RE: Shed of the Week | Mazda RX-8

[350Matt]

I've had mine for 2.5 years and its my daily

admittedly the engine went pop 2 weeks after buying it but I rebuilt it and have enjoyed it every day since

for the money there's nothing to touch it

for those that say its light on torque then your'e in the wrong gear as the performance is very close to an equivalent BMW 3.0ltr
but you have to be about 2 gears lower than you would be in a 'normal' car
they are a delight to drive if you haven't at least tried one then you should

[Water Fairy]

Years ago my sister had one of these and she insisted it was a 228hp version. Despite feeling nothing like that power (I had a mk1 Octy vRS at the time with 210hp) I still came away impressed. Nice chassis and lovely steering and it sounded like a rocket at full chat.

[monty quick]

I had a Gen 1 230PS for 4 years / 78000 miles; Absolutely loved it. Hot start only caught me twice - both due to multiple moves of the car without a proper run between moves. Oil consumption and fuel consumption were as reported but actually this is a small price to pay for the mixture of fun and practicality.
My only real complaint was that the self-adjusting headlights failed. A very expensive fix unless (as I did) you can get parts from a breakers yard.

[Limpet]

This one is not for me. Firmly in the "glad they exist, but wouldn't touch one with a bargepole" category.

[ij]

Had my PZ a little over a year now, 5k miles down, and not a hint of trouble, and it's competing with a turbo'd mk1 MX5 and a Clio 182 Trophy. Frankly a fabulous thing. Bought from an aircraft engineer for £2250, it's cost me nothing in repairs though someone else has paid for the 2 engine rebuilds in it's life, but I can't imagine selling it.

Reliably sees up to 350 miles on a tank when not pottering about London, but when at speed the flames and bangs more than make up for the low 20s MPGs. Get Mazda to do the recall items - fuel pump and airbags and it should last years, or until the next engine rebuild in around, 2 years I estimate.

[mikey P 500]

The mistake in the wording of the link to the pistinheads classified says it all. A good cheap mazda sports car is the mx5.
With high tax poor fuel economy and reliability issues not that much going for this.

[Cupra Black]

james_gt3rs said:

I just can't stomach the idea of paying that much for fuel for that performance.

I have that problem with my Golf R32 too

[the cueball]

I had one for a while, just to tick that box..

Never caused me any bother, sounded like a washing machine to me, but the beep beep for the gear change was addictive, which was handy 'cause you had to rev the b@lls off it to get anywhere..

Going places usually meant some sideway fun as well mind you..

Sold it on after a few months, always have a little look for them during Autotrader toilet time..

[greenarrow]

samoht said:

Great shed, although I can't help but think that you either want one registered before 23rd March 2006, and get a vaguely normal rate of road tax, or you get a 2008- one which has some moderately significant mechanical improvements in exchange for the extra cost, some of which might help the engine last a bit longer.

This is a very pertinent point. A 2007 190 PS car is just about the least desirable RX-8 out there. If you're going to be paying £555 a year in VED you really need a R3 version to justify the cost!

BTW, I test drove a 228 version in 2004 and at the time owned a very torquey (in torque to weight terms) MK1 Audi A3 PD TDI 1.9. That little Audi made a number of faster cars I drove feel a little gutless, thanks to its low down grunt. The RX-8 however never felt gutless to me and certainly felt pretty quick when I used the gears.. Personally I like them.

[MC Bodge]

Water Fairy said:

Years ago my sister had one of these and she insisted it was a 228hp version. Despite feeling nothing like that power (I had a mk1 Octy vRS at the time with 210hp) I still came away impressed. Nice chassis and lovely steering and it sounded like a rocket at full chat.

I repeatedly out-dragged an RX8 in my rempped Mk1 Octavia vRS from a series of traffic lights on a private road, back in the day.

I've driven a 190?bhp one. It was easy enough to drive, and appeared to handle nicely, but didn't actually seem very fast at all, even high up the revs.

[MC Bodge]

Scottie - NW said:

Most of the "230"bhp ones could never get out of the 190's on rolling road days, and the "192"bhp ones about 170 odd bhp.

That would make sense, as the" 192" one that I drove felt nowhere near that. Yes, I know it isn't a turbo diesel.

[otolith]

MC Bodge said:

I repeatedly out-dragged an RX8 in my rempped Mk1 Octavia vRS from a series of traffic lights on a private road, back in the day.

You mean a turbocharged car that was slightly slower than an RX-8 on paper was quicker than one after a remap? Was this a surprise?

[MC Bodge]

otolith said:

MC Bodge said:

I repeatedly out-dragged an RX8 in my rempped Mk1 Octavia vRS from a series of traffic lights on a private road, back in the day.

You mean a turbocharged car that was slightly slower than an RX-8 on paper was quicker than one after a remap? Was this a surprise?

I've no idea what the performance on paper of the 231 or 192 was. The performance in the real world was significantly different.

The chassis of the Mazda would have been far superior.

Edited by MC Bodge on Friday 1st November 16:13

[Fastdruid]

MC Bodge said:

I've driven a 190?bhp one. It was easy enough to drive, and appeared to handle nicely, but didn't actually seem very fast at all, even high up the revs.

That is in part because there is no step in the power and people are crap at noticing constant acceleration.

It's why people think their diesel is the fastest thing ever, that massive shove (jerk) they get as it finally comes on boost makes it seem very fast even when it isn't

On a semi-related note it's also why I dislike cars that make maximum power a long way after max torque (where the torque is dropping off but not fast enough to stop power going up).

[otolith]

Road tests generally around 7 seconds to 60 vs about 7.5 for an unmapped VRS. Mazda claimed low 6's, but the UK road tests didn't match that until the R3 came along.

[MC Bodge]

Fastdruid said:

MC Bodge said:

I've driven a 190?bhp one. It was easy enough to drive, and appeared to handle nicely, but didn't actually seem very fast at all, even high up the revs.

That is in part because there is no step in the power and people are crap at noticing constant acceleration.

It's why people think their diesel is the fastest thing ever, that massive shove (jerk) they get as it finally comes on boost makes it seem very fast even when it isn't.

I know this. I've driven plenty of normally aspirated cars and bikes as well as turbo diesel and petrol cars.

The corresponding indicated speed wasn't that high either, and as I also said, I significantly outdragged one years ago in a remapped Mk1 Octavia vRS( -a car which was , for reference, very similar in acceleration to an Integra type R).

[Fastdruid]

rjfp1962 said:

Biggest bugbear was flooding and not suited to short journeys. It needs to be driven and worked. We had many recovered to the dealership which had flooded - We could start them by towing and fix them with a plug clean.

In total honesty, while it was somewhat of a fear when we got it flooding was never an issue. Possibly because it was a 2006 and so had the better starter etc or just because we knew about the (potential) issue.

I've had more issues with piston engines than we ever had with the RX-8. I stalled it a few times reversing off the drive (down sloping drive so reversing uphill) and it re-started fine (and immediately). I've stalled my current car (petrol turbo) about twice after a very short time of running and it was an absolute pig to restart. To the point where I was starting to worry I hadn't actually stalled it in the first place but it had stopped running.

[wjb]

I had a PZ. Utterly brilliant car, looks great, handles superbly, sounds great, and quick enough for the road.

Never let me down either, unfortunately, fuel and tax are as steep as they come.

I kinda miss it, but only like an ex that you know is bad news

[otolith]

Stalling them doesn't generally flood them. Moving them on and off the driveway is a more typical scenario.

[Fastdruid]

Scottie - NW said:

I see lots of people mentioning 9k rpm a lot. I don't know how true it is but on the owners club when i had mine it was explained that the output shaft turned 3 times for every 1 full engine revolution, so that 9k rpm is only actually 3k rpm of the complete engine rotor.

Hoping someone can explain this better technically than my above efforts

You are correct. The RPM measured is of the eccentric shaft (ie the output shaft) and the rotor is geared so it takes three rotations of the rotor per RPM.



Because a rotary is more akin to a two-stroke in that it makes power on every single revolution and there are three sides to the rotor and an RX-8 has two rotors there are two power "pulses" every revolution. Or one every 180 degrees.