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the full 9000-rpm, 250-bhp rush, look to our 6-speed manual-equipped
test car whose $26,680 base price gets bumped to $31,100 with just
about every conceivable option: xenon headlights, foglights, heated
leather seats, a crisp-sounding Bose audio system with 6-CD changer and
a power moonroof. Its Renesis rotary gets a third intake port for each
rotor (versus the automatic version's two) that pipes in at the
6250-rpm transition point of its complex, variable-volume intake system
for improved high-rpm breathing. Along with firmer suspension, a
slightly larger front anti-roll bar (26.5 mm versus 25.4) and 5-spoke
18 x 8-in. wheels mounting 225/45R-18 Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tires,
the 6-speed car also has bigger brakes (12.7-in. front rotors, 11.9-in.
rears). Mazda's DSC stability control is an option.
With either RX-8, the novelty here (besides the Wankel engine) is
that you can take three friends along on your sports-car
experience...provided two of them are children, or small to
average-size adults...in reasonable comfort, especially in the
head-room department. Its Freestyle door system (Mazda's term) consists
of conventional front doors, and rear-hinged
By incorporating the B-pillars inside the aft, rear-hinged doors,
Mazda’s Freestyle door system creates a cavernous opening on each side
of the car. Once inside, there are all the proper sports-car
accouterments: excellent, properly bolstered seats with
shoulder-support wings; aluminum-shod pedals with proper heel/toe
spacing; a wonderfully positive shifter; and a readable set of gauges
whose nighttime illumination offers a choice of white or red.
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rear doors that swing out 80 degrees, creating
an opening so large it resembles one of those cutaway interior bucks
you see at auto shows. It also begs the question of how the RX-8 would
fare in a side impact. The answer? Quite well, as Mazda has
incorporated a "virtual B-pillar" of tubular steel inside the largely
aluminum rear doors that spreads crash loads to the rocker panels and
roof. Additionally, there are the usual internal side beams, and pins
along the tops and bottoms of the doors that engage in corresponding
sockets on impact to minimize intrusion. A full complement of side
curtain, thorax and frontal airbags reduces the danger further still. Part of Mazda's self-described feeling of "comfortable snugness"
in the RX-8's cockpit comes from its high, full-length center tunnel, a
reinforced backbone structure that adds rigidity to the unit body and
makes the unusual doors possible. On either side are nicely supportive,
thin-shell front seats, each incorporating a rotor-shaped trim piece in
the integral headrest. The rotor motif appears in several other places,
but is most exquisitely rendered on the shift knob. The driver faces a
serious set of gauges, the large center-mounted tach having an inset
digital speedometer. In a siamesed dial to the right, oil pressure; to
the left, coolant temperature and fuel. Both the instantly decipherable
climate-control knobs and stereo controls are integrated into a single
panel whose lustrous black finish resembles Japanese lacquered wood — a
handsome treatment also used on the door panels for the window
switches. Along with high-quality plastics, touches of chrome and
contrasting inserts for the door panels and seats, it's a remarkably
well-finished and appealing interior at this, or any, price point.
In the rear seats, passengers will a) experience mild claustrophobia or
b) feel like junior executives being whisked to their destination in a
small private jet, due to the curvature of the roof and view out the
smallish side windows that tilt out for ventilation. Remove a plastic
panel between the seats, and a pass-through to the trunk is revealed.
The trunk itself, though narrow of aperture, is deep and wide enough to
hold two standard golf bags. Part of the volume is due to the lack of a
spare tire, but a small kit containing a compressor and fix-flat goo is
included.
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