TJF

That guy "TurboDiesel" is a bozo. he keeps talking about "yaw rates," center of gravity and "inertia moments" as though that is all that matters. It makes my head hurt.

Here is my little comparo:

About a week ago, I just happened to run a friend's RX8 from 3rd gear to 5th and pulled about about a car length on it... no driver skill involved in that sort of race, just car on car and the S just makes more power.

I have driven another friends RX-8... the steering feel is pure Mazda (read awesome!) but it does not change direction nor does is grip as hard as the S.

The interior is very nice on the RX-8 (the car I drove had the two-tone black and red) and having a back seat is a plus. One friend with an RX8 can fit all 4 of his race tires and an aluminum race jack in his car when he heads to the Auto-X!!!!

The exterior... well, thats subjective. Without the aero package, they kinda look like a catfish. However, with the aero package, I think they look kinda cool in that "I would never own one but dont mind appreciating yours" sort of way.

cshamash

I owned both cars and the S2k is a much better car in every respect except for not having 4 seats.

cshamash

But now I own the elise and it is much better then the s2k

TRDLiquidSilver

i beat some of you. i only lasted to post #7 and then i fell off the floor laughing. grant it everyone is entitled to their opinion and taste and that's why we have choices. i had the same choices april of 04 when i bought the IS and i was comparing it to the rx8 because of the rear seats which i thought i needed at the time. lets just say i wasn't impressed. the car wasn't that impressive to"me" and thought that my celica gts was more fun to drive. maybe i wasn't used to the rotary motor but it was like driving a manual cvt prius. one of the things i love about the S2K and cars with i-vtec or vvtl-i it tells your ears what's going on. the pitch at every rpms differs from idle to redline.

listen to the difference and turn up the volume.
RX8

S2K

your telling me a real true car guy can't hear and feel the difference between the two. take away the RX8 back seats and if you had a choice between rotary vs vtec, which would you choose?

Wildncrazy

I agree with you about the timeless design and I agree with others about the feel and the balance of the RX7. As a matter of fact the S2000 is the only other car I've driven that has a similar feel,

BUT your statement about it being in the shop all the time is pure BS!!!

It is like the statement about the S having NO torque, it is blown way out of proportion by the media and has become a cry of the disenfranchised as to why they didn't/won't buy an S. It's better than saying "I'm a weinnie, don't know how to drive it and I can't afford it."

For years I owned 3 RX7s at the same time. I had only one in the shop and that was only for one time. I took it in for some routine maintenance because I was too lazy to do it.

What people didn't realize is that the rotary is a different type of engine and needed a different level of care. It burns oil. It is supposed to burn oil. Think of it as a 2 stroke engine and give it oil that burns cleanly and the life expectancy went way up.

They had the twin turbo set up (the best that could be put together at the time with the level of turbo design at the time) that might need a more secure method of vacuum hose attachment. Once you put zip ties on the hoses you never had another issue. Today the factory could put together a better system with just a single turbo which would keep both the bottom and top end power without the complexities.

Rotaries are more sensitive to over heating and Mazda should have put a better cooling system and better location for filling the radiator. The filler tube wasn't the high spot of the system so many people thought they had plenty of coolant in the system but they didn't. Consequently they ran the ragged edge of overheating. Couple that with a 100 degree day and a tank of bad gas and you could blow a tip seal (the equivalent of a ring).

BUT they are much simpler motors than a boinger with much less to go wrong.

It is a much maligned and misunderstood car, but one of the better designs and packages of the 20th century.

I bought my 3rd RX7 because a little old lady drove it and never changed the oil and had overheated it and was offering it for $5,000. How could I go wrong. It ran very soft compared to the others. I intended to build a super engine and put in it when the engine quit but 50,000 miles later it was still going strong. The power never fell off any more and the car never ran any worse. In a head to head race with my strongest 7 it would always be about 2 car lengths behind. Pretty damn good for a sick car.

I know people who have had their cars since 1993-95 and have over 200,000 miles on them and have never had any issues beyond normal maintenance. Of course they took care of their cars. They also race them a lot.

mav

The RX-8 is nice but the S2000 handles better, puts down more power and is way more fun.