ten times more than a second-hand RX8. They're both around 1300kgs on the road with 200bhp-ish, RWD, LSD, 6-speed box and a real driver's chassis.

To many people, that's a big advantage though. Rightly or wrongly, the engine in the RX8 causes a lot of people to simply discount the car.

Yea, they don't realise that while £30,000 buys you 1 Toyota GT86 it can also buy you 10 RX8s. If you only average 20k before blowing each rotary engine that would put the Toyota's inline 4 at 200k, which I'm guessing most won't see without a rebuild!