Mazda RX-8

The rotary is back. Leave it to Mazda, the company that brought the Wankel rotary to the mass market with its flagship sports car, the RX-7. With an unusual '2+2-door' design, with two small rear-hinged rear doors, the new RX-8 offers a back seat good enough for two average-sized occupants. Its two-rotor, side-port rotary, displacing 1.3 liters, makes 238 hp when you rev it up with the six-speed manual, but it's detuned to 197 with the four-speed automatic. The RX-8 doesn't fit the classic sports car mold as well as its Miata - or even the hot new Nissan 350Z - but it earns coolness points for the innovation of an unconventional new design and the daring to bring back an underappreciated powerplant. It's more quirky, spacious, and comfortable than Nissan's 350Z. With a price tag under $30,000? That's cool!