The Mazda RX‑8 is now a bargain | Thank Frankel it’s Friday

And down there in the cheap seats, there is one car to which I find myself increasingly drawn, and it’s a Mazda. But not that one: I know an MX-5 is great sportscar bargain, but so do you and as a journalist one of my guiding principles is to try wherever possible to shed light on facts that may not already be blindingly obvious. I am, instead, talking about the RX-8.

The Mazda RX-8 is an inspired piece of automotive design. It looks fantastic – to these eyes at least – and while its appearance is that of a two seater or marginal 2+2, it’s actually got four doors and will take a small family short distances. It’s light, has perfect 50:50 weight balance and a 240PS (177kW) engine that revs past 9,000rpm. And yet when you look at the classifieds, a , price seems to be between £200,0-£3000. Comparable Audi TTs, which are nothing to drive by comparison, are twice the price. At least.

The RX-8 is not just good looking and practical, it is terrific driving machine too. I did thousands of miles in them on public roads and thousands more in race prepped versions in two consecutive Silverstone 24-hour races. And the only frustrating thing about them on track was all the really powerful cars – Porsche 911s mainly – would come barrelling past you on the straights only to hold you up in the braking areas and all through the corners. Complete with a cracking six-speed gearbox, they really are wonderful on the open road and, in theory at least, easy to live with.

So what’s going on? Fundamentally, the market is wary of them, and that’s why they’re so cheap. Of course there are the usual wear, tear and potential corrosion issues you need to look for when buying any older car – any RX-8 will be between nine and 18 years old – but fundamentally it’s the engine that scares buyers away and forces prices down. The 1.3-litre rotary motor is fabulously smooth across its enormous rev range but they have a healthy appetite for both petrol and oil and that’s when they’re running properly. If not properly maintained, rotor wear can be a real issue leading to a loss of compression, poor performance, rough running and, ultimately, failure.

But they’re not all like that and such is their reputation that even the good cars get dragged down, and this is where the bargains lie. People like me who review second hand cars are always saying how important a full service history is, but rarely has it been more crucial than for those trying to find the right RX-8. What you’re after is a car that’s been fastidiously maintained by people who know what they’re doing, which isn’t easy because it falls into that vicious circle whereby the less a car is worth, the less people feel inclined to spend on them, the more the issues the develop, the less they’re worth.

Even so, good cars are out there and what you’re looking for is not just a car with a full book of the right kind of stamps being sold by a reputable vendor, but ideally a low mileage car with – and this is the vital bit – a recent engine compression test. Without one of these displaying the right numbers you should run away fast. So the bad news is you’re going to need to do some research and accept higher than average running costs. But when the initial outlay is so low and therefore the maximum potential downside so small, and given what you’re buying is one of the best looking, most underrated coupes of its era, to me at least it’s a car that’s more than worth the effort.