What was BMW thinking?! (MCS/rx8 engine)

[dmholmes]

Congratualtions on the 8. I have a friend who has one and I have had considerable seat time in his car. They are truly fabulous to drive.

[Martin L]

Quote: Originally Posted by HardTimes

It's an interesting thought... as mentioned in a previous Mini Vs. RX8 thread (which was a bit silly) I have switched to an RX8 now after changing my Mini Cooper for a Smart Roadster - Ooops what was I thinking I know

Anyway, I do miss the Mini crowd but I'm glad to report that RX8 owners have etiquet too and I get waives all over the place whenever two 8's cross paths!

Joy!

Chris

Wooohooooo another RX-8 owner

I must agree though having an RX8 is just like when the MINI first came out

[HardTimes]

Hello mate,

Yeah I agree... I loved my Mini but it's time for a new relationship and I'm so pleased the etiquette of RX owners seems to be awesome!

It's just hard to leave this place... It was a good home for a long time!

How you finding the RX mate?

Chris

[Johnny225]

Rotary would be cool, but it wouldn't fit the MINI's image. The rotary is a very mazda thing. Plus, the new renesis is having a lot of problems, with flooding, etc. Also, it gives around 12-16 miles per gallon, which is way less than the posted EPA.

[Martin L]

Quote: Originally Posted by HardTimes

How you finding the RX mate?

Chris

Not one regret at all in buying one

It's perfectly fits all my requirements at this stage in my life... and most importantly it's just as fun to drive as the MINI
In fact in some ways it's more rewarding car as you can push the envolope far further then the MINI before it lets go

[HardTimes]

I couldn't agree more mate... I've never purchased a car that has been so rewarding to drive... of course I DID love the mini and must stress that (especially being on a mini forum )

But like you, the RX is the perfect car for me at the moment and fuel consumption (whilst high) does not trouble me at all due to the amount of miles I drive!!

Superb fun!

Chris

[Irlmin]

I had an RX 7 1992 for a while and at the same time had a 6.0 TWR Jaguar XJ12, fuel consumption was better on the Jag (still brutal ) and of course OIL Consumption was a factor as well , it's a personal thing but I drove an RX8 recently and I am afraid to say it did NOT 'do it ' for me .Felix had a good idea at the time BUT !!!!!!!!!!! . Just imagine if the Internal Combustion engine had developed at the same rate as the silicone chip ' .
Gerard

[Slant]

Has anyone here driven both the 3rd gen RX-7 twin turbo AND the RX-8? I've never driven the 8 & I'd like to know how it feels compare to the 7. On paper the 8 is slower than the 7 but does it feel much slower? How 'bout the handling between the 2?

[davyk31]

I have driven RX8s and so wanted to like them but that engine is just horrible. Absolutley no torque and the sound, wells it been described elsewhere as sounding like an electric drill and that pretty much is it. Not my cup of tea, Mazda needed to for a big capacity 6 cylinder to make the RX8 the car it should have been or a nice turbo unit! Not so sure on the looks, sometimes I like it and other angles dont look so good, do worry that it will date quickly as Japanese cars can. But hey, each to their own, if we all drove the same cars life would be boring.

[TT_Convert]

You cannot drive the motor short distances either - at least, so I've heard. It suffers from flooding if you do. What a pain... imagine not being able to reserve it a few metres if you were shuffling cars to wash them or something.

[RickB]

I've followed the rotary's development a bit since a friend bought a RX2 in the late '70s. While the ENGINE is light and powerful, I've felt Mazda didn't do enough to put it in a suitably light chassis. Imagine a 250hp rotary in the Miata! Instead, we get it in a 3000 pound 4-door, where its light weight goes unappreciated. It also seems to use a lot more fuel than a 250hp reciprocating engine, so if you're not taking advantage of the light weight and small size - its only obvious virtues - you're not getting much benefit. In a MINI (or a Lotus Elise?), I might be more impressed.

[nization]

These threads are great for me. I've actually been trying to come to a decision as to which one I should purchase this coming June 2005. I've owned a number of RX-7's (curently own three) and plan to sell all but one of them and my other vehicles. Bigest thing about the RX-8 that I would perfer over the Mini is that it's RWD. I never have been a fan of FWD, but after a few test drives of the mini, I can stop hating FWD. But who's to say that I have to stop driving RWD??? I'm keeping one RX-7 for the track and plan to drive the mini daily on the street and occasionally bring it to the track and autoX. But ideally, if BMW goes with the 4WD version of the mini that I read something about them showing 'interest', I'll be all over the posibilities of converting to RWD from there.... Perhaps I'm just typing crazy-type, but I wish I could get a RWD mini. A rotary powered one would be even beter, but a big part of my decision for the mini is fuel economy. So I think the '88 RX-7 will do just fine for my RWD rotary powered pleasures.

[mikeythemini]

Quote: Originally Posted by TT_Convert

You cannot drive the motor short distances either - at least, so I've heard. It suffers from flooding if you do. What a pain... imagine not being able to reserve it a few metres if you were shuffling cars to wash them or something.

We have had a few in that don't want to start after driving the rund into the workshop

[stryder]

Ahh, the old threads...

If you're thinking of getting a car in the spring, you're not going to get an AWD MINI. Maybe such a thing will exist, but its not going to exist anytime in the near future. A RWD MINI is nearly pointless, as its not to spirit of a MINI, and BMW is going to sell the 1 series, so they want to keep MINI separate, but AWD would be cool, in however many years they get to think about actually selling it.

Having just sold my '87 RX-7 SE, there's no regrets to going to a FWD car. Maybe its just personal taste, but the small loss in ability due to the wrong wheels pushing is more then made up for by a car that's reliable, well put together, and just a whole lot more powerful then a normally aspirated 2nd gen RX-7. It also actually has torque, unlike the rx-8.

If you can keep all the cars, then go for it, but my rx-7 would have cost an extra $300/year to insure, and as I sold it for $800, and had to keep fixing small stuff, it wasn't exactly a good investment to keep.

And while I like rotary engines - you can't really say the rx-8 engine is ready for primetime, and there's hundreds of thousands of MINIs out there with pretty much rock solid reliability. I'd prefer that to what's still an experimental engine on the rx-8. It just doesn't have the reliability of an NA 13B, even if it has twice the hp and better emissions.