Vance W Jaqua wrote:

I do not Know if you are a subscriber or not - but the new Road and Track
came
today with two nice stories on the RX8 - a report on their long term test
"fuel guzzler - low torque" but popular with staff. A head to head
between RX8 and G35 - G35 won performance but RX8 overall
Vance

Yes I read it. So too Automobile magazine.
The trouble with the RX8 is it is hard to keep your foot out of it.
It begs to be driven hard. It's a hoot. 240 HP at .45 BSFC is 108 pounds per hour or
8 gallons an hour. If you do a lot of stopping and starting and average 80 MPH
that is is 4 MPG :) A road racing situation.  If you do that and average 120 HP
that is 8 MPG. If you average only 60 HP that is 16 MPG. So it really depends
on how hard you drive. At a steady 65 MPH mine averages around 25 MPG. 2.6 gallons
an hour or 15.6 pounds of fuel or about 35 HP at a BSFC of .45 which is about
right for the RX8 at a steady 65 MPH on a flat road. The more peak power
available in a car the more the fuel mileage varies with how fast you drive.

Here in SoCal We spend 90% of our driving time cruising on the freeway.
The car magazines should be doing constant speed fuel consumption test as the
EPA highway driving cycle is a joke. Most car companies optimize the EFI computer
for the EPA driving cycle. My wife's new PT Cruiser gets less mileage than the RX8.

 Paul Lamar
 
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