Mazda RX-8 test drive since 2008
Rotari Club
This is some kind of invasion. Invasion of the four -door compartment. Already tired of everyone to explain why the handsome Mercedes CLS has four doors, and again all the same. Only the car is smaller and the second set of doors is not quite a door, but, no sash, such as a small refrigerator. But each dope and designer knows: the refrigerator should be red. Not white. Thus, the new Mazda RX-8, which, as promises advertising, is obliged to turn some of our ideas about life, is simply aimed at surprising and shaking the foundations. Well, let's see, look. 
In the picture, everyone looks a giant until a man of decent height and weight stands next to the car. Then it will become clear and immediately amazing: Mazda RX-8 is a small car, and the only sports that offers the four of the sport. Have you tried to sit in the rear seat of Porsche Carrera? Do not even try - this is an elegant design under the graceful name of a dog box. However, the dog should not shove there either. But everything changes in our lives when they come-two more doors and a sofa on the RX-8. The fact is that you do not need to push back and tilt the front seat anymore to crawl back: with the front door open, the cute red refrigerator open exactly so much so as to miss another half -man. Moreover, they open towards the movement. 
We met with this rainy Moscow in the morning, and this laid out a mark. Because on a red sports machine with a rotary engine (even a car, a well -known motorist as a Vankel engine, although no one has seen Felix Vankel himself) I want to fly along a normal road along the Pacific coast or along the coast of Tegernze, or, in extreme cases, along Lake Senezhsky . But to drag on rainy Moscow, filled with weather -dependent idiots, is too much. Moreover, the car is on the handle, and poke from the first to the second with 231 horsepower - this must be a masochist or, conversely, the day before to return from a vacation from Switzerland so that the nerves are like a baseball bat. Despite the fact that on the tachometer red revolutions begin at 9000, you will have to be content with small. 
Very small. So far you are in Moscow. As soon as you can break out of this estate of successful businessmen and their influential spouses, other games come. It turns out that the 1300-cow engine operates in a way as a three-liter BMW engine. It's all about the compactness and engine power, where instead of a piston is a fiery triangular rotor. Since 1928, a member of the NSDAP, an orphan and self -taught made a revolutionary engine, which liked the Soviet automotivemen, and now finally Japanese too. The details of its design will become more or less transparent for you, as soon as you learn to pronounce the word epitrochoid the first time. At the company Mazda, this word is pronounced without hesitation, because among automakers today it is the only company that continues to rivet the designs of a professor at the University of Munich since 1987 by F. Vankel. 
They say that the engine is not too large torque. Well, then buy yourself a tractor diesel and get high. We accelerate in Rublevka exactly as much as possible: from one policeman to another, from one millionaire to the next. If you are mistaken in switching the gears, you will be reminded of this by a weak squeak - still a squeak is better than the engine roar. With this engine, it would be more careful. Due to the structural features, it is not made as furious as an ordinary piston, and they are notnded immediately, but gradually. If this is not taken into account, then problems may appear. The steering wheel is regulated only in height, as noble Japaneseists say, this is characteristic of the automotive culture there, and since the car is still sports, the steering wheel is very sensitive. RX-8 is a car for a young and dynamic driver. If you do not even take into account the color of the body.
By buying a new Mazda RX-8, you can choose one of two engine options: increased power (231 hp, 8200 rpm, max.-9000 rpm) or basic power unit (192 hp, 7000 rpm, max. - 7500 rpm). On the highway, the car will spend 9.45 liters per 100 km of path, and in urban conditions - more than 12 liters. The wheels are 18-inch. There is an ABS system with EBD, as well as the DCS system with TCS. For each passenger and driver there is its own airbags. In a model with a 231-horsepower engine, xenon headlights are additionally installed. Music in the car plays from the Bose CD Magical Malicols. 
The machines of this model Mazda were brought to Russia not as much as we would like (originally talked about 150 trial copies). Although what means little, and what - a lot? Here, Lexus is going to sell five hundred pieces of a new model in Russia - is it not enough or many? Judging by how swift pace the ranks of the Lexus on Moscow roads are multiplied, this bar was slightly underestimated. One of the main tasks of the fresh owner of the Mazda RX-8 is to purchase a fairly solid real estate for the car. Firstly, so that she does not suffer and not be warmed in traffic jams in Moscow, although a little more such broadcasting that we have now, and we will be convinced that there are no traffic jams in Moscow (most likely the TVC channel will agree before). Secondly, so that the baby has
running - the bird lives in flight, and you just have to disperse a little, as you remember that electronic limiters came up with my underpants. Or those who understand that the birth rate is falling and therefore do not increase the number of sad given. Do not spare money to the mansion in a decent place: Mazda will only be grateful to you. But you know how reliable Japanese cars can be grateful. When Red Mazda leaves, something changes in street life-it is illuminated by Panton's colors.
In the image, this car is also suitable for a young and dynamic party -holder or student. Or a young wife. Or a new mistress. Wherever you throw, everything is suitable. Only to begin with, you need to teach her to hold on to the wheel tightly. Or press on the brakes. By the way, the brakes of this particular model received a Japanese reliability reward based on the results of prolonged tests directly at home. It seems that with Crash tests everything is also in order.
Text Igor Maltsev, photo Konstantin Kokoshkin
Mazda RX-8 Gasoline, rotary, two -section engine
Working volume (cubic meter
Power (L.S. at rpm) 231 at 8200
Moment (nm at rpm) 211 at 5500
The rear drive
Gearbox 6-speed mechanical
Length/width/height (mm) 4430/1770/1340
Wheel base (mm) 2700
Mass weight (kg) 1380
Maximum speed (km/h) 235
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 6.4
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 15.6/8.7
Price in Moscow ($) from 49 900
A lot of gasoline has flowed since 1978, when Mazda made her RX-7 sports car. This car was also equipped with a rotor engine of 130 horses. Then in 1980 the design was slightly corrected, and the motor received a turbine and became more powerful - as much as 165 horses. The second generation of sports cars from Mazda was released in 1985, while the engine power with a boost was 185 horsepower. Well, in 1989, they increased power - up to 205 horses.
The consumer wants to have a small Ferrari - to powerfully, quickly, safely, comfortable and inexpensive. As you know, the requirements for a number of positions are simply mutually exclusive. At Mazda, they tried in every possible way to bring them together. The last, third generation appeared in 1991: a turbocharged engine 13b-Med, 255 hp. In 1996 and 1998, a face lifting was carried out, and the engine power was brought to 280 hp. In 1999, the car was discontinued. And Batman is returning. And he has a suspiciously red cloak.
Source: "Autopilot"
