The Mazda RX-8 hit the market for the first time in the year 2003. The vehicle falls under the category of sports car model, and happens to be a fabulous model in the line-up of Mazda.
The Mazda RX-8 was released as a predecessor to the Mazda RX-7 and the Mazda Cosmo model vehicles. The vehicle was first displayed at the North American International Auto Show held in the year 2001 and its sales began in the model year 2004 in North American market.
Mazda launched its first rotary engine vehicle in the year 1971 in the United States of America. Production started with the R100 series, later followed by RX-2, RX-3, RX-4, RX-5 and the RX-7 sports car released in three different generations. The lack of comfort in the vehicle RX-7, high price and decreasing interest in sports vehicles at that time, led to the downfall of Mazda RX-7 in most of the markets except in Japan. The RX-8 is designed based on the model of concept car Mazda RX-01 that was launched in the year 1995, which was featured with 13B-MSP engine.
The RX-8 manufacturing project gained the official approval from the management and finally the RX-8 concept car’s engineering and design model was done. It was then displayed in the year 2001 and resembled the production version of the vehicle. Waiting for the pending final approval for the car’s production, the RX-8 was displayed again at the Tokyo Motor Show in the same year. The production of the first RX-8 began in the month of February, 2003 at the Mazda’s Hiroshima plant located in Japan. And this is exactly how the Mazda RX-8 slowly but surely, became such a huge hit in the market.
