Closing the Circle on the Rotary
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TESTED 2011 Mazda RX-8 Grand Touring
WHAT IS IT? A quirky sports car with four doors, four seats and the last rotary engine we're likely to see in the foreseeable future.
HOW MUCH? $33,055 as tested with no options.
WHAT MAKES IT RUN? 1.3-liter Renesis rotary engine (232 horsepower, 159 pound-feet of torque), 6-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive.
IS IT THIRSTY? Unfortunately, the RX-8 needed, and has received, an intervention. Its E.P.A. rating of 16/22 m.p.g. compares unfavorably with heavier and more powerful machines. (The 505-horsepower Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is rated 15/24.)
ALTERNATIVES BMW 128i, Nissan 370Z, the (rare) gently used Honda S2000.
ON a crisp fall day in 2003, I drove one of the first Mazda RX-8s -- one of the first 10 made, my notes say -- away from Pocono Raceway and onto the back roads of eastern Pennsylvania, bound for upstate New York.
I remember a few things about that trip, including the acrid aroma of fried brakes -- auto writers had flogged the car on the racetrack all day -- as well as a synthesized female voice ordering me, every half-minute or so, to make a U-turn. The navigation system had frozen, forever fixated on some unforgettable destination, and would not be silenced until I pulled over and pried out its fuse.
The other thing I remember was falling in love with that ragged early-production car. With its quick steering, impeccable balance and free-winding engine, it glued itself to the mountain roads. Inside the low-set cabin -- once wrong-way Wanda had shut up -- I enjoyed the fine driving position, well-placed controls and supportive seats.
But I moved on, driving an RX-8 only once or twice since then. For me, as for many Americans on the hunt for a sporty car, the Mazda with the cartoonish fenders and curious rear half-doors was largely forgotten. The market shifted, and the compact but gas-swilling rotary engine no longer seemed a wonder. Only 759 RX-8s were sold in 2011.
So Mazda discontinued the car, capping the seven-year run with a Spirit R tribute edition available only in Japan. But for old times' sake, before the last RX-8 left the press fleet, I took a last spin in the only production car powered by a triangular rotor that whirls within the combustion chamber -- the "spinning Dorito," in owners' parlance.
The Velocity Red 2011 test car was in considerably better condition than its talkative ancestor, but the driving experience was as invigorating as I remembered. The chassis was solid, the brakes were emphatic, the steering was quick and precise. The engine revved like crazy -- calling to mind another beloved but defunct sports car, the Honda S2000 -- on its way to a 9,000 r.p.m. redline. The crisp manual transmission was close to perfection.
First Published February 5, 2012 12:01 am
