That's really cool Ted, i'd love to get around Laguna. Think I'm stuck with the kids Xbox. BTW, I think a nice crushed velour or a shag carpet would do wonders for the interior of that GTO....

We found was that the rotor was never going to stress the Hollinger dog box with power or torque, it was designed for a V8 making 500hp. But it wasnt designed for for an engine that spins out to 11k.....the gbox noise is intense.

LOL. I would challenge anyone to make a similar assessment after driving my RX7. That article is another great example of the extremely low bar set by most internet blog sites. Maybe you could at least attempt to understand the differences between a two and four stroke engine before complaining about a car using oil?

I don't think anybody whines about the FD driving experience.......and of course it is probably the most beautiful Japanese car maybe ever

General and engine durability are a bit.......shall we say sketchy

I love rx8s too, they practically give them away these days. I cant think of any other modern car that is expected to be on its 2nd engine by 80k though.

I like British cars so I know what its like to make some sacrifices for driving enjoyment. The rx8 was a little bizarre though as it was marketed as a practical sports car. Many uninitied people bought them as daily drivers and were a bit surprised by the idiosyncrasies of the car.

For replacement engines at 80K try the Smart Roadster and the original Smart ForTwo. They are tiny engines however so work quite hard.

Put me in the crowd of people that hate the rotary engines. Back in the 80's I worked the Daytona 24 hours on a team that fielded a 935. We were pitted next door to a team that had three of the lousy Mazdas and let me tell you, you can't be next to one and like it. There always seemed to be one of the stupid things in the pits and had nobody been looking, I would have gladly thrown a large wrench in their general direction.

A very unpleasant sound and louder than you can believe, when you're near the damn things.

JR

Haters gonna hate.

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Apex seals... grrrr....

^^ That would be one heck of an eccentric shaft if it were real.

when we use to go to the 24 hrs of Daytona back in the late 80's, the mazda was horrendously loud.
we were walking along the track in the stands and when any other car came by we would just look as it went by, when a mazda came we had to cover our ears.

I think he was like an 8 time GTU champion back then but danny smith lives down the road from me. use to have an awesome cobra. one of the best sounding V8's I ever heard. have not seen him in quite a while though.

I had an 80 rx7. found a wrecked 83 and used that to rebuild the 80.
I must say, mazda really sucks. all the parts were the same except the thread pitch on all the bolts from the 80 to the 83 was different. even the wheel bolt pattern. I could put the 83 wheels up to the hub on the 80 and it looked like they should go on but they would not.
I think the bolt pattern was like 5mm different.

Worth noting, my FD went 105k or so before a rebuild, and the OEM reman was something like $2500. My 911SC had the engine rebuilt at 65k and was something like $15000.