2004 Mazda Rx-8 Base Coupe 4-door 1.3l 0 - Clean Title - Sport Package - 94k M on 2040-cars

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RingBanana Miata breaks 9-min Nurburgring barrier

The RingBanana is a cheap Mazda MX-5 Miata on a screaming mission: to lap the Nurburgring in under nine minutes. And let us emphasize the word "cheap." The team wanted the least expensive Miata they could find that still ran, and then wanted to spend the least amount of money possible in order to hit their target mark. We don't know how much they spent on the Ringbanana, but they were so indiscriminate about the purchase that they don't know what year the car is. They only know that it's got 90 horsepower, green springs, Fulda tires, and "it's completely crap." After setting a base lap of 9:21.8 the guys behind the project figured they'd have a fair bit of work. Turns out a new set of Kumho V70A semi-slick, road-legal race tires paired with Gabriel Pirana's driving is all they needed. With just that mod Pirana set a lap time of 8:59.9, and that was while having to deal with one spot of slow traffic that was getting around a stricken car. According to Wikipedia, this puts them between a 2010 Range Rover Sport Supercharged and a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt SS. Even though the team achieved its goal on its first attempt, the Ringbanana game isn't over – there's probably a suspension mod in the near future while the guys figure out just how quickly they can go. The video above does a good job of showing just how fun it can be driving a slow car fast.

1993 Mazda RX-7 Retro Review | A '90s hero turns 25

Boom times build interesting cars. In the late 1980s, Japan was flush with capital, and automakers spent like the party was never going to end. Suddenly building the third-generation RX-7 — the world's most advanced twin-turbo rotary sports car — seemed like the most natural thing a small car company hailing from Hiroshima could do. On this side of the Pacific, however, there was no context for the sudden influx of unusually tricked-out Japanese hardware flooding American dealerships. And none of the Japanese sports cars of the era was more unusual than the FD-generation Mazda RX-7, imported from 1993 to 1995 (and continuing on in Japan until 2002). Although the island nation's economy was headed on a downward spiral by the end of 1990, Mazda was in no position to pull back and walk away from the development dollars that had already been spent on its latest RX-7. As a result, Americans were able to briefly bask in the glow of one of the most unique engineering experiments ever unleashed on unsuspecting buyers. For its time, the Mazda RX-7 was a spaceship. With fluid lines that screamed "exotic," it joined the NSX in showing that supercars didn't have to have European blue blood running in their cooling systems to elegantly snag eyeballs. The twin-rotor, 1.3-liter 13B-REW situated behind the RX-7's front axle revved all the way to 8,000 rpm on its quest to produce 255 horsepower and 217 pound-feet of torque, with a pair of sequential turbos handing boost duties back and forth around the 4,500 rpm mark. A five-speed manual gearbox was standard with the FD (a four-speed automatic was optional), as was a curb weight in the neighborhood of 2,800 pounds — nearly 500 lbs less than the contemporary Toyota Supra. Significant figures for the era, to be sure. While they might pale in comparison to the average sports car today, slide into the RX-7's cockpit and drive the car, rather than just crunch the numbers. You'll quickly discover what can be accomplished when the company that engineered the Miata pulls a full John Hammond and "spares no expense" developing a world-beating sports car platform. The 1993 Mazda RX-7 I've been loaned from Mazda's classic collection is an R1 car, which means tighter suspension tuning, a few cosmetic upgrades, and a Competition Yellow paint job.

This map reveals the cleanest vehicles based on location

Naysayers love to point out how dirty the electricity grid mix is when it comes to charging electric vehicles. Curmudgeons are eager to jump into any conversation about EVs to enlighten the lucky listeners about how plug-in cars contribute to pollution, sometimes even throwing in a dash of climate-change denial for good measure. (Thanks, buddy. Pray, tell me more about the plight of oppressed SUV owners.) Unless someone buys an EV just because they think they're cool (which, yeah, they often are), they probably have at least a passable understanding of their environmental pros and cons. As many EV owners are already aware, location has a lot to do with any particular plug-in car's carbon footprint. Still, there's always more to know, and knowledge is not a bad thing, especially if one uses it to do the right thing. That's why this handy-dandy map from Carnegie Mellon University is so interesting. CMU researchers have compiled information about the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of various EVs based on where they're charged, as compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. The researchers looked at the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Prius Plug-In Hybrid versus the gasoline-dependent Toyota Prius hybrid and the stop-start-equipped Mazda3 with i-ELOOP and compared grams of CO2 emitted per mile. CMU takes into account the grid mix, ambient temperature, and driving patterns. CMU takes into account the grid mix based on county, as well as ambient temperature and driving patterns in terms of miles traveled on the highway or in the city. For instance, if you drive a Nissan Leaf in urban areas of California, Texas, or Florida, your carbon footprint is lower than it would be if you were driving a standard Toyota Prius. However, if you charge your Leaf in the Midwest or the South, for the most part, you've got a larger carbon footprint than the Prius. If you live in the rural Midwest, you'd probably even be better off driving a Mazda3. Throughout the country, the Chevrolet Volt has a larger carbon footprint than the Toyota Prius, but a smaller one than the Mazda3 in a lot of urban counties in the US. The Prius and Prius Plug-In are relatively equal across the US. Having trouble keeping it straight? That's not surprising. The comparisons between plug-in and gasoline vehicles are much more nuanced than the loudest voices usually let on.