Dealer turned me on to this site. Nice pics on how our beloved 8's came to be.

www.mazdadesign.net

man thanks alot... i enjpyed those pics... mazda put so much effort into making this car perfect... SINCE 1993 ... Dam long time... they made like 10 different cars before the production one... good job mazda... now make a rx-7 2-door that only 20,000 us dollars... yeh yeah.. so start on it next week and be done by 2006-2007

This could have a been a FAR BETTER read end for the 8. More in tune with the FD:

Far better overall, damn that looks nice

Originally posted by IkeWRX
Far better overall, damn that looks nice

I would:

1. Use the images tail lights
2. Use the current exhaust finishing (with matching colors...not the regular black plastic)

Only problem with the taillight design is that Ford copied it over to their car line - note earlier taurus (now the wagons) the ZX cars also have the same style.


I DO like it though.

I rather like the rear window and overall cleaner design, the doors seem far more integrated, the roofline is less bubble like, all the quarter panels flow together, and the venting behind the front wheelwells is gone. I would imagine rear headroom is sacrificed with this design though.

Mazda engineers/designers wanted to do a hatchback and the lines would have been close to non-compromised... of course the whole fit 4 thing ruined that concept :)

Originally posted by IkeWRX
I rather like the rear window and overall cleaner design, the doors seem far more integrated, the roofline is less bubble like, all the quarter panels flow together, and the venting behind the front wheelwells is gone. I would imagine rear headroom is sacrificed with this design though.

I agree. I was sketching over a picture of a stock RX-8, and I notched the rear windows on the lower sill, and made the rear windshield almost completely vertical where it meets the 'C" pillar, creating a "basket handle" roll bar look.

This design flows a lot better than the production model. I'll bet we'll see some of these ideas incorporated in the next version of the car.