Get this car new apex seals.
We will do our best not to get into any conflicts over the rotary-versus piston engine debate. The Mazda RX-8 sports car is very capable. We believe that’s why Car Throttle’s video guy Alex Kersten bought the red racer shown above. Let’s face it, almost every warm-blooded car enthusiast had been tempted at one time or another by an RX-8. This is especially true when the car costs only PS650, which is approximately $822 in U.S dinero. However, you can expect a cheap rotary-powered sports vehicle to come with some baggage. We’re not talking here about matching luggage in the trunk.
The RX-8 drives and runs well, with only a little panel damage to the exterior. Kersten is confident that the powerful 1.3-liter rotary under its hood isn’t producing all 238 horsepower (177kilowatts), as it did when it was brand new. It’s possible that it never made that much power. Many RX-8 enthusiasts believe the flywheel hp was closer than 210. But, this is mostly due to the fact that the compression of the rotary is lower. Wearned apex seals are a common problem with the Wankel rotary engines. This issue will be addressed in the future, but for now, the Mazda goes to the Dyno to determine how much power it is losing.
To get an average, three pulls are done. As you can see from the screenshot gallery, at least one of those runs produced 162.9 horsepower (121.4 kW). This particular dyno automatically calculates the drivetrain loss, so the number displayed on the screen does not reflect power at the wheels but power at flywheel. This is significant because the one pull suggests that the RX-8 has dropped to 50 horsepower (37 kW) since new.
Are the other runs more powerful? The video will not reveal the answer, but we can say that the Mazda’s outlook isn’t good.