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From YourSITE.com Technical Features Editor’s Note: TripleZoom reader, Ben Mauceri (username Rennwagen), recently contacted us and asked if we’d like to share his RX-8 ownership experience with our readers. Naturally, we said, “Hell, yes!” and we’re quite confident tripleZoom readers will enjoy this upcoming series. Ben is very passionate about his car and is willing to offer 3Z readers some inside perspective on what it’s like to live with Mazda’s 4-door sports car day in and day out. Along with accounts of routine maintenance and other typical owner issues, Ben plans to make some improvements along the way. All in all, this should make for an entertaining series, so please follow along as we chronicle the life and times of Ben and his RX-8.
The Mazda RX-8 has come under fire in many Internet forums and around a few water coolers for its unimpressive spec sheet. The reality is it is a car whose appeal isn’t easily explained to those who spend their time pouring over specification charts or posting hypothetical stoplight grand prix heroics on the Internet. I bought mine because it spoke to me when I drove it. Nine months into my ownership, it still does. I will be the first to admit that the RX-8 is not a particularly quick car given what’s available from your local auto mall. A well-launched Nissan Altima with its big six (in all its torque-steer-inducing glory) will require its driver to look in the rearview mirror to find me in my ‘8. I wouldn’t concede that point begrudgingly because that’s really not the point of my car.
My RX-8 puts a smile on my face because it is the most willing dancing partner I’ve ever had. When you get in to her, you’re greeted by a dash layout that is very attractive while putting everything into reach. The steering wheel is where is should be as are the pedals. The brake and throttle are spaced far enough not to feel cramped but close enough together to enable heel-toe downshifts. The shifter is short, precise and nicely snickety. Inside it feels like someone at Mazda knows how to put a sports car together. While other manufacturers spend their time on, “carbon-look” this and “titanium tone” that, Mazda quietly goes about just putting things where they should be. Under way, there is simply no denying this car’s ability to entertain. Get over your newfound inability to dispatch soccer moms enjoying the spoils of the recent carmaker horsepower wars and enjoy the RX-8’s strengths. Enjoy the smoothness inherent to the rotary engine. Notice that it is a sublime handler that is willing to change direction on a whim – even mid corner. Slow down, concentrate on stringing together apexes, perfecting your downshifts and carrying the most momentum you can, and all of a sudden it becomes a car that makes you wish you were a better driver.
After a few miles of Southern California canyon roads, you start to understand the real difference between a powerful front wheel drive economy car with a stiff aftermarket suspension and a car that was designed from the ground up to be a sports car. Remember: Unlike the GTI, STI or even the Z, the RX-8 does not share a platform, engine, suspension or brakes with any other car. The Mazda remains free from the compromises necessary in “platform engineering”. This is a difference that becomes evident the harder you drive the car. This is a sports car from the ground up and not a family car that has been shortened with a ubiquitous engine fitted. The RX-8 enjoys one of the stiffest chassis I’ve ever experienced. Drive it over terribly uneven roads and you feel nary a flex or a creak from the structure – an incredible feat for a car with no traditional B-pillars and such huge door openings. The suspension is nothing short of a unicorn – supple and comfortable around town, but genuinely stiff and well controlled when you’re pushing it. Manufacturers who offer “sport” suspensions that often trade their comfort for overly stiff, uncontrolled ride motions should each study the calibration on this car.
Unlike an Evo or an STI, you can’t fudge a line into a corner, nail the throttle and let a ton of power and the security of all wheel drive clean up your mess. Don’t get me wrong - both rally replicas are incredible machines, but the RX-8 is a completely different animal. Where the rally reps look at a winding road as something they have the undeniable power to beat into submission, the Mazda sees a dance floor. Similarly, comparisons to the 350Z - while perhaps obvious at first – are misplaced. The Nissan is large, heavy and enjoys none of the willingness to play that the ‘8 has. It is fast, stiff and brutish but it fails to involve the driver as anything more than an operator of controls - a sledgehammer to the Mazda’s scalpel, if you’ll indulge the cliché. So is there anything that spoils this love affair with my rotary? Yes. The fuel economy is abysmal. Around town, I’ve seen 13mpg without my driving like an idiot. 160 miles between fill-ups is normal if I’m spending my time idling around Los Angles. The car is also a little warm. Rotaries produce heat. Lots of heat. That means that the air conditioner must make up for that and Mazda didn’t see fit to attach a particularly great system to this car. It means that when creeping along in traffic, the air blowing on you gets warmer and warmer until you can get moving again. I also wish this car were a touch faster…
Yes, I know I just spent 500 words waxing poetic about the obsolescence of low-effort speed, but I’m a boy. A boy who likes fast cars. And while everything I wrote about this car is very true, I can’t help but feel that it would be truer with another 50 horsepower. So here I am in the beginning of a relationship with a wonderful car. Over the next few months, I’m going to be adding parts in an attempt to sharpen some of the RX-8’s edges without screwing up the balance or drivability of the car. I’ll try things out and report back with the results – hopefully dispelling some myths or prejudices in the process. Thanks for following along.
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