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Man Maths: Mazda RX-8

4 weeks ago

Writer:

Dan Prosser | Ti co-founder

Date:

24 May 2025

This will be heretical to those who love them, but I often wonder how much better the Mazda RX-8 would’ve been without its quirky rotary engine. I know, I’m really asking for it… And to be fair, there are many wonderful things about rotary engines, like screaming redlines, eerily smooth power delivery, compact size, lightness and so on. And according to history, an RX Mazda really ought to be powered by a couple of Doritos spinning away furiously in their oddly shaped combustion chambers.

But then there’s the reality. Even with around 230bhp, the most powerful RX-8 never felt that quick. Or to put it another way, unless you spanked the thing absolutely everywhere, you’d get dusted down the dual carriageway by a turbodiesel Golf. A peak torque output of 159lb ft at 5500rpm meant the RX-8 was about as flexible as an iron rod. In principle I don’t mind that at all – why shouldn’t a driver have to work at it in a driver’s car? – but if you want to feel a kick in the back when you flatten your accelerator pedal, the RX-8 ain’t for you.

Its dinky 1.3-litre Renesis engine would be perfectly suited to a very lightweight car, like a Caterham. Truly a match made in heaven. Skinny torque in a car weighing 600kg simply isn’t a problem. But the RX-8 weighed close to 1400kg, against which that amount of torque is always going to have its work cut out.

Buying a fastidiously maintained RX-8 is vital to avoid rotary engine issues

And then there are all the other issues with rotaries, like dreadful fuel consumption, their appetite for oil and in the case of the RX-8, the sad and unfortunate reality that they’re just not terribly reliable. Search the internet and you’ll find countless owners proselytising on RX-8s and how dependable they really are if only you maintain them properly. And perhaps they’re right. But if you buy one now, even a very late one, it’ll be at least 13 years old. It could be up to 22 years old. And it’s difficult to know just how well a car of that age has been looked after over the years.

This is where the specialists come in. There are many out there offering engine rebuilds for only a couple of grand, with new and upgraded rotor tips that should prove more durable. So I think that’s the key to buying one of these cars – do your research and find one that’s been cared for by a doting owner who’s properly dialled into these unusual cars and all the curious things one must do to keep them in rude health, like adding two-stroke oil to the fuel.

I was expecting to find the classifieds fit to burst with the used RX-8s, but no. There are just 20 on AutoTrader and five on PistonHeads. I wonder how many have ended up on the scrapheap because they weren’t economical to repair. You can pay less than £1000 for an RX-8, but unless you’re looking for a project I suggest you don’t. Meanwhile, right at the top end, it seems the most one can pay for the fittest, freshest and best specified RX-8 is only £12,000 or so.

The RX-8 looks a bargain compared to some sports cars of its era

Imagine if Mazda had decided not to fit a rotary engine here...

Now compare that to the Honda S2000, a broadly comparable sort of car from around the same era – the best examples of which can fetch £30,000 – and it becomes clear the market doesn’t really hold the poor old RX-8 in terribly high regard at all. Here’s a sports car with great styling, 50:50 weight distribution, an LSD, double wishbones at the front and a multilink rear axle at the back, genuinely useful little rear suicide doors and seating for four, and nobody seems to want them.

I put it down to that rotary engine, both the way they must be driven and maintained. Now imagine if the RX-8 was powered by the shrieking four-cylinder from the S2000. No more torque, I know, but the same high redline and absolutely incomparable reliability. It’d be a cast-iron modern classic.

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