Taking a half day, I decided to run by my dealer and see if I could test drive the RX-8 6spd. I know the aftermarket people at the dealership, and they let me take it out alone for about ½ an hour. As a Mazda6 V6 owner, I was curious to see how it compared to my vehicle.

The 8 is much easier to drive around town in normal traffic than I thought, it has a easy clutch, smooth power delivery, and while it isn’t the torquiest think on earth, but I could easily launch from a stoplight at idle ~1,000 RPM without revving to 3,000 RPM. It handles bumps well, ride is firm but not jarring, body roll is minimal, and the electronic steering practically reads your mind. The handling is just as good as the mag’s have said, car always feels planted and in control. The steering feels a bit heavier than my 6, but that’s not a bad thing.

The car is refined, but raw in a way. You can feel vibration through the shifter, not something I’m use to with a FWD vehicle, and when you rev the engine high enough it shakes the car some. The throttle response it instantaneous, it’s an awesome feeling; you tap the throttle and watch the revs race. Shifter is easy to use, gates are short, for some reason reverse was really difficult to get into in my test car, but I don’t think that’s the norm, hard to tell how hard the demo has been driven. The digital spedo takes some getting use to, I wish this car had a HUD like the Corvette.

The torque curve on this car is flat as a board, power comes on quickly and linearly, but you don’t get that VVT kick in the *** feel, or at least I didn’t really notice as the ports opened up, even above 6,000 RPM. While there is more than enough power to get around, the car felt a little slower than I thought it would, prolly just because it delivers power in such a smooth fashion. My V6 M6 feels somewhat faster under 60 mph, but that’s due to its torque advantage. Above 60 mph the 8 blows past my 6 in terms of acceleration, I didn’t go above 90, but I’m sure the car would be happy to do so.

Fit and finish are perfect for the 8, everything feel solid, the red paint scheme is beautiful… that would be my color, damn the insurance companies. My only interior complaint is that the sunroof really eats into the headroom, I’m only 6ft, but man was I banging my head, I tried all kinda of adjustments, but since I hate sunroofs I’d have mine without one.

Overall I enjoyed the car, I love the look, and once broken in I’m sure the car will be even more fun to drive. I’m not terribly worried about the dyno issues, given that the members on this board have tested there cars with acceleration times near the magazine tests, I can’t wait to see what happens when the engine settles in. I was also impressed by my own car, and how close the handling was to the 8 in many ways. It shows Mazda’s commitment to making fun cars to drive across the board. I wouldn’t trade my 6 for a 8 at the moment, but I would like a 8 as a second car.

 

I've read this a number of times, and this may only be true if your current vehicle has an analog speedometer.

My current car has a digital speedometer and reading the 8's was second nature.

Frankly, reading an analog speedometer takes me a few extra moments now, rather like wearing an analog watch after growing up wearing digitals; when someone asks me the time it takes me a few seconds to figure out the exact time (the response comes out "It's six... forty... seven.")