Mazda RX-8 test drive since 2008

"Genesis Renesis" - Review of A/M Mazda RX -8

It is necessary to slow down a little, get together with thoughts, put everything on the shelves, but then. Now, just getting out of a dense cockpit, I am not able to critically think anymore and is ready to call this car perfect that I categorically do not want to do not in my rules. However, the soul hurts, and the heart asks, and the hands themselves reach for the keyboard. Therefore, consider this material not a banal test drive, but by recognition of love for the rotary Mazda RX-8.
Automotive engineering is a unique component of human creativity. In some ways, similar to genetics, she is also ready to clone a person. In any case, the most talented designers successfully reached the lambs of Dolly. Moreover, each in their own way, in which grace and conservatism are found, sophisticated and amount of iron, seasoned with the most modern technologies, non -traditional ideas and the development of well -known designs. Mazda RX-8 in this list of Antagonist qualities undoubtedly occupies the first position. Only a few phrases from her technical description will be enough to penetrate the uniqueness of created in the long-suffering Hiroshima, where the company's headquarters are now located. The rotary two -section engine with a volume of 1.3 liters has a fuel injection and meets the requirements of Euro 4. Even without taking into account the original design, there are solutions rarely used on standard power plants. This is a resonant boost, a difference in length of the inlet tract and the inlet windows operating depending on the revolutions. Not to mention the electronic throttle, which now few will surprise anyone. No wonder the last generation of the rotary engine is called Renesis that the origin of the rotary engine is deciphered as Rotary Engine Genesis. And the name of the unit is like the French word Renaissance, that is, a revival, which is symbolic. After all, many did not believe that Mazda could meet the most stringent at the moment environmental standards. Yes, and it seems, the program of rotary engines in the late 80s of the 90s was curtailed. So, a revival comes out all over.
But not only its engine is so unique RX-8. Everything that the hand of the engineers concerned was made with a claim to a creative approach. The rear -wheel drive gearbox is not an optional self -locking differential. The lower levers of the front double -leaf suspension are forged. The kinematics of a complex rear multi -link is designed in such a way that its rubber -metal hinges are both in the left and right turns work with the same deformation, that is, together either to compression or for stretching. The power structure of the body has phenomenal rigidity, which is provided by stretching between the front suspension stands and in the trunk opening, powerful subframes, a very high central tunnel in which the closed profile beam connecting the gearbox with the gearbox is located (below is a carbon -plastic cardan shaft), as well as Vertical pipes in the rear half -collars. The steering here with an electric power, not rotating the shaft, as usual, but directly moving the rail. Finally, the most elite sports carriers can be envied. It is at the RX-8 due to the axis of the front wheels of the power plant. Ideal 50:50.
And all this technical splendor is dressed in the shell, whose design, I’ll take the courage to declare, is not affected by time. Moreover, even now he is not associated with nothing of the existing one, without falling under any of the currents. Neither bio, nor techno, nor Industry. Something of his own, Japanese, soft, like a kimono fabric, and sharp, like a katana blade. In general, and in all its details, the Mazda RX-8 is a super-standing little thing, whose beauty is difficult to ruin with photos. Formally, she is a compartment, but by the number of doors sedan. The game at the junction of body genres benefited the car. The long silhouette with proportions is absolutely original, and the plastic body, combining many intersecting curves, is simultaneously aggressive and moderate. At the same time, small details very clearly emphasize the special aura that Mazda exudes. The pronounced front wings, the rear bumper, harmoniously including exhaust pipes and a stop signal, complex lanterns and multifunctional frontal lights complex in optical structure. In its intricate design of the RX-8 in the traffic flow that the Japanese pagoda is among the dull parallel Khrushchevs.
The hospitality of the salon is backed up by the rear half -males. Believe me, in the conditions of a compartment living area, they are a real find capable of making the home of the rear passengers an order of magnitude more pleasant. True, the front ones will still have to be worried. To open the main doors and move the seats without these operations, do not open the half-boots and not pull out the pikes if you have more than the 43rd. However, recently I had a chance to ride a short Nissan Safari. Here, the organization of space is not an example better. The trunk is not a indicative volume, although Mazdovskiy 290 liters among the compartment and small hatchbacks still need to be looked for. In any case, the rear -wheel drive, the powerful beam of the subframe and the developed multi -link are affected. In this situation, a hatch for skis in the back of the rear seat looks at least some outlet that can turn the compartment into a kind of car-passenger car.
In the cabin in Japanese gloomy, but here there is a place for a new Mazdovsky style. The main detail of the interior is a circle or, better to say, a ring that encircles the instruments with deep wells, covers the slot of the automatic transmission lever and deflectors, crashes into the central console, including the music center. And then the acute-triangular guard of the handbrake, which is continued in a similar shape of the door handles. The game on the opposites is the highest stylistic study that is in harmony with the exterior design.
It should be noted that ergonomics at the highest level. Only many console buttons are perplexed, which is not surprising there is a music management, which in this case combines the MP3-player and the player of the mini-disks. However, the first shock is replaced by the realization that everything, as they say, is in their places. In the end, the music is also controlled from the steering wheel, to which the most necessary keys are displayed. A little blind display over the central console, demonstrating musical and climatic modes, but, as we know, many cars sin with this. Here it is located in an easily accessible zone for the eyes. There are no other ergonomic mistakes. As there is no savings on materials. Hard plastic is pleasant in texture and ideal in the joints. And an uncharacteristic for the Japanese compartment, the set deserves a more detailed description.
It has something that looks appropriate in business class sedans, but not in the compartment. However, the car was prepared for America as presumably the main market, so the skin of the seats is perceived as a granted. The driver’s drive of the driver does not imply a mechanical alternative. Eight airbags, xenon and cruise control basic version. And the adjustable color and brightness of the combination of devices plus the high-class BOSE CD-resort, which has a system of compensation for extraneous noise, thanks to them one can fall in love with Mazda RX-8. True, such attributes of sofa comfort drop in the soul of grain doubts, whether they sacrificed running qualities. In the States, they are not particularly customary to appreciate them.
The body is tightly embraced by a seat with a well -developed muscles of the undergrounds. In length and height of the space with a margin. Not everyone will enter the width of the Mazda RX-8, but the one who can squeeze himself between the high tunnel and the door will receive the optimal landing with a well-chosen mutual arrangement of the main controls. Here everything sets up in a battle, and perhaps instead of a traditional ignition lock, the Start Engine button is asked.
The eccentric shaft in each of the sections of the rotary engine for the entire four -stroke cycle makes only one turn instead of two of the crankshaft of a conventional engine. Therefore, in order to bring Renesis to a common piston denominator, its volume must be multiplied by two. It turns out 2.6 liters. But the sound does not correspond to the final volume. Now I know where this delusional slogan Zum-Zum came from in Mazda advertising. They say that, so Japanese children instead of the Russian VGR-Uzhr, they voice their wheeled toys. However, it seems to me that this is the voice of the rotary engine! Absolutely non -car! At idle, he is somewhat like an electric trolleybus buzz with a thin metal squeak. That piston-roters run by their ribs cylinders-statter. In addition, the motor is poorly extended by vibration and the steering wheel and the box lever.
But all the nuances that are not associated with traditional ideas about the charged unit are drowning in the awakened rotary rage. The ultra -high as a laboratory device, the accelerator pedal cheerfully drives the tachometer arrow on a scale ending at 7500 rpm. too fast. After the trip, I read and re-read various presentation reports and comparative test drives several times. Everywhere, resolutely everywhere the Mazda RX-8 engine was called letharg up to 5-6 thousand revolutions. Say, it’s not that it pulls weakly, but does not pull at all. However, the materials have always appeared in the materials more charged 250-horsepower unit, where steep opportunities extend to 9000 rpm. There is a different scheme of nozzles and the supply of compressed air right into the torch of the flashed combustible mixture. I got a civil version of the 210-horsepower with a limit on the indicated seven and a half. Perhaps that is why I categorically disagree with the estimates of my colleagues. Pulls the motor, and even pulls. It is melancholy only in the very bottom of the bottom, somewhere to two revolutions, after which the backs of seats begin to press the backs of sitting powerfully. From the limp zom-zum, the quiet whisper of the motor of the sewing machine turns into a frank motorcycle voice of the two-strokes raging at high speeds. Starting from these two thousand, the installation shows a completely different character. In each division of the scale, which the arrow skipping with the speed of the numbers that change in the speedometer, the drunken overclocking, the riot of gasoline and oil burning in two tops (rotary motors are distinguished by good appetite for lubricating liquid).
A little further than the middle, at 4500-5000 vol./Min., The rotors pick up additionally and continue their victorious anthem up to 7500 rpm. More precisely, in automatic mode, the shooting of the steps occurs much earlier, but the four -band box involves manual switching, which cannot be used. They have the most high drive. They are that, like air of an internal combustion engine, it is necessary to a rotary motor. Complete freedom of action! I don't want to turn! The role of the missing limiter is played by a quiet, but distinctly audible zummer, informing that a mark of 7250 rpm is passed. And it's time to switch to increased. And all this happens so quickly that you begin to regret an too short scale, which does not last until the blood of nine thousand blood.
Second! Under the accompaniment of a motorcycle cannonade, under the self -sacrifice of a lubricant burning for the benefit of a driver’s pleasure, Mazda continues its demonic desire for speed. So fast! Again, the nasty sobering bell is squealing. Third! A little later, I was thinking about whether the RX-8 needed a five-speed automatic transmission, because its mechanics have six speeds. Perhaps this is relevant for a more powerful 250-horsepower engine, with which the six-a-way is aggregated, but this is quite enough for four gears, each of which the motor repeats, spins phenomenally quickly. Why unnecessary switching, if within the framework of these transmission allows you to remove the maximum return from the engine. By the way, she, recoil, reaches her climax at 7200 rpm, so she looks technically reasonable to twist the motor to the red zone. It is also worth saying that Renesis carries protection against twist. For example, being in third gear at a speed of 160 km/h and 5000 rpm, he refused to switch to the second, declaring his indignation with a flashing number 3 in the window of the transmission ranges. On a reduced arrow, I would probably jump on a red, funeral field for the engine.
At speed, I did not dare to use the boxes of the box on the steering wheel (from the front side plus, with the back minus). The traditional switching lever is much clearer. But in ordinary modes there is no sense in them. In the machine, the box also does its job quickly and very delicately. The transitions up and upward are instantly and devoid of shocks. At the city speeds, the Mazda RX-8 is already an ordinary car, not burdened by the sports component of its character. And to a large extent this is facilitated by the adjustment of the suspension.
I admit, at first I was afraid for her qualities. Not every day you meet a car whose rollers have a real racing size 225/45-18. At the same time, not only the smoothness of the course suffers on our roads, but also the exchange rate stability, when the suspension closed to the maximum does not have time to work out irregularities. And what?
The 45th profile, rather, is not a thin rubber layer, complex lever pendants, designed primarily for honed handling. What a smoothness is there. It seems exaggeration, but with adjustment to the compartment ideology, the Mazda RX-8 suspension is ideal as it is ideal as an object that you do not expect such positive impressions from.
In order to somehow characterize it, it is difficult to simply choose the appropriate adjectives soft, hard ... Its qualities do not fit into these generally accepted concepts, so closely intertwined with each other that it is not possible to isolate one thing. It is soft within known limits, and tough in a sense, and, without a doubt, energy -intensive. And all this ultimately gives rise to that complex or, more precisely, a character called compromise and is found on a few samples, it does not matter in which country released. I can only name two cars that have pleasantly struck me with the versatile qualities of their pendants. This is Nissan Skyline in the 34th body and Honda Avancier. The soft-fierce Mazda RX-8 also forced to recall the most eloquent epithets. I'll try to explain so.
At subsonic speeds, the machine is not burdened by the environment that it got into. Small seams swallowing and not choked in the cabin only by slap tires, larger irregularities and openly turned asphalt. We drove through the primer. Smoothness in the framework of decency, other sedans demonstrate much better road information. Of course, tough, nevertheless, not slaughtered, but somehow collected this Mazda perceives relatively large bumps, rocky trifle. Before the police, it is worth slowing down only so as not to hook the roadway with low overhangs. But in all its glory, the suspension is revealed at speeds well over a hundred. The ability of the car to extinguish vertical vibrations and not to notice the coating defects causes respect for the Mazda pendants.
At the same time, the RX-8 manages to perfectly keep the straight line and, which is especially valuable for the compartment, the trajectory in steep or canopy, but necessarily a speed and mutilated turn of turn. It seems long from the stop to stop the rotation of the steering wheel steering mechanism here is an excellent companion. Without a progressive characteristic, at speed it is poured with a pleasant effort and provides a good reactive effect, allowing you to very sensitively feel the condition of the front wheels. If you suddenly get lost, the disconnected DSC will save. True, the fruits of her work did not have to be tasted with such a wheeled dimension of the boxes and the skidding of things are difficult to feasible.
And what are the brakes on the car! Not ceramics, of course, are banal iron, but how it grabs. According to measurements conducted in central editions, Mazda develops a slowdown exceeding 1G. I will add from myself that from speeds far beyond 150 km/h, braking occurs shocking quickly. Looking at powerful, especially from behind, mechanisms, you are not surprised at this. There is not enough pedal, which can be used to after a couple more active than the road environment deserved, tearing.
Slow down, get together with thoughts, put everything on the shelves. Probably, it was necessary to do so. But then, I'm afraid I would not be honest with myself. I would have missed through the prism of strict his own judgments and, it is possible, cast doubt on his post -wrestling fervor. This happens when the opinion about some kind of thing you like over time transforms and acquires a negative shade. However, now, recalling the acquaintance with the Mazda RX-8, I believe that this is a unique machine, even with the most critical assessments, deserves the most flattering praise. Such is my Genesis on her reesis.

SPECIFICATIONS:
Length/width/height, mm 4435/1770/1340
Base, mm 2700
Front/rear track, mm 1500/1505
Road clearance, mm 135
Working volume, cubic meter. cm 1308
Power, l. with. at O. Min 210/7200
Torque, NM at O.Min 222/5000
Equipped mass, kg 1330
Fuel tank volume, l 61
Trunk volume, l 290
Average fuel consumption, l/100 km 11.1
Maxim Markin
Automarket magazine+sport
 

Source: Drom.ru