Mazda Rx8
Facelifts are funny things. They are usually extremely hard to spot – it costs too much to change the shape of metal body panels so it’s all the plastic bits that get switched around. This means that usually only the front and rear end of a facelifted car will look different.
The new, facelifted Mazda RX8 works to this formula, and yes, it’s hard to spot the difference, but it’s the headlights that distance old and new with a rather more aggressive shape.
There have been some other changes of course, the most important being the dropping of the four speed auto with a six speed Activematic gearbox. We all know that the rotary engine is silkily smooth across the rev range, but with only four ratios on hand acceleration could only be measured in terms of continental drift. Now, with more gear ratios, the gearing can be tailored to keep the engine in its power band much more of the time.
Why then, did Mazda decide to launch the facelifted car at Pukekohe raceway? Sure, the RX8 is the sort of high revving car that suits a long circuit like Pukekohe, but the auto was something of a disappointment. Despite having six gears, and despite using the manual sequential gear change option the car felt unexpectedly slow.
It doesn’t help that the auto is detuned compared to the 170kW manual, with 158kW on hand, but there seems to be something more going on, because when I switched to the six speed manual I’m sure I had stepped into a completely different car.
The engine was much more eager to rev its heart out, performance was improved markedly, and I swear the car cornered better, even though the gearbox should have nothing to do with that. The noise too, was different, with that great hornet-like snarl you expect from a 1.3 litre twin rotor engine spinning at seventy gazillion rpm.
Unfortunately though, at the end of the day, I can’t tell whether either variant is good to drive. The facelifted RX8 has plenty of grip, slides nicely through corners at insane speeds, but until I get behind the wheel of one on the road I can’t tell you how it handles traffic, or speeds below those of the insane. If it’s even vaguely as good as the original though, it’s still a bloody good car.
P.S. Mazda also laid on most of the rest of its range for the day at the track, so I can tell you the Mazda3 MPS is by far the quickest of any Mazda, the Mazda6 understeers a little too much and has intrusive traction control, but that the Mazda CX7 is surprisingly good on the track.
It handles like a slightly taller Mazda3 MPS, although the brakes tend to get a little hot and smoke – a lot. Bad news for the RX8 though, was the not unexpected discovery that the MX5 is by far the most fun car to drive around a racetrack – and that’s a pity, because you hardly ever see any of the current generation MX5 on the road.
