Mazda RX8 …

I never knew they were a 1.3 engine !

Not in the market for one but they look awesome and you can pick them up for next to nothing (under 3grand)

Anyone got one ?

This is bed bordem been ill in bed for 24hrs now ive now reverted to looking at specs of cars on autotrader !

Hi

Just to fill you in

Wankel engine, so although 1.3 has the theoretical capacity of 2.6

Quite powerful, but no torque so needs to be revved

Terrible on fuel (think mid 20’s)

Drinks oil (think a litre per couple of tanks of fuel)

That is why they are so cheap!

They may be the answer for a low mileage use, but would prove expensive to own if you were doing the usual 12k per year.

They look great though don’t they!

Cheers
Al.

They are wankel’s hence the 1.3 adds up to a lot more capacity than a traditional piston model.

Ace car, I miss mine a lot.

£460 road tax & 24mpg……………..

……….buzz to drive but cheap cars for a reason, running/maintenance costs.

thanks for info I take it the 2.6 version is not a wankel set up or it’d be a 4 litre !

And when you switch it on, you have to leave it on (for 5 mins I understand) – so no, ‘just moving it’…

But if you are a low mileage driver, there are some great cars out there that are dirt cheap – I run a 535i.

Horrendous running costs and prone to flooding. You’re recommended you run it it for a minimum of 6 minutes everytime it’s fired up. Look great though 🙂

One of my friends had the R3 model, it drank oil and ate tyres. He would happily go through a set of tyres in 6-9 months and a litre of oil a month. He said it was totally un-driveable in the snow or ice, however on dry roads he said it was a great car to be in. Insurance and road tax were pretty steep too.

A few other notes- a compression test before buying one is recommended.

You are advised not to carry out short runs in them. So if its got a few owners at least one must have taken it to the shops/supermarket at somepoint in its life!

I take it the 2.6 version is not a wankel set up or it’d be a 4 litre !

I think they changed the description to relate better to the roadtax pricing.

My neighbour seems to sit and rev his for a while whenever he pulls onto his drive in it, I presume related to it’s engine’s relative fragility.

Fantastic looking car though. Love the door idea.

I came so close to buying one but couldn’t guarantee I would give it the TLC needed to keep it tip-top. I drove a couple they were really nice, very smooth. Interior wasn’t to my taste, too much going on but I can see why it would appeal to others.

Lots of problems reported with the ignition coils failing to attain temperature sufficient to burn all of the injected fuel. This had led to cat’s ruined by wet fuel ingressing.

as above, they often need a £1000 re-tip in the vane seals at 70k and classed as wear and tear. great car but far too expensive for the real world and most of them will be up for sale as major expenditure is due, why spend £1000 on a service for a car worth only £3000??

They are nice cars but full of little mechanical foibles due to the unique powerplant.

They look powerful on paper but they have no torque so you need to absolutely thrash them to get the power out of them.

As others have said the running costs can be pretty shocking, they also tend to need an engine rebuild around the 60k mark so you’ll find lots of cheap second hand cars around this milage – but there is a reason they are cheap

Terrible on fuel (think mid 20’s)

You’d be doing well getting that much. A friends did about 19mpg driven normally or about 18mpg if thrashed. The don’t feel especially quick either and even normal servicing is expensive. Mazda charge £20 per hour on top of normal rates even if they’re going nowhere near the engine.

double rotor wankel – zing zing!

fair play to mazda for continuing with the wankel after nsu and citroen gave up..

even if they sort the sealing issue out the poor economy/emissions will kill it off

shame as the compact engine allows for interesting styling..

Lots of problems reported with the ignition coils failing to attain temperature sufficient to burn all of the injected fuel. This had led to cat’s ruined by wet fuel ingressing.

What?

ignition coils just provide juice for the spark plugs – wankels work in the same way as a normal reciprocating piston engine fuel air mix is drawn in, compressed then ignited by a spark… wankels are the same just it uses a different process to compress the charge..

older wankels are a bit crap as there is an unavoidable overlap between in take and exhaust ports and as the combustion chamber shape is a compromise due to is moving nature..so you get a poorer combustion with some fuel left over. rx-8 are a little better as mazda moved the exhaust ports to stop overlap

This topic got me thinking. The car is ‘good’ so why not….

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=mazda+rx8+engine+transplant

would of though something v6ish would be good?

LS1 – LS3 V8 would be good if they fitted…

I was thinking like-for-like due to compatibility (although alot of the wankel/ancillaries etc are probably car specific?) – so another ‘Mazda’ engine swapped in- 2.0 or 2.3?

mazda/ford did a nice 2.5v6 (haha ford ‘probe’ / mx-6 / gareth cheesman)

(mazda also did a nice 2.0l v6 as well (323F) and a 1.9 in the mx-3) all
same series of engines

you would have to do a whole engine + box + bits

four pot from a Honda S2000 might be a good bet as well

turned out to be an interesting thread

* awaking from my mid morning sleep *

With an Audi engine… http://passionford.com/forum/restorations-rebuilds-and-projects/413726-mazda-rx8-project-with-20v-audi-turbo-engine.html

http://www.reyland.co.uk/Parts.asp?ID=32

Part of the whole point of the RX8 is the rotary engine.

It absolutely screams up to 8000 rpm 🙂

It is a compact unit and is placed low down and far back in the chassis, this lends the RX8 its great handling.

Sticking a boat anchor V* or inline in there would remove a whole chunk of character and miss the point!

They are an absolute bargain, and if you are are no doing many miles are great fun. Get a pre-06 model for cheaper road tax.

Mate is selling his as he has just started doing bigger mileages.

PS check out the prices of RX8s in germany where they are much rarer:

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto/mazda.rx-8.html?scopeId=C&isSearchRequest=true&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&makeModelVariant1.makeId=16800&makeModelVariant1.modelId=20

20MPG isn’t *that* bad for a car as capable as this, but is scares the crap out of the car buying public!

You can buy a good condtion RX8 with a dead engine for around £1300 … bargain if you can do a good engine conversion.

rootes1 – Member

mazda/ford did a nice 2.5v6 (haha ford ‘probe’ / mx-6 / gareth cheesman)

(mazda also did a nice 2.0l v6 as well (323F) and a 1.9 in the mx-3) all
same series of engines

I had the 2ltr v6 323f…

Loved that car. Felt rock solid.

I only got rid of it as the rear seats wouldn’t take a baby-seat 🙁

Sticking a boat anchor V* or inline in there would remove a whole chunk of character and miss the point!

Ok how about a boxer 2.0T Subaru engine??

yer always liked the 323F styling – very neat

My brother was getting 18mpg out of his (54 reg, immaculate) and loved every minute of it until his engine wouldn’t start last year (not flooding that time, he’d been stranded several times with that feature also) and no one could fix it. Got it towed to webuyanycar who gave him a grand. I’d say avoid unless you are a wankel mechanic, know one or have very deep pockets.

They had a few issues with compression meaning as they got older they were reluctant to start.

Mazda did a faster starter motor which addresses this somewhat.

imnotamused – did your brothers turn over on the starter and not fire? before it failed did it sometimes take a lot of turning before it fired?

Fix is to use the faster starter, then when that stops working rebuild the rotor tips!

Was – yes, those were the symptoms. He also had to do some odd starting ritual in the last few months to get it to start too

Imnotamused – weird lots of “specialists” don’t know about the faster starter….. Although the reason behind it being needed is the poor cold compression (which is due to worn / gummed up rotor tips). Once up to temp the compression usually becomes fine (hence no loss of power).

Rotor tips can be cleaned or replaced to repair cold compression issue but it means engine out. As its a rotary this is much easier than a piston engine! They are much lighter and simpler.

Another plus for the rotary but lots of mechanics are scared off as its “different”.

There was a RX8 buyers guide in Autocar last week. They do look interesting but I like a bit more torque in my cars.

They sound like the 2 stroke equivalent of a 4 wheeler.
Copious amounts of oil and petrol
No torque
Fragile
But lots of fun ……..

I NEED one of these

They sound like the 2 stroke equivalent of a 4 wheeler.
Copious amounts of oil and petrol
No torque
Fragile
But lots of fun ……..

But 2-strokes have loads of torque, and usually lower down the rev range than 4-strokes – especially is you compare like-for-like cc’s.

Not without a power valve ……;)

How well does the bike fit in the back??

Great cars, I’ve driven a couple but they are pretty high maintenance. Theres a huge market for parts, both aftermarket and OE, massive owners club support and they are a bargain if your a fairly competent home mechanic. I’ve been to a few Rotorstock events and its simply amazing what these babies can be made to produce.
Another thing to watch on them is rust though, all Mazda’s from the 3/6/RX8 era tend to have problematic wheelarches and the RX8 also rusts a bit round the bootlid brake light recess.

Verses, stunning SE model, when did you sell it? Were you a member of club323F?