Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Coupes & Convertibles Mazda RX-8 Mazda RX-8 Gas Mileage Reports
91 messages, Last post on Feb 13, 2009 at 9:37 AM
You are in the Mazda RX-8 Forum. Your Host is claires
|
Replying to: carfanatic007 (May 10, 2006 10:31 pm) The following are the points to the rotary engine design: 1) Simple design engine design with few moving parts raises overall reliability over time. A design life of 200K miles on the old rotary designs, a sports car engine, was unheard of in the complicated multi-value piston world of the past. The Renesis Rotary's design life is 500K miles. Racing a rotary engines means one re-build per season, where as racing a piston engines means re-builds after every race. 2) Much lower torque at low RPMs is a wear and tear saver on the entire drivetrain. 3) The drag racing mentality of torque heavy engine design, based on a NASCAR formula in the USA is just dumb. Go watch any VOD Car video as torque heavy monster cars drag off screeching burn tires, only to crash half a block down the road as they simply loose control of the poorly torque balanced car. 4) Engine weight and size eliminate frontend steer compared to the high center of gravity weight of any piston designed engines. Exceptions might go to the flat four and flat six piston designs of Porsche and Subaru. |
|
|
|
|
Replying to: dwynne (Nov 17, 2005 10:09 am) Mitch
|
|
|
Replying to: mstrickler (May 11, 2006 3:08 pm) |
|
|
|
|
Replying to: KarenS (Jun 02, 2005 10:38 am) 17 around town 23 highway 11 track My worst "around town" mpg was 15, but that was mostly due to a heavy foot and high revs.  Why do people b*tch about the mileage? This is a sports car, not an econ-o-box. Our mileage is similar to other comparable sports cars.
|
|
|
Replying to: paul_in_dc (May 12, 2006 4:39 am) It is not a true sports car. RX-7 was a sports car. I like RX-8 but couldn't get over its poor MPG issue. Mazda has this engine for at least 10 years but yet they still couldn't improve its fuel consumption and motor oil issue. My IS250 can go 400 miles(75% freeway) per tank at 29/30+ MPG. Expect more from your sporty car.
|
|
|
Replying to: from_fl (May 12, 2006 5:07 am) Mazda has this engine for at least 20 years but yet .. |
|
|
Replying to: from_fl (May 12, 2006 5:13 am) |
|
|
|
|
Replying to: from_fl (May 12, 2006 5:07 am) 
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: from_fl (May 12, 2006 5:13 am) 
|
|
|
Replying to: paul_in_dc (May 12, 2006 12:33 pm)  Early on Mazda tried using side exhaust ports, but in those days the apex seals were very experimental (read unreliable) and needed a lot of oil. This very quickly plugged the side exhaust ports so Mazda had to put the ports on the rotor housing for production vehicles. So the renesis is really not new, just vastly improved over the previous designs. What was improved? 1. Moving the exhaust ports to the side housings allows much better control of the port opening timing, resulting in potentially better mileage and better power. 2. Many moving parts were lightened, raising the redline from 7500 RPM to 9000 RPM (the side exhaust ports also helped with this - when the apex seals traversed the old ports on the rotor housing they "bounced" a lot at high RPM and this eventually resulted in seal breakage). Of course when I say "many parts" I'm talking of only many compared to how many there are - there are very few moving parts in a rotary engine! 3. The PCM (engine computer) is greatly improved, allowing much better control of the engine and providing much better protection for it. So you are both right in some way!
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Coupes & Convertibles Mazda RX-8 Mazda RX-8 Gas Mileage Reports
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2010 Mazda RX-8
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
