Well, 269whp measured on a car *rated* at 305bhp is not unrealistic. The 3.7 is probably putting out slightly more than 305hp, but OEMs need to be conservative when making power claims (unless you're talking about the Mazda RX-8!!). For a manual transmission thats about 13% drivetrain loss... not unrealistic. And the people who drive cars for Motortrend, they drive cars for a living, and I'm sure than can launch a MT car better than 99% of the people who claim they can't hit the same 0-60mph sprint. Not to mention track conditions versus street conditions...

I'd like to see a MT car with headers, x-pipe, and tune on a dyno. I'd guess about 290'ish WHP. But then after spending the money on all those parts (the tuner alone is quite $$$), you're not too terribly far off from a stripped base GT.

 

Are you saying the RX-8 is a grossely underpowered and overrated car??(let's not forget overpriced)

Naw that can't be!! lol

 

I believe he was actually referring to the advertised horsepower fiasco Mazda had with the RX8. When it first came out, the car was advertised at 250hp. There were tons of complaints about false advertisement, which eventually led Mazda to officially change the advertised output to 238hp. Mazda then offered to buy back anyone's RX8's that wanted to return it because of the issue.

And, lol @ grossely[sic] underpowered and overrated. You have obviously never driven an RX8 on a track.

 

Never driven one on a track but I did ride shotgun in one. The car was stock and the driver was pushing the car further into turns than I would dare do in my STI with $4k in suspsension mods. The RX8 pretty much defines the words "track ready".

 

No I haven't but I wasn't talking about the RX-8s cornering prowesses, I was talking straight line performance. I'm very aware of how balanced and grippy those mazdas are on corners. Track ready is a good descriptor.

However I also know that up here in Canada where a mustang V6 start's at a little under $25k, an RX-8 start's at a whopping $42k(without transport and other fees) and that's before our rediculous sales taxes which add another 13% to the price tag after all the fees were applied.

The track performance is good, but it's not worth a 50200$ final price tag to me. Especially when we can get cars like a nissan 370Z and Mustang GT in the same Msrp range.

Heck i'm looking at the lighting lap numbers by car and driver on Virginia International Raceway and the 2011 mustang V6 spanks the RX-8 by a full 4 seconds even though the former actually hits its speed governor a few times during the runs. And Motor Trend demonstrated that a GT can keep up with an M3 on the track.

So yeah the RX-8 is overrated and especially overpriced. But anyways let's not deviate too much from the thread.

Overall our car's are something to be proud of, offer great bang for the buck and really come alive with mods.

 

Bingo! Someone else remembers that too!

 

Yeah I wasn't even 18 by the time that car was released and wasn't following the industry as much, sadly seems I missed that part.

 

I am not throwing stones when I say this. But, do you think that the small increase in power with all of those mods mean that the stock parts are that good? Ford did a good job of developing this car to get the most HP they could get?

 

A manufacturer has to balance economy, longitivity, and performance. Now, bolt on mods typically dont upset the longititvity to an extent where owners notice. The cars still outlast them. But those custom tuned intakes and exhausts would cost more than the mass produced stock components so ford skimps there. But yes, the gains are relativly small for the cost, so the stock parts are pretty darn good. Just not what an enthusiat would think of as "the best".

 

no pics or video up yet?