http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-recall-idUSKBN13A1TM
Mazda Motor Corp will recall about 70,000 of its RX-8 sports cars from model years 2004 to 2008 in the United States because of an issue with fuel pump sealing rings that may leak and catch fire, U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchYesterdayRecall
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM545898/RCAK-16V793-6707.pdf
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM544279/RCLRPT-16V793-5418.PDF
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @01:37PM
They also made it into a "hardcore enthusiast only" car by severely crippling the performance on the automatic version. Meanwhile plenty other brands had manuals and automatics with practically the same performance numbers. Manuals are fun on the track but I didn't want one for a daily driver in traffic every day.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday November 16 2016, @06:36PM
Why would anyone want an automatic RX8?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday November 16 2016, @09:11PM
Meanwhile plenty other brands had manuals and automatics with practically the same performance numbers.
Wrong. No other brand had a rotary engine.
Rotary engines don't have the low-end torque that most other cars' piston engines have, and automatics are pretty notorious for not working terribly well with high-revving engines that don't make much low-end torque. They didn't "cripple" the performance of the automatic, they just offered it for people who can't drive a stick, but there's only such much they can do. If you want a high-performance automatic, you need to get a Corvette with a big-ass piston V8 engine, not a car with a Wankel rotary.
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Wednesday November 16 2016, @10:33PM
I wonder if a CVT would be a good match for a Wankel.