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Motor Trend gets all techy, picks their top 10 favorite driver's cars

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:29:00 EST

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Sedan, Performance, Etc.

In a truly heroic effort that's not only daunting in scope but utterly jealousy-inducing in execution, the hot shoes at Motor Trend have once again teamed up with pro-racer and 24 Hours of Daytona winner Randy Pobst to put ten of the hottest performance cars currently on sale up against each other at Laguna Seca to determine which is best. Last year, the winner was given the title of "Best Handling Car," though this year they are switching the name to "Best Driver's Car." That works.

Without getting too much into the metrics they used (it's an eighteen page article), MT went with a combination of outright speed, braking performance, lateral acceleration data and subjective seat of the pants driving impressions (plus Pobst's excellent feedback) to rank all ten cars in order. Without giving away the winner, we will say that we enthusiastically agree with their findings.

Cases in point: Chevy Camaro SS is dead last. The BMW 135i is second to dead last. The world-beating Corvette ZR1 ends up one place behind the truly superlative Shelby GT500 and the uber 'Stang isn't even the top American car. Meanwhile, the plucky little Mazda MX-5 Miata finishes higher up than all the cars we just mentioned -- including the mystery Yank tank. In fact, the only gripe we have is that last year's third place car -- the Mazda RX-8 R3 - wasn't brought back for a second go round. No one's perfect. That said, you should consider this article a must read. We have, twice.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Motor Trend gets all techy, picks their top 10 favorite driver's cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: 2009 Mazda RX-8 R3, return of the "hummer"

Sam Abuelsamid — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:38:00 EST

Filed under: In the Autoblog Garage, Performance, Mazda

2009 Mazda RX-8 R3 - Click above for high-res image gallery

Hard as it may be to believe, the word "hummer" didn't always bring up visions of obnoxious, polarizing SUVs. In fact, there was a time not so very long ago that uttering that word evoked something entirely different, namely cars powered by Wankel rotary engines. For the past three decades, the world's sole purveyor of rotary-powered automobiles has been Mazda. The "Zoom-Zoom" brand has always been a little different from its compatriots. Back in 1963, a young Kenichi Yamamoto was heading up the research department at Mazda and latched on to the concept developed a decade earlier by Felix Wankel.

Just as two-stroke engines were all the rage for a time in the early 1990s and fuel cells in the middle of this decade, the Wankel rotary seemed to be the next big thing in the 1960s and early '70s. For a time it seemed every major automaker had licensed the design from Wankel and was trying to commercialize it. Some like NSU did build rotaries while General Motors and Daimler Benz built an assortment of concept cars. By the mid-'70s, all had given up except Yamamoto-san and Mazda. From the original 1967 Cosmo, Mazda has built an unbroken string of hummers culminating with the recently updated 2009 RX-8 R3. The pony-keg sized power plant isn't the only unique element of the RX-8, which you can read all about that after the jump.

Gallery: Review: 2009 Mazda RX-8 R3

Continue reading Review: 2009 Mazda RX-8 R3, return of the "hummer"

Review: 2009 Mazda RX-8 R3, return of the "hummer" originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK to get updated RX-8 starting in late August

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:24:00 EST

Filed under: Car Buying, Coupe, Performance, Mazda, UK

Click above for more high-res images of the 2009 RX-8

Buyers in the U.K. are about to get their first crack at the revised 2009 Mazda RX-8, as the quad-door sportscar officially goes on sale in late August. All RX-8's destined for the U.K. will get the full body-kit that's optional in other markets. We've already seen all the images of the only rotary-powered mass market car in the world that we can stand, so lets move on to what's changed under the skin. Shorter final drive gearing combined with a steeper (numerically lower) sixth gear will allow the high-strung engine to reach its power-band earlier in gears one through five while still maintaining reasonable revs when cruising in sixth. New Recaro sport seats spice up the cabin and 19-inch rims with rotor-shaped spokes add some flair to the exterior.

Though power levels remain unchanged, the Renesis rotary engine sees minor revisions as well, with improved cooling as one main feature. Also updated are the oil metering pump -- all rotary engines ingest oil during normal operation -- and computer software which limits high-speed operation until the velvety-smooth powerplant has reached a proper operating temperature, likely to improve reliability somewhat. All in all, the '09 update of the sports coupe is pretty thorough, though the result is still instantly recognizable as an RX-8.

[Source: Mazda U.K.]

Continue reading UK to get updated RX-8 starting in late August

UK to get updated RX-8 starting in late August originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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