Living With A Mazda RX8

Before I start off I know she’s dirty but once she’s fixed i’ll make her nice and shiny.

A few people have asked me what it’s like living with an RX8, “What’s the MPG” “What’s the tax” but rarely what it’s like to drive, it’s a shame because it’s an absolute treat.

Where to start?
A lot of people don’t really like the look of the RX8, all the curves and straight sections can put people off but for me, it caught my eye, it was something different to most cars on the road and I have always seen it as a head turner, over the year and a half i’ve owned it, I have grown to love the RX8, previous cars I have owned I just never had that connection what so many talk about, my first car was a Vauxhall Corsa C, not really a lot to love there, but still I expected some kind of connection, I then moved onto a MK2 Ford Focus, still I had no connection at all.

This all changed one hungover Saturday last year (few too many lemonades) I came across my RX8 on the glorious Ebay, I had been looking for a weekend car for a few weeks because at that time I was working away Monday - Friday, rang up the seller as it was listed from the same town I live, less than a 5 minutes walk from my house, I armed myself with a Lucozade Orange and forced my sorry self down there, upon arriving the RX8 was sat off into the corner, looking neglected and sad while his other cars were clean and on show (I bought it from a dealer) after having a look around it, checking if it had been rebuilt, the service history and previous owners, all looked great, took for a little spin up and down the lane where the garage was, from that I knew I had to have it, bought it on the spot and traded in the Ford Focus as part exchange.

The next day I went and picked it up, chucked £10 in the tank and off I went, straight onto an A-Road and red lined through second and onto third, I thought to myself it doesn’t feel very fast then I looked down and the speedo read lets say 70 (for legal reasons) I then slowed down and repeated the process but this time looking at the speedo, I find you don’t really feel like you’re being pulled back into your seat, but passengers think different and always say “F**k me this is fast”, I only have the 192 RX8 but 192bhp and 165lbs/ft of torque in a car that weighs 1300kg, 0-60 in just over 7 seconds isn’t too shabby in my opinion.

Just as I was getting back into the town I live from my little drive to the village outside of town (25 miles there and back) the evil dreaded fuel light came on, now i knew the RX8 used a lot of fuel but I was surprised to see the fuel light so soon, as I got closer to the petrol station the lower the needle went… then I hit the school run, that ten minutes sat in traffic was one of the worse times of my life, even worse then when I sharted in P.E in year 8, I mean wait what, I finally arrived at the petrol station chucked in £20 and I went off back home.

Sunday came around and boom off I went out in the car, going a bit more steady with my lead foot, driving around town popped it into 3rd gear at 20mph, the car began to judder like it was going to stall, after that I got the revs to around 3000rpm before changing up, had a look on the RX8 forums to find out a little insight about what happened, because of the rotors 3000rpm is the same as 1000rpm in a normal car (something to know if you buy an RX8) this means the power band is up around the 3500-4000rpm range, the car can feel a little slugglish underneath those rpm but don’t let that put you off the magnificence of rotary engines, once you hit that rev range and you hear that exhaust note and watch the speedo shoot up you’ll forget all about that.

The car is sat quite low so don’t go speeding over those pesky speed bumps otherwise you will be pulling a face like you done as a child when you were given calpol as you hear either your exhaust scrape, even though the RX8 is sat low that doesn’t mean it isn’t a comfortable drive, the suspension is fantastic in my opinion, grips like nothing I have ever driven before, comfortable but very accurate and it really gives you the confidence to push the car to its limits, you can feel the road through the steering wheel and you know exactly where the wheels are pointing at any given time, but you will feel those pot holes as well, but you’ve got to take the good with the bad.

Inside the car is nothing but fancy, 6cd changer, all leather, electric and heated seats, a/c, digital and analogue gauges. In a normal car this would be some pricey extras but every RX8 I have come across this is standard. The interior is similar to the tardist from Doctor Who, looks small on the outside but you have plenty of room on the inside, i’m 6ft mainly legs and even I can sit comfortably in the back of in. If you like being able to store your possessions out of sight you’re in luck, so many compartments dotted around in the front and back.

I have the 2006 Mazda RX8, meaning that the road tax bracket is higher than 04-05 due to emission changes they allow in a car, this means you’ll have to pay a whopping £505 a year to drive it on the roads, this sucks I know, but the amount of car you get for the price they are nowadays is totally worth it, the insurance isn’t too bad either i’m 22 and pay 600 a year, 3 years no claims, (2 years named driver before that) and no crashes.

If you’re thinking about getting something for the weekend or even a fast daily, if you can get past the MPG being around 20 if you’re sensible 80% of the time, around 25 MPG on the motorway, I’d definitely recommend the RX8, even though the tax is expensive, the fuel is ridiculous, burns a litre of oil every 1000 miles and parts are expensive. The drive you get from it and the way it makes you feel while driving it, it’s totally worth it, I still smile every time I drive it, it’s poorly at the moment, a friend flooded it, yes they are prone to flooding but only if you switch them off before they are warmed up, try to let it warm up for a few minutes before you set off. Always check if the engine has been rebuilt, the engines last around 60-70 thousand miles.

Congratulations if you’ve read this, I know its long winded but it needed to be.
Cheers Tom