Sports cars are the automotive equivalent of pure lust: there’s no rhyme or reason to wanting that piece of metal other than it looks fantastic and drives brilliantly.  Then you discover that you have no place to stow your groceries, or that there’s only space for two adults.  Being the most unconventional of carmakers, Mazda decided to put a twist on its sports car offering, and make it something else entirely.

So when is a sports car not a sports car?  When it has four doors, four full seats, an automatic gearbox, and no engine—at least not in the conventional sense.  An engine that has no pistons, camshafts, valves, or any of those bits that contrive to produce power in a conventional power plant.  For the Mazda RX-8 is unlike any sports car—and unlike any other car, for that matter. 

Under the short, sharp hood is Mazda's signature power plant, the rotary engine. Instead of pistons that move up and down within an engine block, this engine has two triangular rotors sandwiched together and spinning within a cocoon-shaped combustion chamber.  Using efficient circular instead of linear motion, 1.3 liters generates 197 hp at 7200 rpm, without a turbo at that.

The RENESIS (“Rotary Genesis”) is much smaller than a conventional engine: 60 percent smaller than a comparably-powered V6, and 40 percent smaller than a four-cylinder.  The compact engine allows a four-seat interior to fit within the RX's small footprint. 

The RX is a genuine four-seater, with a clever means of accessing the rear seats.  After opening the front door, you pull open a smaller rear-hinged door that opens wide—80 degrees.  No need to contort, fold or spindle yourself into the back, or even move the front seats forward.  The “Freestyle” doors work because there’s no B-pillar; the rear doors latch onto the roof and floor.  Reinforced sections work essentially as removable B-pillars, and channel the impact of a side-collision into the car’s frame.  Everything shuts as tightly as on a sedan.

The front seats are thin-shelled buckets that wouldn’t look out of place in a jet fighter, and the back seats are similar shaped, with ample headroom and sufficient knee room.  Just as important, there’s plenty of space beneath the front seats for your feet.  Interestingly, the rear seats incorporate Iso-Fix child-seat anchors, and a rear-facing child seat slots in easily, also thanks to the rear doors.  Junior might find it slightly claustrophobic because of the tiny rear windows.

A large center tunnel divides the interior, housing the one-piece carbon-fiber driveshaft and exhaust components, and contributing to the chassis stiffness.  Deep-set gauges, including a large center tachometer with inset digital speedo, red leather inserts, and shiny Japanese-lacquer panels conspire to excite even before you crank the engine.

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