Mazda RX-8, 6

Mazda RX-8, 6 is a sports car for people who care more about balance and engine character than about easy daily use. By our assessment, its rotary engine and rear-wheel-drive layout give it a distinctive, rev-hungry feel that made it stand out from ordinary coupés. The trade-off is well known too: the rotary setup asks for more patience and attention than a simple piston engine, and that limits its appeal as a carefree all-rounder. In practice it feels like a car built around steering, chassis balance and the joy of keeping the engine on the boil, not around relaxed commuting. Against typical four-seat sports cars, it is more unusual and more involved, and that is the point of it. The Mazda RX-8, 6 fits someone who wants a driver’s car first and an easy appliance second.