Controlling interest.

Ford couldn't tell a corner seal from a 14mm bolt.

 

that's so wrong dude.

 

dope.

 

My friend just bought a blue rx-8, and took me for a spin. I am very impressed with that car. 9K redline, and 6 gears sounds like fun to me. I thought the car was beautiful in person. From the exterior, I can't find a single line or shape that I find fault with. From the interior, the rear windows are a bit small, but that's not a big deal. Having 4 seats makes it more practical than an s2000, but the small trunk and rear center console make it less practical than an IS300 (it will never seat more than 4). All in all, I think it's a great car to have if you are only going to have one car, and you are performance mided. It's plenty quick, has awesome handling, and room for 4.

 

Just because it has 4 seats doesn't mean there's room for 4

My car has 4 seats, but you couldn't cram much beside a toddler in the back comfortably.

 

Don't get me wrong, the concept behind the vehical is awesome. It's like an S2000 (of which I'm obviously very fond of) that's practical for a small family. There is really nothing about the car that I don't like aside from the God awful looks. It just looks over-styled, much like the 350Z is. I think some auto makers are trying too hard to look cool. They're adding so many little "styling cues" that the car looses it's raw appeal and looks to busy. That's another reason I really like Honda. They don't do that shit. I like my cars clean looking.

 

Ouch, that's harsh. To each is own I suppose. I happen to think it looks pretty badass. Lose the rear and seats, and they might have something.

 

Just a few comments. On the RX8, if you like it, fine, if not, fine.

I have RX7's and Mustangs. Ford does not own a controling interest in Mazda. They are large shareholders, but far from a controling interest. At one point they owned 25% of Mazda, but that has fluctuated up and down over the years. Interestingly enough Mazda also owns a large share of Ford stock. When it gets down to who own's who??? I am not sure what the true answer is. But it is fair to say they share much of their engineering and production processes. Many patents owned by Ford are being used at Mazda and vice-versa. Interestingly enough, GM funded much of the early rotary development, sold the licenses to AMC which basically went bankrupt before they could put them to use, and somehow it ended up with Mazda.

The AMC pacer was designed around the AMC rotary. They ran out of money and replaced the rotary with an existing inline 6 cylinder. Think about the basic shape of the two engines. Rotary is about 2 feet long and 2 feet tall allowing a low and short (front to rear) hood. The 6 cylinder is tall and long. One of the many reasons that car and the Edsel rival each other as the biggest automotive failures of all time.

 

RX8 looks fuckin gross, its the worst of all the 30-35,000 dollar japanese sports cars

 

hey roadRacer you seem pretty informed, while ford and mazda do share patents (and by the way id say its more ford that owns mazda, seein as how mazda was on the brink of goin bankrupt before ford bought a percentage of the company)do you really think that ford had any hand in the engineering of the new RX? well the rotary is definitly all mazda engineering and the suspension with double wishbone fronts and multilink rears seems like it isnt much influenced by ford (lookin at the mustang with its macpherson front and non-independent 4-bar rear). not to knock ford at all, but i think its highly unfair to attribute ford any credit, besides financially, on the designing of the RX-8.

And Chris and Honda-S2000, i can see why you guys are so turned off by it as i have read on the s2ki forum bout how the rx8 supposedly rips off alot of styling cues from the s2000, ill have to admit the s2000 is a much more beautiful car, but gotta give credit to mazda for makin a car that can deliver such a high level of performance and still have the accessibility and roominess of a sedan.