Slow acceleration
By jertheruler
@jertheruler (11)
August 19, 2008 3:38am CST
I have a 2004 Mazda RX8, its a autostick and it has extremely slow acceleration until it gets to around 30 mph then it speeds up. Ive heard the manuals have a quicker acceleration and was wondering if this was true. The car looks fast and seems like it should atleast bark the tires on takeoff lol.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@lloyd2002 (182)
•
21 Aug 08
There are possibly a couple of reasons for this.
1) Your car has a traditional automatic gearbox. This is different from a Dual-Clutch, CVT or Automated manual gearbox since it has a Torque Converter. The Torque Converter is known to reduce power and thus the efficency of the car, meaning the engine has to work harder.
2) Your car also features a normally aspirated Wankel Rotary type engine. This type of engine produces it's power higher up the rev range that a conventinal piston engine.
3) Combine this two facts together, means that your car has to work a lot harder just to get moving. However, once in the power band on the engines rev range, wou should notice that the accleration from 30-70mph is decidly quick.
@EfrenHinojosa (65)
• United States
5 Sep 08
the automatic transmission has nothing to do with this, actually automatic cars are quicker then manual cars because automatic transmissions are capable of shifting gears in milliseconds you would have to be real good at driving a manual car to shift quickly but not as fast. a LOt of modern torque converters are actually more efficient then a clutch by the use of torque multiplication, but you have to rev your engine higher, the more revolutions the more torque is being produced. the rotary engine does not produce a lot of torque to begin with which is what you need to get off the line quick, if your car is running in good shape you can do some modifications that will increase acceleration but not just as much as you will like maybe.
things that you can change to produce more power will be expensive so if maybe you dont want to waste lots of money maybe get a sports car and use the RS as a daily driver to save gas.
@mend3z (52)
•
15 Jun 11
I have a similar problem with my 2004 manual. This point has been briefly touched before but there is only power there when the revs are high.
I find the car is almost sluggish until the revs get up to 4000rpm and then it just takes off, I have found this is the same in every gear but suppose as you have an auto you would only notice it when pulling away as the auto will shift down if in need of power in higher gears.
Saying that I have only had my RX8 for 3 weeks now but I love it to pieces, the only downside is the fuel economy and in the UK the prices are high! That is a price I am willing to pay for the attention it gets - girls love it!
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
19 Aug 08
I am no mechanical expert but automatic cars still use an internal gear system so maybe you should recheck the timing? Also check the fuel filter and other fuel line hoses to make sure there are no blockages that are building up and then becoming unblocked from all the pressure and then blasting a dense mix into the engine; this may explain why the acceleration is dramatic after 30 MPH instead of before? Maybe check the air filter also but this is unlikely to cause something like this.....
