Mazda RX-8

I sometimes wonder why Mazda hasn’t capitalized on a little tongue in cheek parody advertising in their efforts to promote the RX-8 as the most unique sports car available in North America. Go ahead, name

Good looks are only the start of the Mazda RX-8; it's a whole world filled with wonderful design and masterful engineering. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press)

me one other sports car that has a rotary engine or suicide doors. Okay, the Ion Red Line comes to mind with suicide doors, but that just has a relatively boring turbocharged inline four. Or is it supercharged? Whatever. Yawn.

Now comes the part where you ask: "What’s a Wankel?" No it’s not British slang for the socially ill adapted, rather it’s the name of the man who patented an early rotary engine, a fabulously different way of approaching internal combustion than your average four-stroke piston and cylinder engines. Any review of the RX-8 has to start with an explanation of how it differs from the usual internal combustion engine.

Before I get too into my own rotary obsession I thought I’d share a great quote from my colleague Rob Rothwell on the subject of advanced engineering: "Tell the basic non-car guy or gal that your Passat is powered by a W8 engine

A photo of an RX-8, for those who might not be curious as to what a rotary looks like. (Photo: Kogodos, Canadian Auto Press)

and you may as well tell them it’s powered by eight turbo-charged gerbils running amok in a hydrogen fuel cell." When I first read those words, he earned my undying respect and a big laugh and many nostalgic chuckles whenever the line comes to mind again. I don’t think I could better phrase the feelings of those who simply don’t know and don’t care, and the same can be said of the Renesis rotary engine in the RX-8, only in this case, the engine somewhat resembles a (triangular) wheel in which a gerbil might run amok. However, for those of you who feel that the RX-8’s internal workings are irrelevant, and it is only an account of its performance that you seek, go ahead and skip the next three paragraphs and spare yourselves my efforts at a mechanical engineering lesson.

Way back in nineteen twenty something in Germany, Felix Wankel (no relation to the Cat) came up with an innovative powerplant by inserting a slightly bulging triangle (with little pockets carved in the walls) into a hollowed out lozenge shape with the long sides pushed in slightly (technically called an epitrochoid). The triangle would travel a complex looping circuit (something like a pen in a Spirograph, although with less variation) instead of pounding up and down like a piston. One of the most beautiful and mysterious aspects of the circuit it travels is that each corner of the triangle is always in contact with the walls of the lozenge-thingy except when it passes over the intake port, exhaust port or the gap for the spark plugs--watching that path in diagram on wikipedia.com always leaves me stunned and captivated (see what I’m referring to and one of the best ways to truly understand the inner workings of a Wankel Cycle engine at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wankel_Cycle_anim_en.gif).

Mazda

A diagram, for those who might be curious as to what a rotary looks like. (Photo: Wikipedia)

came on board the Rotary train in the sixties, and after several generations of high-performance but dubiously reliable RX cars, this Renesis has greatly improved the rotary’s efficiency, durability and emissions. Spaced around the wonky lozenge are, in order: air inlet with fuel injection, a pair of spark plugs and exhaust outlet. Air and fuel are injected from one side of the lozenge at one of the narrow points in the lozenge. The mixture goes into the pocket of the bulging triangle where it meets up with the widest part of the pinched lozenge. As the triangle spins (because of the later stage of combustion), it pushes the mixture of gas and air into the narrower, pinched part of the lozenge, compressing the mixture and making it more combustible, at which point the spark plugs ignite the mixture. The ensuing explosion propels the magical triangle along its path, pushing that pocket down to the other wide end of the lozenge where the exhaust port is located, emptying the pocket of spent gas-fuel mixture, and freeing up space for the fresh air and fuel, and then the cycle begins again and continues ad infinitum or until you turn off the car.

The three sides of the triangle are the equivalent of three mini-cylinders/pistons, but because the triangle spins in one continuous motion, less energy is wasted on the stopping and change of direction at either

1.3 litres, 232 horsepower, but no forced aspiration. Wow. (Photo: Kogodos, Canadian Auto Press)

end of every stroke, and the triangle, which houses the rotor, converts the spinning motion directly into turning the eccentric shaft (which is the rotary version of a crank shaft). There are also far fewer parts, although the materials used in its construction generally need to be very high quality owing to the high demands placed on the few parts. Using a meager 1.3 litres of displacement, the RX-8 makes 232 horsepower without any supercharging or turbocharging. While it has great power efficiency, it suffers from poor fuel efficiency and rather high exhaust emissions because of incomplete combustion of the air-fuel mixture (Mazda keeps emissions in check by actually igniting the exhaust and burning off some of the excess gas, not great for fuel consumption, but better for emissions). Normally I wouldn’t explain so much of the inner workings of an engine, but Mazda’s Renesis engine is so unique that it warrants explanation, and I find its inner workings fascinating enough to delve deeply into its operation in a way I wouldn’t with a conventional piston and cylinder engine.

As mentioned to those who stuck with me through the tech section, the RX-8’s Renesis is able to spin out a racy 232 hp with a similarly racy 159 lb-ft of torque (I say racy because it’s your typical high horsepower and lower torque rating of traditional small-displacement sports cars). Granted, 159 lb-ft of torque isn’t enough to send your spine into vertebral separations, but it definitely gets the wheels moving, and once the engine starts spinning toward five, six, seven thousand rpm, power continues to surge and offer you the sweetest turbine-scream and a rush of acceleration you will love. It’s neither as immediate nor as sinful as the VTEC punch of the S2000, but it has the advantage of being easily manageable and all your torque is online at 5,500 rpm so you don’t have to go quite so

From all angles, the RX-8 looks good; including this one, which shows off its twin pipes, clear lens taillights and lower valance. (Photo: Kogodos, Canadian Auto Press)

ballistic on the pedal to get the most out of corner exits and onramps. You don’t have to, but it’s pretty fun anyway to wind it right up to its maximum revs at 9,000--yeah, that’s right, 9,000.

All that revving makes it a pretty racy little sports car, and it’s not just launch power that is well managed by the 225/45R18 rubber on 18-inch alloy wheels--officially 6 seconds to 100 clicks. The whole car is incredibly well balanced with 48:52 front to rear weight distribution, meaning you can really sling it around corners and come out like you’re carrying your own personal banking, with help from all sorts of suspension wizardry and a stiff chassis. The wizardry consists of fully independent suspension at all corners with front double wishbones and multi-link rear that works in concert with gas filled shocks, a rear stabilizer bar and that rigid chassis to moderate the majority of road traumas on my major thoroughfare to work, not really eliminating them completely,

It's the easiest coupe to get in and out of. Yes, there's leg and headroom in back, too. (Photo: Kogodos, Canadian Auto Press)

but always keeping the four patches of rubber in contact with the road. The tradeoff for taking some punishment on the daily commute was a setup that seemed to exhibit almost no body roll at all even when pushing it to the limits of adhesion on some harrowing turns and a balance of power and weight that allows for oversteer antics.

While some cars might abandon you in mid-corner with evaporating steering feel, the RX-8 continues to send the right signals all the way through the turn by way of the wonderfully constructed steering wheel, which sports red leather accents to match the interior’s red on black theme. It’s a little too ’dominatrix boudoir’ for my tastes, but hey, it wouldn’t stop me from flogging this car for all its worth. And speaking of flogging, once you’ve been properly strapped in, you have a hard time not flogging it, thanks in no small part to perfectly positioned alloy pedals with rubber studs, a Renesis-inspired shifter that snaps eagerly into every gate of the

Tan is also an option, for those who aren't into the whole black 'n red leather thing. (Photo: Kogodos, Canadian Auto Press)

gearbox and a clutch that easily whips into gear as you lift your heel off its neck--you will keep coming back for more and more... and more... umm, where was I now?

Oh yeah, the interior. Despite the kinky atmosphere, most everything is stunningly ergonomic with intuitive controls dressed up in black piano lacquer with a neat metallic ring accent right in the middle of the console giving it another dash of design flair. A bit of a surprise was that there is plenty of storage, also cleverly embedded in the central tunnel as a sliding armrest that revealed a cupholder and then flips open to offer up storage space for a few CDs or whatnots.

Another chapter of the clever design book that the RX-8 rewrote is that, unlike almost other sports coupe on the market, access to the two rear seats is painless

Sometimes the finer things in life just can't be categorized. (Photo: Kogodos, Canadian Auto Press)

thanks to the suicide doors that flip backwards so that rear passengers can step into the wonderfully contoured deep buckets without the usual contortions you’d expect when you first lay eyes on that coupe shape. Those rear seats, aside from being comfortable and supportive, offered sufficient legroom for any of my passengers that sampled them. I don’t know if I would want to wrestle a baby seat into the seats back there because the low roof means awkward reaches from the outside, but it’s surely better than most any sports car. It still won’t beat a tall wagon or SUV for ease of access, so put away your "it’s still a practical family car" argument for some other time--like when you’re shopping for an Audi S4 Avant. In the same vein, the RX-8 obviously gives up quite a bit of storage space, but it’s a sports car so I probably didn’t need to tell you that, although for my needs it was more than enough.

For a categorically challenged car like the RX-8, I must resist the temptation to compare it to anything in autodom, because there really isn’t anything like it out there. To me, it is neither coupe nor sedan, and I could care less what the marketers call it, but it is clearly the ultimate Mazda, with no regard for convention and ultimate regard for a driving experience. While the driving experience might be catapulted into orbit with more horsepower, that might just endanger its balance, and above all else, this car is balanced. Balance between power and handling, balance between grip and comfort, balance with a thrilling drive and practicality and balanced on the teetering edge of lunacy while arriving at the end of many logical progressions, this car is my favourite paradox to date, that I’ve driven or of which I’ve read. Surely the world needs more Wankels, especially if they’re as hot as this one.




Specifications:

• Price Range (RX-8 GT MSRP): $40,395 - $44,500
• Price as Tested (MSRP): $41,500
• Body Type: 4-door coupe
• Layout: front engine, RWD
• Engine: 232-hp, 159 lb-ft of torque, 1.3L, Rotary
• Transmission: 6-spd manual
• Brakes (front/rear): disc/disc, ABS
• Dimensions (L/W/H/WB): 4,424 / 1,770 / 1,340 / 2,700 mm (174.2 / 69.7 / 52.8 / 106.3 in)
• Curb Weight: 1,389 kg (3,062 lbs)
• Tires: 225/45R18
• Cargo Volume (seats up): 418 L (10.3 cu-ft)
• Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 12.9 / 9.2 L/100 km
• Observed Fuel Economy: 13.5 L/100 km
• Warranty (mo/km): 36/80,000 comprehensive; 60/100,000 powertrain
• Competitors: Acura RSX Type-S, Chevrolet Cobalt SS / SS Supercharged, Dodge Caliber R/T, Ford Mustang, Honda Civic Si, Hyundai Tiburon Tuscani, Mitsubishi Eclipse, MINI Cooper S, Pontiac G5 Pursuit GT Coupe, Saturn ION Red Line Coupe, Subaru Impreza WRX, Volkswagen GTI
• Website: www.mazda.ca