But fall in love I did. The fatter tyres and stiffer suspension have radically improved the drive of the RX-8, taking it to a higher plane of dynamic acuity. That tiny powerplant is mounted so low and so far back in the conk of the R3 that understeer is absolutely outlawed by precision 50:50 weight distribution.

   The Mazda just grips, and grips, and grips a whole lot more, all the time informing you of every nuance of its stance and tweak of its tail through the nerves around your coccyx. It is a sublime handling car, backed up by that eerie Wankel engine – it’s so utterly without noise, vibration or harshness that you at first condemn the R3 as woefully slow, until you spare a rushed glance at the speedo in the midst of your frenzied back road thrash and see that your velocity is probably double what you would’ve been mentally comfortable doing.

   Yes, the R3 needs stoking up to really set off the fireworks… but as I alluded to in my S2000 piece, why buy a driver’s car if you can’t be arsed to actually drive the thing with any gusto?

We just hope that the econutters haven't dissuaded Mazda from building more fantastic rotaries. The FD RX-7 was very good and the RX-8 R3 is truly special so its replacement will have a lot to live up to.

The RX-8 is a beacon of non-conformity in a world of increasingly bland motors. In R3 form, complete with revised face and bottom,
we reckon this Wankel coupé looks better than ever.

    The RX-8 still has its flaws; it continues to munch Castrol and drink Super like it is single-handedly attempting to empty the world’s crude oil reserves, and the depreciation – brought on by the general public’s fear of the unknown, here in rotary form – will be terrifying in the mid-term.

   But there’s the rub. Buy one now, for peanuts, revel in the fact that it is possibly one of the finest handling cars on the market, and some ten years down the line (it is Japanese, after all – no worries on reliability), when Mazda has finally seen sense and given up the ghost with rotary engines, this will be a guaranteed collectable – take those prescient prophets who held onto their NSU Ro80s and Citroën GS Birotors as shining examples.

   The only thing you have to worry about is supplies of decent engine oil lasting the course… but then, as fans of classic motors, it wouldn’t feel right if we championed a car that didn’t need a drop of black gold from time to time, now would it?