RX-8 Test Drive

[JST]

Originally Posted by lemming

the only thing i disagree with is the part about motorsport heritage and direct transfer of racing technology being meaningless.

i think that it does matter and if you are paying extra money for a car, there should be something tangible that you can identify, as a car enthusiast, that justifies the cost, no budget or on a budget.

when the Blue Devil is unveiled at NAIAS this year, then we can revisit this aspect of the discussion as to why i would argue that car is superior to the Ford GT.

Lemming, you keep making this argument...but the GT was developed in large part by Roush and Saleen, both of whom have *substantial* racing experience. While the GT itself has not been raced (to my knowledge, anyway), to say that it doesn't benefit from transfer of tech and knowledge from racing is not quite right.

[lemming]

Originally Posted by JST

Lemming, you keep making this argument...but the GT was developed in large part by Roush and Saleen, both of whom have *substantial* racing experience. While the GT itself has not been raced (to my knowledge, anyway), to say that it doesn't benefit from transfer of tech and knowledge from racing is not quite right.

yeah...and you keep making that counterargument, but if you were doing serious competitive anything, which car would you rather be in?

one with DIRECT tech transfer or one with dilute convoluted tech transfer?

i'd love to make time in semi-retirement to go head to head competitively with people in Ford GTs and i know a Ford GT would fail far sooner than basically the same block used in the C5R and c6r.

similarly, i would trust a GT3 under high duress applications, also, far better than i would trust the Ford GT.

[clyde]

The thread is about a decision between buying an RX-8 or a 330i for the pruposes of being a family car. Even if JST or I were to agree with you, lemming, on the point of "heritage", WTF would it matter in this case?

Originally Posted by JST

Lemming, you keep making this argument...but the GT was developed in large part by Roush and Saleen, both of whom have *substantial* racing experience. While the GT itself has not been raced (to my knowledge, anyway), to say that it doesn't benefit from transfer of tech and knowledge from racing is not quite right.

The Ford Gt has not been raced? You must mean the new one

[lemming]

Originally Posted by Doug

The Ford Gt has not been raced? You must mean the new one

even 330s and RX8s are raced in speed world cup racing.

Originally Posted by lemming

even 330s and RX8s are raced in speed world cup racing.

I agree, I was just questioning the "GT has not been raced" comment

[JST]

Originally Posted by Doug

The Ford Gt has not been raced? You must mean the new one

I mean the new one. Other than the styling, there aren't any similarities between the old and new, so any lessons learned from the 60s racer are irrelevant to tech transfer to the new one.

[equ]

Originally Posted by JST

If you are in the used market (which I think is true, no?) G35s with manual transmissions are going to be a bit difficult to find. They are pretty rare, at least compared to 330s.

The G35 is a great drive; it's got a very good chassis and the engine has impressive power and torque. The G35 is also bigger than a 330, and is really closer to the 5er in terms of space (esp. interior space). It drives like a smaller car than it is, though.

It has a nasty and unappealing interior, but dynamically the G35 is hard to fault as an all-arounder.

The interior and its lesser refinement (for lack of a better word) did it for me when I was comparing 330s and g35s. I didn't really have a budget limit so price didn't matter too much. Also see a thread on a bmw forum of someone who got a bad back from the g35. I was recently in an Infiniti dealer (waiting on my 330 at its service appointment) and noticed how terrible the seats were. Plus the g35c has no rear/trunk room compared to the e46 coupe.