#7 - The Ugly Duckling

Mazda RX-7: If you’re a fan of the Fast and the Furious movies [I’m not one, btw], you’d have anticipated this little Japanese gem in the Top 7. And as you can see, you’d be right. This car has a cult following with the street-racing brethren in the US of A and for good reason. First of all, it’s Japanese which means Mankind will have invented zero-calorie chocolate sundaes before something stops working or goes wrong in this car. Secondly, it is powered by a twin-turbocharged 1.3 Liter Wankel Rotary Engine [A different sort of IC Engine which ditches reciprocating pistons for rotating pistons called “rotors”] which makes a scarcely believable 280 hp. Stop scoffing/laughing/staring, it really is a 1.3 and it really does make 280 hp. With an engine so light and the fact that like all Japanese cars, its body panels were made from tin foil, it was a fantastic high performance car which sold nearly a million units worldwide until 2002 when it was replaced by the RX-8, which looked a lot better but wasn’t half as fun to drive as the RX-7.

Power Lap [Awaiting update]: I know, many of you might not have driven this car in the game at all and it’ll mostly be because when you first looked at the RX-7 in the New Car Garage, you’d have probably paused only to laugh at this car’s stupidly bland looks before moving on. And you couldn’t be blamed coz it really does look as pretty as a platypus. But if you happened to play the Challenge Series where you have to drive this car at a certain point of time, you’d have had “what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity”. You’d have gone “I don’t believe this”. The ugly duckling from the Far East transforms magically into a brilliant piece of kit on the road and will make you eat your words.

Since the engine is quite small and light, the fact that it sits in the front doesn’t impede the car’s handling characteristics and there is no understeer at all. Au contraire, the car feels really well-sorted out and light on its foot so you can always hit the apex of corners with ease - be it a high-speed sweeping long one or an abrupt U-turn. And you can have a lot of fun throwing this car around any way you like and you’ll always be able to bring it back under control with opposite lock. You can even do some drifting and impress your mates coz opposite lock is really effective with this car when compared to others and the engine is particularly powerful. It also sounds really good close to the redline, buzzing like a swarm of pissed off bees about to launch a suicide attack on anything that gets in their way. This is probably the best-sounding Japanese car in the whole game and the only Japanese car in the list as well.

But the problem is, this car looks as featureless as the plains of Kansas, as classy as an Orkut profile that says “Hai, I’m koooool guy”, as if this car’s Designers didn’t have even the most rudimentary concept of aesthetic flair. They did not even know that they were supposed to make the car look fast or beautiful, let alone both at the same time. They would probably just die of shock if you were to show them a Jaguar XJ220 or a Lamborghini Miura. Unfortunately, the Mazda’s woes don’t end here. Remember how I said there’s no understeer? That’s because the car oversteers, not severely but constantly, all the bloody time. You have to live with the perpetually present squealing of the rear tires which seem to be constantly fighting for traction while being bullied by the powerful engine at the front. It just annoys you so much when something comes close to being good but is ruined completely because of minor flaws. Sorry, Japan. This is as far as you go…