Road Test: 2004 Honda S2000 vs. Mazda RX-8 vs. Nissan 350Z
Three For The Road: What makes a modern sports car? We wring out a trio of distinctly different approaches to making power, connecting apexes, and accommodating passengers
By Chris Walton
Photography by John Kiewicz, Brian Vance
There was a time when sport coupes filled this magazine's pages. For example, our July 1995 issue featured a shootout with a Honda Prelude VTEC, Toyota MR2 Turbo, Nissan 300ZX Turbo, Chevrolet Camaro, Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4, Pontiac Trans Am, Toyota Supra Turbo, and Mazda RX-7 R2, among others. Where are they now? Within just a few years of that test, all would disappear outright or withdraw from our market.
Jump to 2004, and, suddenly, coupes and convertibles are back with a vengeance. Why? Besides a worldwide economic upturn, the cars themselves have come down in absolute and relative price, fuel consumption and performance are better--as are emissions--and, believe it or not, the cars are a whole lot easier to drive and to live with.
Sure, the Corvette's and Porsche 911's flames burn steadily, but who would've expected a Pontiac GTO, Chrysler Crossfire, the return of the BMW 6 Series, Nissan's Z car, or even the rotary-powered RX-8?
The three front-engine rear-drive sports cars we selected for this test implicitly and explicitly promise a rewarding driving experience. Yet each delivers it in a fundamentally different way.
Snapshot
THE PLAYERS
One unconventional 2004 sport "coupe," Mazda's RX-8 ($27,200), takes on Nissan's worthy 350Z ($34,890) and a refreshed driver's favorite, the Honda S2000 ($33,840). THE GAME
Which one best defines a modern sports car and how does instrumented testing support--or refute--our subjective conclusions? |
The much-revised-for-2004 Honda S2000 is a lightweight, inline-four-cylinder screamer with one foot in the traditionalist drop-top two-seater past and the other in the high-tech high-revving present. Mazda's all-new RX-8 bucks the status quo with a twin-rotor Wankel engine (the first here since the RX-7 departed in the 1995 model year), unique styling, and useful "freestyle" rear half-doors--allowing passengers actually to use those rear seats. Finally, the brisk-selling 2004 Nissan 350Z two-seater appeals to the driver's senses with its edgy looks, muscular V-6, engrossing sound, and quick reflexes, particularly in the Track Model we test here.
Which is best for you? Is performance a priority at all costs? Do you need to accommodate more than one passenger? How important is styling on your wish list? We've run our usual battery of instrumented track tests, but to help rank these three, we've dissected each of their abilities to go, stop, and corner with three additional analyses: Motor Trend's Figure-Eight, a step-steer reaction test, and an examination of how and when each makes its horsepower and torque over the entire rev range. (See the sidebars for details.)
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