RX-8 owners?

I got to play with the "new" RX-8's and a leftover 40th Anny Edition over the weekend. Being a Mazda/Rotary fanboy I of course wanted to love it, but I have 3 serious questions.

1. How do you fit in the car with a helmet? I tried manual and power seats and sunroof/hardtop and couldn't fit in any of them with my helmet on (yeah, I had my GForce at a new car dealer, sue me). I'm 5'10", maybe 5'11" with shoes and 225, and it's a super-common helmet. How do you do it in the fantastic stock seats?

2. What's up with the center console? The entire looks and feels really high class all over, but then the gigantic console is nothing but cheap, hard plastic. I normally don't care about stuff like that, but with it being so large and something you actually touch, it seemed awkward.

3. Last one, does anybody actually use the back seat? I could get in and out, and it was comfy, but it was claustrophobic. I don't get that usually, but in an all-black interior it suddenly seemed really confined back there. I'm fine in the back of a black interior GTO so maybe it's the small windows/center console thing?

Driving was excellent, the chassis felt literally like a slot car, it could do no wrong. The fancy gauges in the new ones are really cool, though I don't understand the HUGE pods with TINY gauges. Shifter was excellent and clutch feel was good. Steering was superb. Power was... lacking. Granted there were three fat men in the car, but it just did not have any power to ~6000 RPMs. My 12A felt faster. That car needs boost.

I know one person that bought one. Consumed massive amounts of oil, got 18 mpg and needed a new engine in under 12k miles. Great car.

Mine gets 20-21mpg, not great for the power but not as bad as some fellow owners claim. I think the general rule is try not to get one of the early 04's, every one who has had a lot of major engine problems had an 04. I dearly love mine. The console is a little cheap looking but it works well, not sure what you mean by awkward as it never interferes in the driving process. I use by back seat a good bit. It is like having a second trunk. I can also fit normal sized people in the back seats. I have in the past put 2 220lb guys in the back seat and gone on extended drives. I have the manual seats am 5'11" and weigh 190 and the helmet i used at my last autocross fit. It does feel much slower when 3 more people are in the car.

speedblind wrote: I know one person that bought one. Consumed massive amounts of oil, got 18 mpg and needed a new engine in under 12k miles. Great car.

Mazda had a recall on that scenario. Replaced engine for free. Then extended the recall and warranty to the earlier cars before the fix was in place. I was VERY impressed at that level of service, personally.

got to drive one for the first time on a few autoX fun runs last weekend. once you spin the engine up, its moves pretty well...didn't feel especially lacking in power, but then again, i drive a '91 miata. i figure if you want a corvette, don't buy an RX8. it certainly could use more headroom, but the one i drove had a sunroof.

i rode for four hours in the back seat with no trouble...as car seats go, it's very comfy for sleeping. i'm 6', 200lbs.

if/when the 1.6L version comes out, it will be in my driveway.

speedblind wrote: I know one person that bought one. Consumed massive amounts of oil, got 18 mpg and needed a new engine in under 12k miles. Great car.

oy vey. it's a rotary...it's supposed to use oil.

otherwise sounds like he didn't drive it very hard. that would partly explain the early engine death.

The back seats are surprisingly comfortable. They don't look like they'd be, but the seats in front of you curve in all the right places to give you leg room. Your seat is comfortable as well.

It's true you don't have a broad expanse of glass to look out of, but that hasn't bothered me.

The rear seat was comfy. I guess it was the dark car/interior/dealership that felt weird. Actually riding in the back of the 40th Anny (different colored interior and a sunroof) was nice.

On the console, it looks nice, it just doesn't feel nice. It made the same annoying creaking plastic noises as the entire P71 interior. Normally wouldn't bother me, but a 2-star console (especially one of that size) in a 5-star interior stands out really badly.

I looked up the 1/4 mile time on an RX8, and now I see why it felt slow with 3 fat dudes inside. It's not exactly quick to begin with.

The 16X holds promise, any idea when it comes out?

One of life's great mysteries. Their has been rampant speculation on RX8 club for years. Mazda will tease us every now and then but no one really knows. With the new fleet mpg standards i am worried that Mazda might decide its just too much trouble to bring it over here.