Carpeted Rear Wheelwells? That's Interesting.
 

Ever notice your RX8 has some strange sort of insulation-type material lining the rear wheelwells? Must be some kind of noise deadening ploy. Are we supposed to shampoo them to keep them clean? ;)

The new TL has this

I was wondering when someone was going to post on this. I think this is to keep road noise out of the interior like pebbles flinging off the tires. This stuff looks suspiciously like the carpet Mazda has in the interior!

someoen mentioned it last year ;)

Yeah, I mentioned that last year.
It is the same stuff that is in the trunk.
It seems to come clean pretty easily, though.

Oddly enough, I noticed this today as well.

I'm feeling guilty, I've washed the car a couple times already and didn't notice, obviously I'm not doing as good of a job as I should be !!! I'll check it out tomorrow, I can't imagine carpeted wheelwells....

Don't feel bad, I doubt most people would notice unless they took the wheels off and were working under there.

The carpet looks like it's easily replacable in case of wear/damage, but I didn't check to see how easily it came off.