I drove the RX8

Andy has included me on the insurance so I can drive the car. It must be said that this is in no way a second car for me (shame), but is a practical arrangement for moving cars around the top of our road and other things we have to do occasionally.

It is a lovely car to drive, but the short circuit to the motorway, and back could never do it justice. Being a rotary engine it is made to operate at higher revs that a normal car. That takes a bit of getting used to - I stalled it coming up a hill to a roundabout. Apart from that it accelerates quickly, as you'd expect, its also smooth and comfortable - even on the poor quality Essex roads. The only difficulty I had was keeping it to the speed limit - it seems to always want to go faster. There were a couple of junctions where I stopped and I needn't have, because this car would easily get you through the gap. We were on public roads in the day time, so there was no chance to try out the traction control, or really push the acceleration. Visibility while driving is surprisingly good. With the shape of the car I expected large blind spots, but there are only couple of places where you could loose another car.

My 'old man' test for a car these days is "Can I sit in it and drive for 3 hours without getting uncomfortable?". For my two cars the answer is different. For the Previa - yes its very comfortable. For the Micra no - no more than 30 mins before I start to have so shuffle around.

For the RX8, I suspect the answer is yes. It is incredibly comfortable, and the seat can be reconfigured in many ways.

I'm looking forward to another go.