Well I took a test drive today in a black 2004 Mazda RX8 with the so called "sports package" whatever that means. It was the one with the flappy paddle gearbox. It has 50,000 miles on it and only one previous owner. Power everything, Sun roof, shiny wheels, you get the point.

The car was located at a Chevrolet, Pontiac, GM, Cadillac dealer so I'm assuming it was a trade in.

After pulling up I immediately have a salesman jump on my dick and begin asking questions. At one point he tried to cross sell me a VW Rabbit. I responded politely by stating that VW's are gay.

Anyway he pretty much just handed me they keys and said take it for a spin, no photocopying of my drivers license or insurance. Desperation anyone?

So I get in and it takes like 20 seconds for the thing to turn over and start. I ask if it usually does this and he said "yes". I put it in drive and took my foot off the brake and by the sound it made I could tell it had not been driven lately. So I took her easy, for about 20 feet, Then proceeded to peel out of the dealership lot, took a quick right and got onto the highway.

Traffic sucked.

I finally get to a portion exiting town. Two lanes at 55mph with almost no traffic. First gear up to 7.5K RPM and then I clicked the paddle. I've never driven anything with paddle shifters before so one could say I popped that cherry today. It did 100mph easily.

It's fast. Keep in mind I drive a Chevrolet Cobalt 2.2 slow edition so technically a Schwinn is faster.

I then drove down a back road to a local apple orchard that features a nice road with many twists and sharp corners. I'm not going to lie it handled pretty damn good. Not that I'm a professional driver or anything. I did deliver pizzas for 2 years though so that's close enough.

The interior was impressive also. Heated leather seats, leather wrapped steering wheel, Turns out RX8's have 4 doors. Who knew? Nothing really felt cheap or lacking. That is until I turned the radio on. Good thing the engine revs high because there is no way in hell I can stand listening to that rubbish sound quality. My Cobalt is better.

I'm 6'5 and felt very comfortable in the car. I was wearing Timberland boots (because I'm one fly mofo) so space down by the pedals was tight. Other than that I had plenty of headroom.

Concern:

- At traffic lights or just being stopped anywhere in park the engine idled down to about 800RPM's and the car rattled like a spray paint can in East Harlem. Is this normal?

So what did I learn today?

1. GM dealerships know absolutely nothing about RX8's and probably Mazdas in general.

2. RX8's are fun.

3. RX8's are more than what I expected.

4. Dealers don't like it when you peel out of their lots.

5. Insurance rates on these things are cheap. ($1.74 cheaper per month than my current premium)

6. Rotarys sound nice.

7. Quiggs is in Florida.

8. Mazda RX8's are fun.

Honestly I would not have gone to look at a RX8, let alone text drive one, if I wasn't in the market to upgrade to something with more balls than the Slobalt.

I don't however think I would stick with a 2004, but definetley a newer one. Additionally, even though the flappy paddle shifters were fun, I want that third pedal.

I know that Peter (Matra et Alpine) owns an RX8 so I have a few questions to throw down:

1. How reliable is this rotary engine? The RX8 in general?
2. Will a Ford dealership service it?
3. Snow? (possible LOL's here)
4. What do you get in terms of economy?
5. In terms of status symbol how many pairs of panties am I expected to drop in this thing?
6. How do you think it will be for commuting 50 miles/5 days per week?
7. Whats with taking so long to turn over? and the shaking?

Thats about it. I returned the car and talked to the salesman about it. At this point I realized that not only does he have a horrible shirt and tie combination but I know more about the RX8 than he does. He gave me his business card, shook my hand, and I left.