The cursor of my mouse hovered over the bid button. Two minutes and 12 seconds left to run. I hadn’t come here to bid, I thought restlessly, just to watch. But that price, come on, it wasn’t going to go for that. I dashed through the essentials again, convinced I had missed something: no, there were no huge red flags in its MOT test history, it only had one tyre-related advisory, there was no record of accident damage, it all looked correct, and the specialist selling the car had a good reputation and said the right things. And there was no reserve, I realised. If it went, it went.
Twenty-five seconds. Someone slung in another £50, displacing the previous bidder. Surely, a last-gasp barrage of bids must be incoming. Don’t call me Shirley, I mused, as the counter struck zero and the page refreshed. Yes, the limited-edition Mazda RX-8 Nemesis I was looking at, with some 60,000 miles on the clock, in a sublime Copper Red Mica with stone-coloured leather, had sold for just £1950, including fees. That’s right: only two grand for a distinctive, well-specified sports car. And a manual, rear-drive, LSD-equipped one, capable of 0-62mph in 7.2 seconds, at that.
It wasn’t even a common car, with only 350 Nemesis models being sold in the UK, 200 of which were red, the rest Stormy Blue. But, yes, I can see many of you waving your hands at me in alarm already. It’s true, there are many reasons that RX-8s generally don’t command strong money, despite their visual and on-paper appeal. Reasons that, justifiably, may lead some to disregard it entirely. However, when bought with careful consideration, the Mazda can prove an evocative, viable, and worthwhile alternative to the likes of the BMW Z4, Audi TT, Nissan 350Z, and even the Honda S2000.
