Had a great time at the weekend Renesis event and got the chance to drive the Prodrive tuned Mazda RX8 PZ special edition.

The car differs from the standard one by having gun metal grey alloys, this looks great on a black car but on the grey one it looked a bit naff. There is a small spoiler on the rear and discreet Prodrive badges to complete the cosmetics.

Inside all is really rather nice. The cabin is nicely laid out and the quality of the plastics is very good indeed.

Headroom with a crash helmet on was a bit limited and I felt there was less rom in the footwell than in the Nissan 350Z. Cabin space in the front is similar to the Honda S2000 = small. But it is still very nice.

The gear lever is (like the S2000) perfectly placed a top the huge transmission tunnel and space in the back is even quite good.

On the track the car felt very nice, smooth power delivery made it feel slower than it actually was and the noise was good but not as good as my car's V6.

Turn in was instantaneous and it felt very very well planted on high speed bends.

At speed it seemed more neutral than the 350Z which would have felt rather twitchy corner at the speeds I was doing. The Mazda's ESP/TC system has different levels too which is nice.

All in all its a very very nice car:thumbup:

A very linear power delivery, I found when I had the chance to drive one. I know what you mean about it not feeling as quick as it is actually flying along at!! Still, a very nice car like you say. MPG lets it down though.

Nice review, I quite like the look of the RX8. I took a close look at one when I was picking my last vRS up from Mitchells. Very Nice

Its child friendly too with 4 seats (baby seat has to go in the front seat though, apparently :confused:

I went on the renesis in Edinburgh, too. What a brilliant idea to let you use a car in the way it's supposed to be used and experience them at the hands of a professional driver or two.

Needing a saloon type car which really rules out the rx8 and mx5, I was quite impressed with the Mazda 6 that they used for the J turns. My X3 comes out of its lease early next year so it's time to look round again. I thought the mazda 6 MPS 260 bhp 4wd may be it but having read some damning comments re styling and the 4x4 system I'm not so sure. I was driven up to Edinburgh by a briskoda member in a 1.9 diesel and I was well impressed with quality and comfort. I had an old style RS and loved it. I'm beginning to think about a new one. petrol or diesel, though???

I took a test drive in a Chrysler 300c this week. Nice car but not for me.

A chap at work has a 300C, I think the word I used to describe the light grey plasticy American interior was rancid.