Los Angeles is a ghost town. The telecast of the 77th Annual Academy Awards has sucked the city indoors like a giant vacuum. Every metrosexual and model-actress from Malibu to Palm Springs has already found the fondue pot at an Oscar party, so there isn't a Bimmer or Benz in motion for 100 miles. The city's freeways are as empty as an Adam Sandler movie screening.

This tasty fact occurs to us just as Chris Rock is firing up his monologue. It's 5 p.m. Out in the driveway is a Velocity Red 2004 Mazda RX-8 six-speed equipped with a long list of Mazdaspeed performance accessories, including a sweet set of coilover shocks, thick front and rear sway bars and four forged magnesium wheels. This car is covered in RX-8 performance parts. And it has a full tank of gas. We're going driving.

What Is Mazdaspeed?
The company's Web site says Mazdaspeed is Mazda's soul unleashed, which certainly makes it clear how important its mission is to the automaker.

That mission is high performance and the image that comes with it.

Although it's been around since the late 1960s, and engineered the rotary-powered prototype that won the 1991 24 hours of Le Mans, Mazdaspeed is best known in America for three very recent high-performance rides: the turbocharged 2003 Mazdaspeed Protegé, the 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata and the just-released Mazdaspeed 6. Together they've almost made Mazdaspeed a household name in the United States. Almost.

But Mazdaspeed is much more than those three cars. It's an in-house performance division with three divisions of its own — production cars, motorsports development and performance accessories.

Right now the RX-8 has the most extensive line of Mazdaspeed-branded parts. It ranges from clutches and coilovers to body kits and brake pads, and Jack M. Stavana, director of accessory operations for Mazda, says there's plenty more to come for the RX-8 and other Mazda cars.

According to Stavana, the Mazda 6, Mazda 3 and the newly redesigned Miata will also get expansive product lines. "And there won't ever be Mazdaspeed air fresheners," said Stavana during a phone interview. "This is all performance stuff, and it always will be."

All Mazdaspeed performance accessories are sold through Mazdaspeed-qualified Mazda dealers, and not every dealer is qualified. We used the dealer search on www.mazdaspeedusa.com, which told us the closest Mazdaspeed dealer to our office is Galpin Mazda, 17 miles away in the San Fernando Valley. This surprised us, considering there's a Mazda dealer within a mile of our Santa Monica office, but if a dealer isn't interested in performance cars and equipment, he shouldn't deal in the stuff, and Mazda understands that.

The best part about the program is that all the parts come with some type of warranty and can be purchased one piece at a time. Some similar factory programs, like Acura's A-Spec, sell their wares in packages only, which can only be installed by the dealer who sold the car to you.

Not Mazdaspeed. If you want the coilovers without the antiroll bars, fine. If you want the body kit without the rear spoiler and the springs without the shocks, cool. Plus, you can install the stuff yourself if you want. If not, the dealer will gladly do it for you.

The Look
As predicted, the perpetually jammed freeway is as empty as Dodger Stadium in December. We're northbound, and heading for the hills.

The lack of onlookers is as much a curse as it is a blessing. Speeding is not a problem, as we're sure even the cops want to see if Jamie Foxx wins for Ray, but there's no one around to admire the RX-8's swanky new bodywork, no one to give us a thumbs-up. Under normal conditions, the Mazdaspeed bodywork turned every Angeleno into Fonzie.

The RX-8 wears nearly the full regalia of Mazdaspeed body modifications and the look is aggressive without being overdone. The front fascia is the best part. It gives the RX-8 a much more menacing face, but its design is simple with three large grille openings and little else. The rear underspoiler, with its splitter look, is a little more racecar, but it works, and the side skirts and rear wing are equally tasteful. We especially like the aluminum supports for the spoiler.

All the body components are plastic, and are available in primer or prepainted to your car's body color. Quality is high. These parts don't come cheap (a painted front fascia is $1,290), but the paint looks great and the fit and finish of all the pieces is top-notch.

Our ride also wears a set of true mags, four five-spoke 18-inch wheels made of magnesium to keep weight down. Although attractive, and light at only 16 pounds apiece, they're big bucks at over $1,416 each, not to mention a bit small, measuring only 8 inches wide. Plus, they're wrapped in 225/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza tires, which is the same exact rubber worn by our bone-stock long-term RX-8.

The carbon-fiber B-pillar appliqué is hardly worth mentioning.

The Drive
As the sun sets, we reach the base of our favorite mountain road, which is the perfect playground for the RX-8. Its combination of slow and fast corners will really put the Mazdaspeed coilover suspension to the test.

We're already impressed with the RX-8's highway ride. It's never harsh, but feels more tied down than the stock setup, which we always thought to be a bit underdamped. Even large expansion joints don't rattle your teeth.

After only a few corners, it's obvious the new shocks and springs (which lower the car 20 mm) and larger antiroll bars have improved the car's cornering. It turns better, rolls less and covers ground wickedly fast. Balance is perfect, with just a touch of understeer if you enter a corner too quickly. Get really aggressive, and it rotates on the brakes like a well-tuned racecar. These components are a steal at a combined price of only $961.

Also worth the investment are the front and rear strut tower bars, which really tighten up the four-door chassis, although the rear bar does limit trunk space.

The 1.3-liter rotary engine isn't known for its power, but it has just enough grunt to kick the rear end out if you're manic with the gas pedal. Mazda claims no power gains from the Mazdaspeed Performance Exhaust, and its sound, while a touch throatier, is too close to stock to justify its $630 price.

As good as the car feels on the road, its measured performance is nearly identical to a stock RX-8. Even its slalom speed, which is a very impressive 64.3 mph, is nearly identical to the 63.9-mph run made in our long-term RX-8 on the same day.

Another disappointment was the ring of flash on our test car's Mazdaspeed shift ****, which is otherwise nicely shaped and pleasantly grippy.

Back Home
Three-and-a-half hours and an entire tank of gas later, we're back home, and just in time for the last of the fondue. We even get to see Clint win the best picture award for his film Million Dollar Baby. Although we thought it should have gone to Alien vs. Predator, we couldn't be more content. The Mazdaspeed-equipped RX-8 may not be perfect, but it's sweet enough for us to want seconds. Maybe Mazda will cough it up again for the Emmys.

Vehicle Type Model Year: 2004
Make: Mazda
Model: MazdaSpeed RX-8
Base Price: $26,875
Drive Type: RWD
Transmission Type: 6-speed automatic
Displacement (liters): 1.3
Engine Type: Rotary
Claimed Horsepower: 238 @ 8500
Claimed Torque: 159 @ 5500
Braking System: 4-wheel disc w/ ABS
Braking System: Power rack and pinion
Steering System: Independent w/ stabilizer bar
Suspension Type (rear): Independent w/ stabilizer bar
Tire Size (front): 225/45R18
Tire Size (rear): 225/45R18
Tire Brand: Bridgestone
Tire Model: Potenza RE040
Curb Weight (lbs): 3029
Recommended Fuel: Premimum Unleaded
Fuel Tank Capacity (gal): 15.6

Performance Mazda MazdaSpeed RX-8
0 - 30 (sec): 2.63
0 - 45 (sec): 4.59
0 - 60 (sec): 7.03
0 - 75 (sec): 10.31
1/4 Mile (sec @ mph): 15.45 @ 92.43
30 - 0 (ft): 28.05
60 - 0 (ft): 113.52
Braking Rating:
(Excellent, Good, Average,
Poor or Very Poor) Excellent
Slalom (mph): 64.30
Turning Circle (ft), curb-to-curb 34.8
Handling Rating:
(Excellent, Good, Average,
Poor or Very Poor) Excellent
Db @ Idle Low
Db @ Full Throttle 81
Db @ 70 mph Cruise 78

Mazda claims no power gains from the Mazdaspeed Performance Exhaust, and its sound, while a touch throatier, is too close to stock to justify its... price.