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New Models
Beautiful Screamer: 2009 Mazda RX-8 R3
The funky RX-8 has been around since 2003, but ’09 sees the addition to the range of a more focused, hot-schmokin’, track-ready version.
Howard Walker  | http://www.racer.com  |  Posted October 29, 2008   Monterey, Calif.
A few aero tweaks are just the start of an effective makeover for the venerable, but still quirky RX-8.

For a little first-thing-in-the-morning cranial jolt, try skipping the Starbucks triple-shot espresso. Or the Red Bull and Excedrin double-trouble. Instead, crank up Mazda RX-8’s Wankel wünder motor to its 9,000 rpm red zone and feel your endorphins go ballistic.

It’s not a joyous sound. Not like a Lambo V-10
hitting the high notes like Pavarotti in his prime. Or a Porsche flat-6 gushing like the Hoover Dam. No, imagine a weed whacker played through the speakers at a Bon Jovi concert and that’s your Mazda rotary.

But it’s the urgency of the sound that fires your adrenaline, steals your breath and gives a work-out to all those little hairs on the back of your neck.
The tiny but sonorous Wankel zings to 9,000, once it's finally warmed up.

It’s part snarl, part whiny New Yorker, part chain saw, that starts its aural accent at around 4,000 rpm and climbs, and climbs, and gets louder and louder and louder till its 9k crescendo when you think you can take no more.

And if this wasn’t theatrical enough, Mazda now adds a little extra drama to those high-rev high jinx. It’s called a variable redline system and is designed to stop you flambéing the rotary’s fragile tips before the motor has heated up.

The redline on the tach actually changes, so that when the engine is cold, the redline shows 5,000 rpm. After a couple of minutes, it rises to 7,000 rpm. But it takes a full 10 minutes to allow the full Monty 9,000.
Jump out of bed, crazy-late for work? Forgeddaboutit, you’re taking the wife’s Corolla.

The only good news: Mazda now offers a full eight-year/100,000-miles warranty on its rotary motors.



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Howard Walker

RACER Magazine

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