With work comes reward – or so we are taught – and it is best to digest that idiom before extracting full performance from an RX-8. To match our 7.1sec 0-60mph time and 18.1sec 0-100mph sprint you’ll need to shift sharply a few rpm short of the 9500 limiter every time. Change early and the engine’s lack of torque means a critical drop in revs for the next cog, and that in turn stunts the forward thrust.
On the road, the RX-8 also challenges in a different way; it will question your need for instant overtaking thump, because it simply doesn’t have much. But if swapping cogs, smart declutched downshifts and staggering mechanical refinement are listed among your interests, the RX-8 will prove irresistible. Who cares about torque when, at 9300rpm, this engine sounds like a superbike with a naughty tailpipe? You just have to try most of the time. For smoothness, though, it remains unbeatable for the money.
But it’s a softish set-up and so indulging in a high-rev appetite and body roll becomes excessive, understeer an occupational hazard. It’s not an ideal combination for a car that aims to tempt you to sacrifice some practicality in the name of sportiness.
A question mark also hangs over the bodyshell’s rigidity. Over harsh surfaces there’s a fair amount of shimmy and big hits send shakes through the steering column. Likewise despite being rear drive, it’s a rear-drive car that offers very little of what you’d expect of something with the optimum configuration.