Driving Impression: 2004 Mazda RX-8

Nothing will make a Toyota 4Runner feel tall, slow, and wobbly faster than spending a couple hours in a sports car.



And a sports car is exactly what the Mazda RX-8 feels like. Despite having ostensibly 4 doors and matching seating, once you are behind the wheel of this car you forget that you might be making your back seat passengers airsick.

The car I drove was a dealer demo that had enough miles on it to be broken in, and after a brief warmup period while I looked around the cockpit I took it out into the Saturday Denver traffic with the eventual destination of a highway with some space to move. Available with either a 4-speed automatic transmission, or for a little more money (the opposite of what you would expect in pricing) a 6-speed manual that includes the sport tuned suspension and limited slip differential.

My test car was thankfully the 6-speed model loaded with the Grand Touring package that added very comfortable and supportive power leather seats (heated), xenon headlights, dynamic stability control, auto dimming rear view mirror with Homelink transmitters, 18 inch wheels with Dunlop SP Sport 8090 performance tires, a premium BOSE sound system, and a tilt/slide sunroof.

Driving the car out on a busy Broadway, the first thing you notice is that although the engine sounds like it's revving high, you are less than halfway to the 9000 RPM redline. It is deceptive in making you think you should shift, when actually I found that you can comfortably get around town without ever shifting beyond 2nd gear. The small diameter steering wheel adds to the sports car feel of the drive, and commands very tight and precise steering. Maneuvering around the parking lots and traffic of the city was a breeze, as was keeping power and torque available without having to shift all the time.

Getting on the highway via a righthand upwards on-ramp really showed the power on tap from the tiny 238 hp, 1.3 liter 2-rotor engine. At about 2900 RPMs the torque kicks in and doesn't seem to end until you shift close to redline. Passing in 5th on the highway was a breeze, although a quick downshift to 4th gave a much more enjoyable sensation of the car launching itself eagerly past the slower moving traffic. I only shifted into 6th gear once, and as in my 2000 Audi S4 it was obvious that this was strictly for long distance highway cruising and not much good for making your way through the unpredictable traffic of city highways.



Although the 6-speed comes with the larger 13 inch front disc brakes, it felt like a little more brake grab could be had to match the forward power of the car. Still, the brakes never failed to perform whether it was slowing down for the exit or avoiding an unexpected lane change by an errant Maxima. The ride is extremely civilized for a car that handles so tightly on corners. Having driven one of the last generation RX-7s when they were new, I remembered how harsh and tooth-rattling that ride was. The RX-8 is light years beyond that although possibly even biased a little too much to comfort. I believe that the Mazdaspeed version of the RX-8 that is going to be available this fall will solve this problem and shift the suspension back towards the performance side.

Overall the RX-8 is an incredibly fun and surprisingly easy car to drive. You can feel the steering boost gradually decrease to almost nothing as your speed increases, making highway stability better and very precise on center. It took a little getting used to the huge range that each gear had. The shifter has very short, easy throws with precise movement but just a hint of notchiness in some cases. It is in fact very similar in feel to my 1994 Mazda MX-6, with an extra gear of course.



One of the biggest surprises was the back seat space. The whole car is not that large and looks even more compact when you are inside. As comfortable and supporting as the drivers seat was, I expected the seat behind to be cramped and unsuitable for real use. However, my opinion changed once I opened the narrow suicide door behind the driver's door. Using the very easy to operate interior door handle for the back door, I found that not only do the narrow back doors really allow easy access to the back seats, but the seats are comfortable, and have legroom enough for me without having to move my driver's seat position at all. I am not a tall guy, but I have long legs and get my knees jammed on most economy airline flights; the back seat of the RX-8 would be a much more preferable place to travel any distance. The headroom looked to me to be almost the same as in the front. And while not overly generous, what it comes down to is that if you are comfortable in the front you will be in the back also. Getting out of the back was also easy. The suicide door handle was just as easy to operate from the back seat as from outside the car, assuming the front door was open of course. The trunk carries a compact spare and enough room for maybe two pieces of soft luggage, however if 2 people were going away for a weekend there is more than enough additional room on the back seats for a couple other suitcases.

The premium sound system including an in-dash 6-CD changer was excellent, again putting my 4Runner to shame. The dash is easy to read with the large center dial being an analog tach and the speedometer taking a secondary position as a digital readout in the lower right part of the tach. The controls, which are kept to a minimum, are all easy to use although I found the red LED multi-purpose display for the clock, stereo, outside temp and various other functions hard to read in bright sunlight. The ventilation was adequate but could have had a few more vents to cool down more than just your face on a hot day. The AC took care of that though.

I had been skeptical of the RX-8 as a cop-out by Mazda to make a gimmicky 4 seat sports car, but after driving one I find myself impressed with the amount of performance and versatility that Mazda actually managed to pack into this car. An excellent blend of performance, handling, and comfort combined with a very clever use of space has been achieved in the RX-8. As I said at the beginning, once behind the wheel, you forget that there are 2 more doors and room for friends who will be envious of your seat only because it's the one that is the most fun to be in.

Thanks to my friend Tom Karros Jr. of McDonald Automotive for letting me use his demo car without asking any questions or wondering why his stereo is turned up so loud when he gets in it later today.

posted by Tom at 2:09 PM | 4 comments |

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