Interviewer, to audience: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have with us today an L2 rotary engine-powered 2010 Mazda RX-8. Production of this model began in 2003 in Hiroshima, Japan, so this one comes to us from its eighth model year of availability in the United States. RX-8 was the successor to the popular and successful RX-7. Let’s give a big hand and warm welcome to our guest!”
RX-8: “Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here. I feel like it has been a little while since I’ve gotten this much attention, but it feels great to have a little bit of spotlight on me this Tuesday morning at Curbside Classic.”
Interviewer: “I remember when your model had made its debut, first at the 2001 North American Auto Show in Detroit, starting regular production for ’03. You made quite a stir with a body style that many just weren’t expecting and didn’t seem to know quite how to categorize, often referred to as a four-door coupe, or a ‘quad coupe’. A coupe with four doors. It was quite intriguing at the time. Let me ask you… How do you personally identify yourself? Do you identify more as a four-door, or as a coupe?”
RX-8: “I identify as both a four-door and a coupe. To many and from what I’ve gathered, I look more like a coupe, but I clearly have four doors, so there’s that. That’s factual. I’ve learned not to hand labels to people, because they’re going to see me the way they see me, but I still try to be visible for others that don’t fit into one category or another. To give them a voice. The thing about me is that I have no central b-pillar, and the rear doors can’t open independently of the front ones. Ingress and egress is so much easier for rear seat passengers with those two extra doors…”
c. 1981 Mazda RX-7. Lincoln Square, Chicago, Illinois. Sunday, December 4, 2011.
Interviewer: “…Which I understand was one of your key selling points. You can seat four adults in relative comfort.”
RX-8: “I think the word ‘relative’ is key. I’m not going to seat four basketball players, but I should be able to haul four adults of average size and build around town on weekends. I wasn’t actually the only four-door coupe that was new to the market in ’03, the other being the Saturn ION. The preceding Saturn SC coupe also had an extra, third door on the driver’s side starting in ’99, which I guess might have made it the pioneer.”
Interviewer: “Ah, yes. The ION. It had a much more abbreviated run than you, available for only five model years, from between 2003 and ’07, where your production run ended in mid-2012. The Saturns were also a different kind of car than you, altogether… economy cars that aimed for a bit of innovation and differentiation with those rear doors. I digress. The four-door coupe idea then seemed to evolve from cars that look like actual coupes, like you, to sedans with swoopier or lower-slung styling like the ’09 Volkswagen CC and certain Audis, all of which are clearly in the idiom of four-door sedans. Aston Martin wasn’t marketing the Lagonda as a ‘coupe’, to provide one example.”
RX-8: “Exactly. You know, my dad seated only two and was shorter than me from bumper-to-bumper. I’m fully 6.6 inches longer at 175.6″, almost four inches wider at 69.7″ (without my mirrors), and I sit 2.8 inches taller at 52.8″. One huge difference is in my wheelbase, a full eleven inches longer than my dad’s, at 106.3″. I also weigh much more than Dad, almost a full half-ton at 3,100 pounds, versus his 2,200. Parked next to each other, our physical differences are obvious, but I’d like to think that people can still see the family resemblance and that I’m descended from him.”
Interviewer: “Absolutely, I can, especially in your similar Liquid Silver Metallic finish. It’s quite fetching.”
RX-8: “Thank you.”
Interviewer: “No, it really suits you. I also like the Sparkling Black Mica and Velocity Red also available for 2010, but Liquid Silver has that aura of futurism that seems very much of the early Aughts, in a ‘Sharper Image’ sort of way. Enough about appearances, though. Inside you beats the same heart as some in your bloodline… rotary power. In your case, you have a Renesis twin-rotor engine that displaces 1.3 liters and boasts 232 horsepower. You can sprint to sixty miles per hour in the mid six-second range. Is that correct?”
RX-8: “Yes, it is. I can also handle and corner exceptionally well. I may not be as fast as some cars that cost as much [the $27,825 base price in 2010 translates to almost $39,300 in 2023], but the RX family was never about all-out speed. Dad’s an ’81 RX-7 GS, and he could do the zero-to-sixty sprint in about eight-and-a-half seconds, give or take, with just 100 horsepower and his maneuverable size and light weight. In his day, he wasn’t quite as fast as competitors like the Nissan 280ZX or Toyota Supra, but in a Motor Trend comparison from June of 1982 against those other two cars, an RX-7 like him was judged to have the best dynamics like handling and steering, as well as being the most fun.”
Interviewer: “It’s not always about brute strength, and the first RX-7 is still a very beloved car… highly regarded by many enthusiasts.”
RX-8: “Thank you. A lot of people still love my dad. I also want to be clear that I was never trying to be just like him. He arrived to the market in a completely different era, and under different circumstances. The early RX-7 accomplished a lot, both for Mazda and the affordable sports car market. That’s a lot to live up to. We have different model names. Let’s not forget that.”
Interviewer: “Salient points, and thank you for that perspective. Let’s now address the elephant in the room.”
RX-8: “Which is…”
Interviewer: “You are, shall we say, a bit… thirsty.”
RX-8: “Fair enough. I mean, my EPA gas mileage ratings of 16 city / 22 highway aren’t great. I know this. But, no one chooses a rotary-powered car for our fuel economy, which is something Mazda figured out way back in the ’70s. My value proposition lies in the smoothness of the delivery of my powerband and willingness to rev and just go. With my nearly perfect fifty-fifty weight distribution, there are no surprises with the way I can blast through corners. Or, I should say there are only good surprises. I must be driven to be believed. It’s why I’m always smiling. And, if I may say so, one could do worse in the looks department.”
Interviewer: “…And modest! RX-8, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you with us today. Take care and be well, my friend.”
RX-8: “Much obliged. Thanks for having me.”
Lakeview, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Nice interview Joseph. Like a number of expressive automotive designs from the late ’90s through the early 2000s, credit to Mazda for pushing the styling envelope, but I didn’t find these attractive. For me, the Studebaker Starliner-like roofline lent a strong retro look, I could not unsee. As too, the heavily sculpted fender flares, were not appealing. Nissan and Mazda were introducing sculptured taillight designs with chrome-like bezels, enveloped in clear plastic. Which was a neat look for a brief time. I liked the integration of the third door, but the overall look left me missing his ‘dad’. As I quite liked the design of the first and third gen RX-7s.
Thanks, Daniel. I had never noticed the similarity between the C-pillars of the Loewy coupes and the RX-8 before, but now that you’ve pointed it out, I definitely see it. The round taillamps behind clear lenses was very much a hallmark of design from that era.
Ah yes, anthropomorphism is one of my favorite mental quirks. While often applied to cars and boats (boats are always female, cars can be either), they receive love when all is fine, and are accused of disloyalty or sloth when they break down, or need expensive repairs.
My anthropomorphic cars are mostly silent, communicating their moods and wishes with smirky silence, audible groans, limping noisily on a flat tire, or peeing oil, coolant, or brake fluid on my garage floor.
But they do these things in a bland emotionless manner, so they fall far short of the king of attributing human traits and emotions to non-human entities, pets, especially dogs. And some cats.
On the other hand Joseph, your RX8 speaks eloquently, a rare find in a rare car. And admitting one has a gasoline drinking problem is the first step in an anthropomorphic acceptance of that fact.
Regarding the attribution of human traits to non-human entities, there is this Tacoma driving Havanese. She isn’t that great a driver; she never signals and cannot tell red lights from green or yellow lights. We limit her driving to empty parking lots and the occasional pizza run.
Thank you, Robert. This was entertaining! I’m imagining your Havanese as the subject of a podcast…
Eeesh. Those are just ugly. I say that as a Certified Mazda Fan, having owned 2 RX7s (one Turbo), approaching 40 Miatas, a 929, MX6, Pickup, etc.
Forty Miatas! This might be some kind of record. It would be fun to read about them if you ever have the time and interest to put something together…
There are a few who’ve had more! They are like Doritos (speaking of Wankels LOL)….. just can’t stop at a mere handful of em! But a writeup might prove a bit boring, because every single one was (a) Reliable and (b) Incredible fun to drive. Rinse and repeat 38 times, often owning 2 or 3 at the same time. 3 at the moment, 2 of which are the two rarest Miatas. I guess that part could be interesting…..
The answer to the question that no one was asking. That’s a cliche, but it certainly applies to this car. The prior generations were not only good looking coupes, they were considered to be actual sports cars. If you want a sports car, you put up with it’s shortcomings, like cramped accommodations and poor fuel economy.
I had two seat and four seat Datsun Z’s. I liked the back seats which suited my two young kids at the time, as well as more luggage space with rear seats down. I also liked the extended roof line, it gave it a real GT look in my eyes. But the buff books hated it.
American Pony cars all had back seats, but their styling wasn’t compromised by that, the rear passengers just had to put up with the cramped space..
Nissan also had the Maxima, which was a pretty good sports sedan. Probably the better choice if rear seats were that important.
Mazda got it right with the last gen RX8, that was an amazing looking car. It’s too bad that rotary engines have such high fuel consumption, there are now full size pick ups that get the same mileage.
I liked the fun format of the article.
The final RX-7 came out when I was in college, and it seemed unanimous that it was one of the best looking cars available for sale.
When the RX-8 came out, I saw it through a different lens than that of the RX-7, so I didn’t really compare them. I saw them as having different missions.
And this one was fun to write. Gotta mix it up sometimes. I’d do one like this again.
I have to hand it to you – I have thought of many unique angles for considering quite a few cars through the years, but it never once occurred to me to interview one of them. Excellent choice!
I am another who was a big fan of “Dad” but much less so of the son. The kid was just big boned, is all. But my tastes run more to slim and lithe in a car like this, and less towards linebacker. Also, this car seems to have been during Mazda’s fender flair fetish that lasted for several years. It was a look I never really warmed up to. And it was all academic, because I never really was in the demographic to own one until it became older, and even then I chose to stick with the better-known piston design (and the Miata it came in).
Thanks, JP! The more time that has passed, the more I have come to appreciate the clean lines of the first RX-7. And I love the fact that its light weight allowed just 100 hp to make it perform really well.
I do seriously like the RX-8 and never really thought of it as being especially large, kind of like the new Mustangs dwarf even the 1971 & ’73 models.
The RX8 coming after the RX7 was sort of like the Jaguar XJS coming after the much-loved XKE. Not designed to be the same sort of car, but in the absence of a direct follow-up to its predecessor it seemed – awkward, and to a degree perhaps ‘unworthy’. I’m sure we can think of other ‘unworthy’ successor cars from well-regarded companies, but that’s the one that first came to mind.
I think that last RX7 would have been a hard act for just about anyone to follow.
That being said, what we have here is a (very) sporty coupe ‘following on’ from a pure sports car. Not quite apples and oranges, but maybe a different variety of apple – which many of us didn’t see at the time.
Peter, the Jaguar XJS / XKE comparison is a good one.
Love the interview technique! I was never sure how to take the RX8 when it was released.
My indecision wasn’t helped when I drove one for a couple of hours in 2010. I liked the practicality of the rear door design, and loved the rotary-shaped details on display here and there, but it didn’t quite set my heart on fire like the sublimely sexy FD RX7.
From a driving perspective the RX8 didn’t feel as ‘zingy’ as I’d expected, displaying none of the raw emotion of the 1970s Mazda rotaries I’d sampled decades earlier as a teenager. The 6-speed manual was a little notchy and imprecise, and the clutch was tricky – I was embarrassed to stall it on take off several times! The cabin felt tight as the seats were low and the transmission tunnel and side windows high.
I prefer sedans to sporty coupes/liftbacks, and came away from my drive thinking the RX8 seemed to have a foot in both camps yet at the same time in neither camp. It was standing proud in its own niche.
You’ve captured the feeling of these. I felt a little like I was in cast-iron bath – solid, protective, but I was peering and craning a bit to see out of it. I too stalled it a few times, possibly unused to rotary’s lack of interest in doing much for a living unless spanked. Very different feel to the (slightly over-rated) old RX7’s, for sure.
Ah yes, the well-known parable of the prodigious son, who squanders the virtues of his father by becoming huge, ugly, fat, a heavy smoker, a massive drinker, always wearing what appears to be half a Studebaker Avanti on the back of his head, who shows up for interviews on CC radio in his gaudy suit and gormless grin to tell us all that he now identifies as anything up to five doors, despite passing clearly himself off as a two-door from birth – and who, despite all of his louche and excessive ways, is STILL welcomed with the best room in Zoomzoom by the father. (The good son, 323, who stayed sensible and absteemious and made the family rich, has to put up with this crap every few years and swallow that it’s a tale of Rex8’s redemption. Pah-lease!)
Despite the foregoing, I personally actually rather like the idea and looks of these machines, but it’s also quite true they gave a bright answer to the thing no-one was asking before or since, just as it’s quite true that they used oil and petrol in sometimes inverse quantities of too much, and that they were always too heavy to race.
A fine exchange with this irascible descendant, Mr Dennis. You have brought out from him a modesty that I would not have otherwise expected (and which I am sure 323 feels to be insincere).
We had an S2000/RX-8 meet one weekend.
The cars are surprisingly closely-matched and both enormous fun on a twisty back road.
Carry a spare set of underwear for an early S2000 and a spare set of spark plugs for the RX-8 and you won’t go far wrong.
The expansion ratio of the Wankel is so low that brake specific fuel consumption is low. It really begs for compound turbocharging, yet clearly that is too expensive and probably not so practical as to be a fantasy. Alas, the Wankel is attractive in so many ways, but a development that never really worked for cars.