This is the 2007 Mazda RX-8

It has a 1.3L rotary engine making 232 HP and 159 lbs.-ft. of torque at 5,500 rpm.  It redlines at an astounding 9000 rpm!

Mine is the Grand Touring model, although the Honda dealership selling it thought it was a Sport model.  The GT comes with a number of amenities over the Sport, including xenon HID headlights, dynamic stability control and a keyless entry/keyless start system.

I first became interested in the RX-8 when I came to the sad realization that my Miata PRHT wasn't going to cut it for a guy with three kids.  The problem was, I'd only ever heard the bad things about it.  The knocks on the RX-8 were: 1) it gets bad gas mileage, 2) it burns oil, and 3) the engines were prone to failure.  However after really looking into it I discovered that 2) and 3) were not what they seemed at first glance.  It still gets pretty poor gas mileage (16 city and 24 highway), especially for a 1.3L normally aspirated engine.  And the car does burn oil but that's actually by design.  It uses the engine oil not just to lubricate the three (yes, that's right - three (3)) moving parts but also the six apex seals found at the three points of each of the two rotors.  Because these seals are inside the "combustion chamber," the oil that is used to lubricate them inevitably gets burned off.  Most people estimate that an owner needs to add about one quart of oil in between 3,000 mile oil changes.  As for engine failures - most were apparently because the owners didn't add that quart of oil in between oil changes.  In other words, the owners treated the rotary engine like a regular piston engine and never checked the oil level between regular oil changes.  As a result, the oil level in the engine dropped below the minimum level and - *poof* - there went the engine.

I've already made my first two modifications to the car; I hardwired my Valentine1 radar detector with a remote display and I bought and installed the XCarLink iPod integration kit.  I'm very happy with both mods.  In the future I plan on adding clear corners and Sylvania Silverstar fog lights, lowering the car with lowering springs and replacing the stock shocks with Tokico D-Spec adjustable shocks.  Until then, though, I'll be motoring happily down the road.

By the way - the pics are clickable to get to higher resolution versions.