Mazda RX-8 test drive since 2008
Wankel never dreamed of this! Mazda RX-8
What do you think of this Mazda RX-8? Modern sports car? Yes, but not only. An elegant body kit is striking, large wheel discs are interesting what power unit is hidden under her hood? Sedan or compartment?
It would seem that Mazda RX-8 is initially ideal: it harmoniously combines the functionality of the four-door sedan and sports lines of the coupe. That is why RX-8 is difficult to classify. Four doors? Four. So the sedan? By no means. The model is declared as a 2+2 sports compartment. At the same time, unlike other sportsmen, it can boast of comfortable rear seats: for planting back there is no need to perform circus somersaults. The rear doors, by the way, open very unusual against the movement! And only after the front ones are open. This design without central racks, called Freestyle Doors, the free style of the doors is borrowed from the RX-EVOLV concept.
RX-8 how it is
The Mazda RX-8 was first introduced in 2001 at the North American International Auto Show, but official sales started only in 2003.
As befits a classic sports car, the car is equipped with rear -wheel drive. The Renesis rotary motor is installed under the hood, which
free translation from English means a new life of a rotary engine. RX-8 is presented in versions with a mechanical gearbox and power units with a capacity of 200 hp, and with automatic checkpoints and engines developing no more than 200 horses. The small size of the engine made it possible to place it in the engine compartment closer to the center of the machine, and such a layout provided the perfect weight and axes of 50:50, which contributes to excellent stability. Manageability is also on top. The interior of the Mazda RX-8 will also please the real fans of sports cars: many aluminum parts, ranging from the door handles to the steps for the driver and the front passenger, the convenient three-spitting steering wheel. By the way, the model also has a considerable trunk, the volume of which is 300 liters.
It was this car that the heroine of our story Pauline chose for herself.
A little story
They say that the idea of \u200b\u200ba rotary engine came to Felix Wancel in a dream. It is difficult to say this fiction or not. A German engineer was able to implement his project back in the late 50s of the XX century. Now the only firms in the world that produce cars with rotary engines are Mazda and AvtoVAZ.
Mazda introduced its first car equipped with an internal combustion rotor-piston engine in 1967. It was Cosmo Sport, also known as Mazda 110s. In the same year, Familia Rotary Coupe appeared, and in 1970, the issue of Mazda Capella marked the start of the RX series (Capella also named the RX-2), which are the most common representatives of which are Mazda RX-7, which went from the conveyor from 1978 to 2002 , and Mazda RX-8.
But old Wankel could not even imagine what one day would be done in Russia with his brainchild.
The king is dead, long live the king! So, in front of you is an impeccably beautiful, luxurious sports car. Let's look at the hood: rotor, turbo! What do you think, what is the history of the project? Over time, the owner was missing the power of the car? But not! Everything is much more interesting.
When a rather picky rotary motor on the Mazda RX-8 Polina died, the owner of the car made a bold decision: not to sort out the native engine, but to carry out Swap, that is, replace the power unit with a more powerful 13B REW REUNOS COSMO rotor. Moreover, as you already understood, it was simply not limited to Swap. The goal appeared: to achieve 400 hp, while maintaining the reliability of the motor for operation in the city.
Matter
Engine
Mazda Eunos Cosmo engine 13b REW engine
All rotating details are exit
The degree of compression is 8.5
Apexes reinforced, with special double springs
Set -shaped corner gaskets are installed
Side sealing blades are replaced by heat -resistant
Boring and final windows
ITS turbocyte
Water intercooler
SupersPrint release
The subframe was converted, a lot of fasteners are made
Reinforced bolts and studs of the rotor and stator fastening
Electronics
Standard brain and two more: aem and unichip
Transmission
GM gearbox from GM is reinforced, with a compulsory lock Lock-UP
Brakes
Tar-Ox brakes: 8-piston in front and 6-piston in the back
Wheels
HRA wheels, 19 inches
Body
Sarona Design body kit
Unique As a result, the car turned out to be extraordinary. What exactly is its uniqueness? First of all in the engine. Of the entire series of two -section engines from Mazda, the 13B REW modification is characterized by enlarged intake ports, but they were even more waste and polished. The power unit has passed the full course of tuning for urban use. Apexes (curtains on the tops of the rotor) with special double springs were replaced by reinforced, whole corner seals and heat -resistant side gaskets were installed. The rotors used 8.5 compression degrees, and all rotating details have fired. They fastened everything with reinforced bolts and pines.
Meanwhile, it was not easy to install 13b RX in the RX-8: fasteners on the subframe, pillows and location of the hinged one had to thoroughly redo it. The native turbine was replaced by a turbocharger from ITS turbocharger with a turbokite, which provides a full boost of 3 thousand vol.
Since there are extremely few places in the front bumper RX-8, they decided to install a liquid cooling system. The water intercooler fit perfectly under the hood with minimal air tracts. In addition, the release from SupersPrint was added, which gives a deep even rumble, quiet at idle and reviving when accelerated.
Another amazing component of the project. Since the beautiful lady owns the car, among the tasks, the automatic transmission machine was equipped, without losses in the operation of the motor. Therefore, the 4L60-E machine from General Motors was installed, because the native Mazdovskaya automatic box could not withstand such power: at the 4-speed automatic transmission plant, only 190 hp engines are equipped. In addition, GM box is common, and its refinement is relatively easy. The checkpoint undoubtedly required
to strengthen, for which roller bearings and a set of lightweight parts were installed, promising a decrease in losses. And in the hydrotransformer there was a forced blocking (Lock-up), which avoids the characteristic automatic transmission. As for the appetite of the car, even for the stock version of the RX-8, the use of 98th gasoline is strictly recommended. The fuel consumption is on the highway of 1517 liters per 100 km, in the city of 1820, in traffic jams and with an active driving over 25 liters. Now, in a calm city mode, the car spends only 12 liters per 100 km, with active driving with a slipper of the floor up to 20 liters.
Prices
AEM brain 1.5 thousand dollars.
ITS turbocyte 5.5 thousand dollars.
GPP 4L60 from GM reinforced 3 thousand dollars.
Brakes TAR-OX 5 thousand dollars.
Wheel wheels HRE 5 thousand dollars. How to manage everyone
Mazda RX-8 contains as many as three computers. The first native. It was left to control the climate control, a radio and a dashboard. Since the machine is modern, many components in it exchange data according to a digital can-shin. Each manufacturer has its own method of encoding information, so it is impossible to generate them completely in some universal programmable computer.
The second computer, AEM, was introduced to control the engine and checkpoint, and the third, UNICHIP subcomperator, to ensure the desired operating modes for automatic switching of automatic transmission. The result of a long and painstaking setting of all this electronic filling was a power of 550 hp.
Not a single motor
The suspension in the car was left their native, since the RX-8 management is excellent. Of course, they added a powerful Tar-OX brake system, which allows you to stop effectively.
It is not inferior to the content and the exterior of Mazda is amazing. The RX-8 has a fairly low hood, over which large wheel arches rise, emphasizing the power enclosed in a car. What are some HRE wheels cost: elegant 19th, to the color of the body. The car is dressed in a beautiful body kit Sarona Design. In a word, the result was amazing!
A source: Magazine Cars and prices July 6, 2009.
