Case Lancair wrote:

So Paul,
After experiencing the RX8 are you still keen to have one in your garage?

Case

We had a two groups of people around during test day. Rotor heads
and non-rotor heads. The non-rotor heads had never owned a rotary
and did not understand it. They kept picking nits. "The Z car is
.3 seconds faster 0-60." "The back seat is too small."
"It doesn't look like a sports car." "The metal flake paint
job is out." etc., etc., etc..  I don't quite understand
this. Obviously they don't have a clue as to the advantages of
the rotary having never owned one. I finally told them; "Hey, 
we don't care! It's a Mazda rotary!  That is all we need to know :) 

Well I guess there are fans of different brands of cars.
For an example; a Chevy fan would not be caught dead in a Ford.
One of the non-rotor heads was a fan of the BMW Mini for &^%$# sakes.

We took it over to the pits where Honda was testing several IRL race cars
on the 2.5  mile oval. Several Honda mechanics and engineers recognized it 
immediately and came over to have a look. They were very interested.

Driving a rotary for the first time, especially around the
city, is rather unremarkable. In fact one may be put
off by the lack of squirt away from a stop light. It takes
living with it on the open road to appreciate the effortless
high speed cruise and passing ability. Also they don't appreciate
the long term durability of the engine having never owned one. 
If you change the oil, check the old nylon apex seal oil lines 
and keep the cooling system in good shape it will go 300,000 miles
or more no problem. I know. I have owned five of them in the last 
30 years. In fact I have never worn out a rotary engine. Something 
I cannot say about piston engine cars I have also owned. In racing
they outlast the piston engines ten to one.

Paul Lamar
 
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