Mazda RX-8.
3rd, 4th, and 5th gears take for
...
...
...
ever to get through.
when i buy a new car, i give 'er the ol' oil change and put Sport: Soft tires on it and take it to La Sarthe (2009) and give it a test drive. good, long straights for speed with some low and high speed corners to test the handling with. before the first shinanigan (chicane) on the back straight, right before my braking point, the RX-8 found 6th gear...
i thought "wtf? that took forever..."
so i take it to La Sarthe No Shinanigans.
coming off the last turn before the 3.54 mile straight, i hit 4th.
3 days later, i hit 5th.
a LOTR Extended Edition marathon later, i'm in 6th.
this particular car revs to about 9500rpms (in theory) before the limiter kicks.
so i get to 6th gear just before you'd normally brake before the first chicane. so roughly 2.5 more miles of straight to see what kind of top speed this turd has.
only i never found out.
it can't climb past 8000 RPMs.
it just sits there at 157 mph trying its best to go faster... it actually hit 157 fairly quickly, since it switches to 6th at around 150mph. all the road in the world and it can only gain an extra 7mph in the next gear and doesn't get all that close to pegging the tack.
3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th gears are just too tall.
1st and 2nd seems rather ok, however.