Some food for thought here, my friend owns a Ford dealership and had an '09 mustang GT (loaded, leather, gps, 5 speed) for the weekend. I did some back to back driving with the RX8 and actually came away more impressed with the 8 then I would've thought. Typically when I drive another stick its my TR8 and there is a substantial difference in feeling between the 8's, however while the GT obviously had more torque and punch down low, however the 8 def rev'd faster and seemed to pull harder in the lower gears then the GT. This feeling was probably helped by the gearing and options of the stang, however They both felt equally as quick.... once under way you wouldn't have thought there was almost a second difference in the 1/4 mile between the two. Gave me more confidence in the RX8's straightline performance and ability to hang with some of the other cars out there. Again, another happy mazda customer!

 

The Mustang is just bigger, you don't "feel" the speed as much. Trust me.... go to 1/4 mile track and that 1 second difference will feel painfully obvious then.

 

1 second is alot on dragging a car, but you will be very much farther ahead than 1 second on a track versus the mustang... so RX-8>Mustang

 

Yea if that track is a bunch of cones in a parking lot... try it on a real track.

 

Yeah and straight line speed is all the Mustang offers and even that isn't very impressive until the 5.0 comes back next year.

I rented a Shelby Hertz edition back in '06. Although light years improvement over the previous Mustang it replaced, the interior was crap and the ride was the worst I have ever experienced.

It handled well due to the Shelby mods but you felt every bump to the point you were bouncing against the seat belt when going over those torn up Rhode Island roads. I was not disappointed to get back into my 8.