Renee and I made an eighteen hundred mile trip to Seattle for an Evolution Autocross School and the RX-8 is a hit.
After a ten-hour drive my butt wasn't totally sore like a two-hour drive in Renee's 2001 SE Miata. The driver's compartment has no sharp edges that rest against any part of me while I'm driving and that is a very good thing. The driving position is very good and the interior is very well thought out. The RX-8 is the next step and a half in comfort and quiet from the Miata but still leaves no doubt that it is a sports car.
After two really full days of auto-x I am totally in love with this car! It's fast, nimble and easy to drive fast. One of the Evolution drivers said that it was the best stock car that he has ever driven.
I'm real tired.. More later!

Vince

 

After reading all the reviews about how the RX-8 does in auto-x type stuff I was expecting real heavy understeer. Now I'm thinking that the reviewers didn't have the sport model and/or didn't have enough air in the tires.
The brakes are nothing less than perfect and the ABS works without distracting the driver.
Power wise we had a 220RWHP turbo Miata a Subaru STi and two Boxter S in our group and the RX-8 was firmly in the pack.
We had the car set up with 35PSI cold in all four tires and the DSC turned off. The tilt steering was set full up so we could get enough clearance to do three quarter turns of the wheel fast.
If I could change one thing and one thing only I would put a smaller steering wheel in it.
Pictures at Evolution AutoX School:
http://www.compaddict.com/RX-8/
MP4 (6MB) movie (right click then save target as, then change the extension to .mp4, converted by Apple Quicktime):
http://www.compaddict.com/RX-8/DSCF0032.mp4

 

The oil light came on at 1200 or so miles on our trip home when going uphill and after adding one quart the dipstick showed full. The dipstick has no texture on it so it's kind of hard to see the oil line so be warned!
When fueling our RX-8 some pumps don't let you fill the tank all the way so our data is based off of three or four fill ups.
The trip to Seattle we traveled 880 miles and used 41.6 gal of fuel giving us 21.15 MPG.
While in Tacoma (including eighty or so auto-x runs) we traveled 146.6 miles and used 14.5 gal of fuel giving us 10 MPG.
The trip back to Auburn CA we traveled 787 miles and used 36.6 gal of fuel giving us 21.5 MPG.
On the way to Seattle I varied the engine speed quite a bit and when in CA traveled at 15MPH above the speed limit (80-85MPH) and in the other states 10MPH over (65-75MPH).

Vince

 

Nevermind the MPG how did you do in the auto-x, am i right in you scoring better then the boxter S?

 

I forsee a service recall about the oil sender in the 8's future.

 

Both the Boxters had race tires and one of the drivers has a few more years experience than me.. With the same driver and level of prep the Boxter S will IMHO beat the RX-8.
Vince