Please Note: This review is based entirely on a 45 minute test drive and about a half hour show-room time spent with the car.
I'll try to keep this short and sweet since thats all the experience I've had with this car. But that short time left quite an impression.
First we'll deal with the ergonomics and design of the car.
The front seats of the RX-8 are supportive without being too firm and, despite being fairly low are easy to get in and out of. The driver's seat offers a good range of height and angle adjustment. The controls are well placed and easily reached by the driver. from the shift lever to the instrument dimmer switch everything smacks of near perfect ergonomics. A perfect dead-pedal and good pedal spacing make heel-toe action simple and just imprecise enough that you don't even have to think about where your feet are.
When sitting in the RX-8 the low roof never lets you forget that this IS a sports car, and very tall drivers may find it somewhat claustrophobic, but on the whole there is more USABLE room in an RX-8 than anyhting else that approaches it's performance. The rear seats are buckets, and this is a FOUR seater, as the center console extends all the way to the rear (offering support for the handy ski pass-through). The rear seats are almost perfect clones of the fronts, but without the adjustable recline and position. Rear seat leg room is adequate for a full size adult. but not spacious. Entry and exit via the rear suicide doors is certainly easier than climbing into the back of the average two-door sports car, but is still not a task for the frail or old to take lightly. Both the front and rear doors open nearly 90 degrees for simplified access.
The engine compartment is, as was the case with the RX-7, largely empty space, but is covered over with plastic shrouding that effectively hides the small inconspicuous lump of aluminum hiding at the rear of the engine compartment that is the renasis motor. Only the spark-plug wires and intake and exhaust runners allude to what goes on inside it. The trunk is not huge, as the rear suspension is a marvel of interlaced links and bushings, but is truely usable. A good deal of shopping, four medium suit cases, or a couple of golf bags will fit with room to spare. Thats even WITH the optional spare tire, which resides in the trunk...without the optional spare you get more space in the trunk. All RX-8s come standard with a tire pressure monitoring system and an elecric air pump. The spare tire does interfere with utility of the of the ski pass-through and since it's an option, you're probaly best to go without it. All and all the RX-8 is a package that succedes in being both sporty and usefull, not an easy thing to do, but Mazda has pulled off something quite unique here. The only complaint I have about the interior is the large quantity of light-weight flimsy plastic. The reasson for all this plastic becomes obvious once you drive the RX-8: They spent the money elsewhere.
Driving impressions: Since my experience with the RX-8 was at a dealership I expected a boring ride that would barely show off the car. I just have to thank the sales-man who took me out, and I'll leave him and his dealer ship anonymous for their protection.
The sales-man started the "winning red" touring package RX-8 that the dealer used for test drives and it immediately became obvious that all the money saved on the plastic interior bits went somewhere else. That being the engine, suspension and chassis. That rotary pulse at idle followed by the increasing whine at higher RPMs can be hard to understand, as it really sounds nothing like a regular reciprocating engine...it does, however sound VERY serious.
I got into the pasenger side, my fiance into the pasenger side rear, and the sales man took us out into traffic. The RX-8's ride is a little bumpy, but not at all uncomfortable, even on the rough city streets we first traversed. In the interest of keeping weight down though, there is little sound insulation and suspension and road noise is quote loud. The rotary whine, however is quite subdued and not at all intrusive. The sales man proceded to tell me about the dual front, side and side curtain air-bags, ABS, fancy suspension geometry, self leveling head-lights, auto-dimming mirror etc etc etc. I was just listening to the engine and grinning.
After a period we came to the out-skirts of town and the sales man mentioned how it was good to let the renasis engine warm up before you horse on it (I thought he was still just talking), and that it was nice that they had an RX-8 that had gone through it's 700 mile break in period. (I nodded, and thought "too bad the car belong to the dealer and we're not going to have any real fun with it") at that exact second the car infront of us turned off and the sales man proceeded to jam his right foot solidly into the carpet, with the accelerater pedal firmly captured underneath it.
"WOW!". I said that atleast four times, maybe more. The RX-8 is not as fast as say, a 911 turbo, but it steps right out when you put the hammer down. Not to mention the twin rotors spinning at 9000 rpms is the closest thing to a formula-1 screech that I've heard since the Acura NSX. 40 in second gear to 130 in fifth gear took a little less than 10 seconds and although it wasn't the kind of face flattening experience you have in a 1976 Detamaso Pantera, it was pretty damn impressive. As the RPMs pass 6000 the renasis wails like a scalded cat rips up to the 9000 RPM red-line smoothly and without fuss. As in the RX-7, a soft beeping tone tells when you are approaching red-line, as the rotary doesn't sound stressed at all, and shifts are easily snapped off at full bore with virtualy no thought, leaving the driver's attention on the road.
After comming to a rather hard stop the sales man stepped out and let me take over. My driving experience was immediately dampend by the clutch. I stalled the car the first two times I tried to pull out. I've diven cars with real multi-plate racing clutches, clutches that are essentialy on-off switches. These i can handle, the problem with the RX-8 clutch is that it's engagement point is very light, and VERY close to the floor. Clutch engagement is only about 1/2 inch off full depression, and total pedal travel is about four inches. This is drasticaly different from my Alfa, which has about 6 inches of travel, feels like pushing a leg-press, and engages right in the middle of pedal travel. After getting the hang of this though, I never stopped grinning.
An 80mph entry into a well banked 45 mph marked corner yeilded no slip or unballance and a 112mph exit. this was about all I was up to doing, but I had the distinct feeling that the RX-8 was up to quite a bit more if I had pushed it harder, and this with three people on-board. The RX-8 is a true sports car, lets not forget this. The RX-8 is NOT a sport sedan with small rear doors, its a SPORTS car with room for four people. The brakes are seriously strong and perfectly modulatible, the transmission is notchy, but accurate and fast, the electric assist steering is progressive, quick, precise, and perfectly weighted. The RX-8 feels somewhat longer than other sports cars, and it IS, which also contributes to it's sense of stability. Over all, it feels like a compact sedan --size wise-- when you are in driver's seat. Driver ergonomices are superb, as are driver sight lines. The RX-8 does everything a Porche Boxter does, only slightly better balanced, more neutral at half the price and with twice the number of people on board. The RX-8 is civilized in traffic, with plenty of power at low and mid RPMs for city driving, but the real power does come on somewhat high on the tach. However you can drive the RX-8 at 4000-6000 rpm and not feel the least bit like you are thrashing on it, not something I can say about the Honda s2000.
I didn't spend much time with the RX-8 but the time I spent made it abundantly obvious that Mazda has once again created a special car. This is a car that will leave a Mustang panting on the corners, play tag with a corvette on long sweepers, eat an Acura RSX for lunch and then use a Honda Civic Si as a tooth pick, then go chasing down S2000's for a nice relaxing change. Even if it won't produce unlimited tire smoke and on demand over-steer it's plenty powerful for it's weight, and at $30k loaded to the gills it undercuts everything else in it's class.
Beware The RX-8, it'll make you want to buy one. And with a price so low, you might actualy do it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 30,245
Model Year: 2004 Model and Options: Touring Package, 6spd, sun-roof, spare-tire.
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