And it's not available in the U.S. (yet), and it won't be reasonably priced.

 

And meanwhile Mazda revised up their forecast for FY 2014 yet again (from 100 to 110 billions of yen as far as the net income in concerned): http://www.mazda.com/investors/libra...o140205_e3.pdf

Another point for the return of the 7 .

Andrea.

 

Fuel levels?

I've always kept a very close eye on measured curb weights, and the FD always measured in the 2800-2860 lb. range, RX-8 in the 3000-3060 lb. range.

Road & Track: Track Test: The Best-Handling Sports Cars in America (March 1992)
R&T, 1993 RX-7 curb weight = 2860 lb.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/cm/roada...a-RX8_data.pdf
R&T, 2004 RX-8 with leather and moonroof curb weight = 3000 lb., as-tested weight (with driver) 3180 lb.

Anything removed from your FD? P.O. weighed my '94 base at 2780 lb. with 1/8-tank of fuel before transplanting the V8 into it, fwiw.
And didja have stuff in the trunk of the RX-8?

 

i think Ian's Rx8 is an Aut-o-Magic? i weighed my 04 Base model with a full tank of gas @2960lbs, i could see the GT trim stuff, power seat, nav (there is the heavy nav screen, and the DVD player to run it), moonroof, adding 40-50lbs

 

or possibly they're noting the increase by not selling a rotary powered car as more profit to be made.


i just picked up another 8 last week with a blown motor, have been contemplating keeping it and selling the TII and building a turbo 8 with an older engine. this is legal in nevada but it still must meet the OBDII requirements so the "piggyback" ECU choices are limited.. if/when we go to florida there is no emissions so it's legal there too.

i don't mind driving our other GT '04, the TII is just too stiff and i feel like i'm outgrowing it as i get older. maybe i'll drop the TIIs new engine into the 8 and just put the 7 back to stock, choices, choices. i'd be taking more of a hit selling the TII off as modified than just throwing it all together as nearly unmolested and get rid of a pile of parts at the same time(i never drilled a single hole in this car for that reason).

 

Matter of semantics, more load absolutely. Weight * g forces give the overall load subject tio otehr geometry changes. More stress, well hopefully the engineers either designed with higher strength material changes to permit higher stress levels with same utilization ratios or redesigned structures to lower peak stresses in relation to the load, or increased nmaterial size ...

 

just received a call from someone who received their Autoweek today...

according to an article:

Mazda is quoted as saying a new RX7 is coming in, i think he said, 2016..

250 hp rotary

light weight

priced in the $30s

sounds like a winner to me. i like light weight and we can always add the power.

i searched Google and couldn't locate it.

hc

 

Hate to rain on this parade, but...
http://www.autoweek.com/article/2013...NEWS/131119763

 

AutoWeek

February 17, 2014

"It's Back"

Julian Rendell

privately Mazda execs admit the car (RX7) and the new rotary are under way and it is included in Mazda's long term plan of 5 new cars by the end of 2016.

600 cc per rotor makes it a 1.2 liter, 250 hp, could also have a 3 rotor.

new MX5 platform

MX5 2400 pounds

no turbo

30K

a Global Marketing guy is saying he is not there yet as to sales projections.



howard

 

IIRC, Mazda quoted 3070 for the Grand Touring (leather, moonrf, Bose, etc.) package on the 8; I'm not sure how your base/sport model weighs so much. Is it autotragic?
4C with carbon tub in the 50s is definitely a niche (i.e. there's NO competition for it). European version quoted around 2000 lbs, though you've said in the past about how it'll be 2500+ here in the states.
This.

7 fuel tank = 20.1
8's = 15.9 (S1), 16.9 (S2)
Well, it fills a niche, that's for sure. Does it carry the 7's name? It's more in the spirit of the 1st gen. By doing such a car, they're waving the white towel, basically saying "we can't compete with a *****-to-the-wall performance car against the world's best, so let's attempt a 'fun' car."

It's better than nothing, but it's a major disappointment for those wanting low weight AND high hp.

 

Sounds slow and boring.

 

Lots of people bought the RX-8.

An FB-style rotary with performance potential and a reasonable price will let tuners go to town. We still need a solid platform and a supply chain with quality parts to support the new car. I hope they decide to sell it in every market, too.

You can't please everyone – some people think an Audi S5 is a sports car, others want a BAC Mono for the road. It really comes down to Mazda's conception of the project – do they want a halo car or do they want a volume seller. We know which way Nissan and Toyota went.

 

Lots of people buy corollas and civics too.. doesnt mean they are purebred sports cars enthusiasts want to own.

 

I don't understand why people thought Mazda was ever actually going to attempt a "*****-to-the-wall" performance car. The horsepower war is bullshit and always has been. People were once happy with 300 hp or 400 once played with a bit, now that production cars are putting out 500 hp it's not a serious modified car until it's pushing 700. There is no point to it. The only value is in a straight line. In the meantime, cars are becoming increasingly self-driving and overweight. Give me a smallish engine, four wheels, a cage, a seat and a steering wheel and I'll have a car more enjoyable than just about anything made in the last 10 years. What good is 500+ hp and a turbo that you can boil a cup of tea while waiting for it to spool on deals gap, great ocean road or the pyrenees?

Repeat after me: The horsepower war is bullshit. The horsepower war is bullshit. The horsepower war is bullshit.

There are very good reasons why mazda can't make a competitive 500 hp rotary.

 

it looks like this thread is going to become more focused and maybe go on for a while... 2016?

while i would have been ecstatic if Mazda would have dusted off the FD chassis, de-plastiqued the interior and slapped in a BREW w a single i am equally excited that Mazda is getting fully back to being the Mazda it was before too many Ford peeps diluted the product.

make no mistake about it, Mazda was a radical car company and i believe is returning to its DNA.

it will be interesting to see what the wheelbase is... whether it will be FD size or MX5 size. i do have a spy photo (somewhere) of the new MX5 rear suspension and no surprise it looks real racecar.

give me a 100 inch wheelbase and we will figure out how to pump a lot more ponies in. let's hope Mazda really comes in w a world beating weight. i would pay significant dollars for less.

i am cautiously optimistic that Mazda ex Ford is going to blow our socks off. they have done it before.

it looks like a Fourth Gen Section might be appropriate sometime this year.

Howard

 

The horsepower war is not bullshit—at least when you're still talking something with a "2" in the front of it. Unless the new car weighs an Exige-like 2000 lbs, I'm yawning. Power doesn't just matter "in a straight line", it matters coming out of corners too. If I wanted a Miata I'd buy one. If I wanted all handling and no power, I'll go karting.

Time rolls on. Gotta keep up.

 

I dont know nevada at all so I have no idea regarding the roads over there .

But I love florida emission / car laws I hate the flat florida roads .. atleast in south fl its 99% all about that straight line speed.


The 8 with a swapped motor I think is an AWESOME car. drove with one up to the dragon last year just a nice car all around seemed like the car mazda should have built and it would of been a real success .

I would love to see one competitively raced just to see how it would compare to the 7 . but my eggs are still on the 7 , obviously its partly because I'm biased! LOL

I wish the swap was more common seems like all the right pieces .

 

Totally agree. I think the market would have better more reasonable-weight sports/sporty cars if the horsepower wars hadn't allowed manufacturers to pile on the size and mass.

I want the manufacturers to provide good, solid, small, lightweight sports car platforms. If I want 500hp for it, I'll add it myself.

Instead the manufacturers have just kept adding adding adding size/weight/content and more than made up for it with horsepower

Used to be that "them furrin sports cars" were WAY smaller and lighter-weight than the big bruiser Corvette. Now the Corvette is considered something of a lightweight!

1970 911 was ~2300 lb., 914 was ~2100 lb., 1970 240Z was ~2300 lb., 1970 Corvette was ~3350 lb.
2014 911 is now ~3200 lb and up, Boxster/Cayman are ~3000 lb. and up, 370Z is 3300 lb., Corvette still ~3350-3450 lb.

Anyone seen that new BMW 2-series commercial, where they show it with an old 2002? As if the new 2 is its spiritual successor? Bullshit! The new 2 is more of a modern Buick GSX than a 2002. 2002 weighed ~2200 lb., new 2 is 3500 lb.!

THERE SHOULD BE A LOT MORE *REAL* (i.e., smaller, more minimalist, lighter-weight) SPORTS CARS ON THE MARKET! Not just a bunch of Corvette size/weight luxo-supercars and aspiring supercars.

Power levels rising without limit and keeping CAFE levels flat (instead of gradually going up every year) throughout the 90s/2000s has IMO killed legitimate sports cars and given us a market flooded with stylish "sporty" luxury-musclecars.

Now we have new CAFE standards that REWARD bigger cars with lower mileage standards (same practice killed small trucks as noted earlier in this thread)! Crap...

 

ZDan.

i agree 100%. weight is EVIL. the new Camaro/Mustang/Challenger are a total joke due to their bloat. the first number i look at is weight and the second is the weight distribution.

during the development of the FD Mazda had two teams work for 12 months with the sole end of weight reduction.


howard

 

agreed with the rest of your post, but i just wanted to add that this current HP war is probably the longest, all the other ones (1930's*, 1960's, 1990's) were usually curtailed by some event like the gas crisis, or a war or something.

*my favorite statistic, fastest speed on a public road is held by Mercedes, 268mph, set in 1938.
Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

There was a HP war in the 90's?

 

3000 - 2800 = 200 lb.

I concede that the RX-8 weighs around 200Lbs more than the FD RX-7.

I hadn't taken into account the weight I have removed from my 7 and the fact that the auto 8 weighs so much more.

I wonder if that added transmission weight down low and in the middle is part of the reason I am so smitten with my 8s handling? I gotta work some of that mass centralization into the 7!

 

AutoWeek

February 17, 2014

"It's Back"

Julian Rendell

privately Mazda execs admit the car (RX7) and the new rotary are under way and it is included in Mazda's long term plan of 5 new cars by the end of 2016.

600 cc per rotor makes it a 1.2 liter, 250 hp, could also have a 3 rotor.

new MX5 platform

MX5 2400 pounds

no turbo

30K

a Global Marketing guy is saying he is not there yet as to sales projections.

I will be exited for the new 250HP RX-7 if Mazda manages to decrease the weight from the base MX-5 platform by offering a fixed roof and some expensive aluminum/carbon fiber parts.

If they "upscale" the base MX-5 platform to the RX-7 and add weight they have officially failed at being Mazda.

 

maybe it should say 80's, it peaks around 1992-93 though, with the FD/supra/etc

 

Been on track with several all out RX8 race cars and a basic single turbo FD destroys it by over 5 seconds a lap at VIR.

The two cars cannot be compared and why people continually want to put the RX8 on some supercar handling platform is beyond me. Yes it's a really nice handling car but no it's not going to out perform the RX7 unless it's a tube framed car with a 3 rotor. Now tube the FD and put a 3 rotor in it