Specs for a 2004 Mazda RX8
From a purely business perspective, the Mazda RX-7 was a flaming failure. It was a 10 percent car: a truly great, amazingly transcendent sports car 10 percent of the time, and broken the other 90 percent. Fortunately, Mazda's never been a company to bow to bean counters on questions of principle. In 2004, Mazda released its newest take on a chassis, drawing from decades of world-class roadster development, combining it with the ultimate expression of an engine it had been steadily perfecting for nearly 50 years.
Other People Are Reading
-
Chassis and Development
-
Some companies have massive R&D departments, funded with the gross national products of small nations, directed by focus groups and permitted to work on only those projects approved by people who have never seen the underside of a car. Mazda's greatest cars, though, have always come from small groups of passionate gearheads, working after hours to build hot rods in the company garage. The RX-8 was one such creation. After the colossal failure of the expensive and fragile RX-7, Mazda might have let the whole idea die if not for a small group of engineers committed to putting a new rotary into production. These rebels redesigned the RX-7's 13B Rotary engine for lower emissions and better fuel economy, and stuck it into an MX-5 Miata test mule. After seeing this Black Ops hot rod, management green-lit development of a coupe chassis based loosely on the MX-5; however, given its engine's position and compact dimensions, the RX-8 became a true front mid-engine car inherently balanced with that magical 50/50 front-rear weight distribution.
Engine
-
The RX-8, like many of the great ones, was a car built around an engine. In this case, that engine was the game-changing, 1.3-liter 13B-MSP Renesis rotary engine. Perfecting the high-revving, piston-less rotary -- aka Wankel -- engine had been a Mazda obsession for decades, but earlier versions had been plagued by terrible emissions and fuel economy. The MSP -- multiple side-port -- Renesis used relocated side ports that allowed for less overlap and greater compression, increasing power and keeping more of the fuel burning in the engine. This new Wankel went on to win International Engine of the year, owing to its incredible, table-flat torque curve that maintained about 80 percent of its peak torque from just off idle to almost 10,000 rpm. The Renesis revved like an electric motor to its 238-horsepower peak at 8,500 rpm, and torque peaked at 159 foot-pounds at 5,500 rpm. That last figure might not sound impressive on paper, until you realize that it maintained almost exactly peak torque all the way to redline.
-
Drivetrain and Dimensions
-
The Renesis shot speed to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission; the top gear was an 0.84 overdrive, but the rear axle gearing was 4.44-to-1 and first gear was 3.76-to-1. This stump-pulling combination allowed the Renesis to whip to 10 grand through every gear. Mazda also offered a four-speed automatic for people who didn't know what an RX-8 was for. While the RX-8's suspension and chassis were loosely based on the Miata, it was a significantly larger car overall -- owing partly to its useable rear seat and innovative "suicide" rear half-doors. The RX-8 measured 174.3 inches long, 69.7 inches wide and 52.8 inches tall. It utilized a 106.4-inch wheelbase, 58.9-inch front track and 59.3-inch rear track. At about 3,055 pounds, it was a whopping 600 pounds heavier than the tiny Miata; however, its 0.31 drag coefficient made the RX-8 far more aerodynamic than the Miata and its unimpressive 0.37 coefficient of drag.
Performance
-
When it wasn't broken, the RX-7's handling was poetry in motion. Fluid, neutral, balanced and predictable, the RX-7 made its name not in absolute grip or mind-bending numbers, but through its ability to make performance driving a meditative experience, something akin to conducting a symphony in physics. That's become something of a Mazda trademark over the last 30 years; it was true of the RX-7, it was true of the Miata, and Mazda didn't break that streak with the perfectly balanced RX-8. Straight-line performance was good, but not all-conquering: with a 6-second sprint to 60 mph and 14.49 seconds at 95.4 mph through the quarter, the RX-8 lost about 0.25-second in both measures to Honda's also-great S2000 roadster. The S2000 also beat the RX-8 in cornering grip and through the slalom, posting 0.9 g and 68.6 mph to the RX-8's 0.87 g and 68.1 mph. The RX-8 stopped 3 feet shorter than the S2000 from 60 mph, at 115 feet, but that was about the only place where it triumphed in pure numbers.
Consumer Data and Summary
-
For about $7,000 in 2013 dollars, you'd have a very hard time matching the RX-8's value in pure driving nirvana; but don't expect that drive to come cheap. The uninitiated might think that any 3,000-pound car with a 1.3-liter engine would get good fuel economy, especially given the fact that said engine was redesigned with fuel economy in mind. Normally, that would be true. However, the Renesis' amazing torque curve and instant-on power delivery means that it burns loads of fuel whether it needs it or not; the resulting 16 city and 22 highway mpg is about 3 highway mpg shy of the contemporary 5.7-liter Chevrolet Corvette. It's also a few numbers short of the S2000 in fuel economy, just as it is everywhere else. But that's kind of the point -- it takes a certain Zen understanding to get the RX-8. The RX-8 isn't and never was about numbers; Honda's go-kart S2000 is the numbers generator and race-track dominator. It's just what it appears to be; a two-seat go-kart that breaks like glass at the rev limit and punishes mistakes severely. The RX-8, though, isn't a race car -- it's a paint brush, a wailing electric guitar. It's a tool that can plug you into a universe of grip, momentum and timing, to immerse you completely in the dopamine-inducing rhythm of speed. All things considered, it's almost hard to justify spending seven grand on anything else.
-
