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James Griffiths test drives the race modified Mazda RX-8 PZ at Castle Combe race track

Mazda’s RX-8 has always been just a touch different. It’s the only production sports car to feature the rotary “Wankel” engine and the second, almost hidden, set of “suicide” rear-opening doors takes it from being a conventional sports coupe and shifts it into something a little more flexible and applicable to daily life.

However, since teaming up with motorsport company Prodrive, which has added a number of racing tweaks and changes to the ride and handling, the balance has been firmly shifted back, turning the very limited edition PZ model into something much sharper, focused and involving to drive.

The PZ is based on the high performance version of the RX-8, but with additional development work from Prodrive and components provided by suppliers such as Bilstein, Eibach and OZ racing.

Suspension settings for the car have been modified to Prodrive’s specifications after testing of the prototype at its Warwick test centre and the MIRA proving grounds, with the end result that the ride height has been lowered all round by 15mm, from 370mm to 355mm and the spring rates increased by over 60 per cent from 27 N/mm to 45 N/mm at the front and 19 N/mm to 31 N/mm at the rear. The effect is to reduce the roll and pitch of the PZ as well as offering a flatter, improved cornering attitude, further enhanced by Bilstein dampers and Eibach spring coils that have been specially made to measure according to Prodrive’s specifications.

Only 800 limited edition RX-8 PZs are being produced, but Mazda has hinted strongly that there may be further such collaborations with Prodrive in the future.

Gas-filled mono-tube dampers allow for sharper, tighter turning complemented by a front bump stop 10mm shorter than standard and revised suspension geometry. The tires for the PZ are also specially made 18-inch lightweight alloys with carbon fibre centre caps and the standard boot lid has been replaced with a spoiler developed by Prodrive to generate down-force and improve stability at high speeds.

Power output remains the same as for the sports RX-8, with the PZ developing 231 ps (170 kW) at 8,200 rpm, and maximum torque of 211 Nm (155 lb/ft) at 5,500 rpm, accelerating from 0-100 km in 6.4 seconds up to a top speed of 146 mph (234 km/h). The insurance rating for the car has also been pushed up a group from 16E to 17E.

On the race-track the effect of the changes were clear, with a tight, sharp feel to the handling and the sense that the car was capable of taking the twists and turns seriously.

Mazda's reasoning behind the development of the PZ was that some people were put off the original RX-8 because it wasn't seen as being enough of a "driver's car", but with Prodrive's input and experience in similar ventures with companies such as Subaru, the PZ shows that this isn't the case at all.