A PREVIEW OF the 2012 Mazda RX-9. I agree that it’s “a far less attractive incarnation of the current RX-8.” I’d suggest that Mazda give it some more thought.

I SAW SOMEBODY IN A BLOG COMMENT-THREAD bragging that he’d bought a used Ferrari for less than I paid for my RX-8. That’s possible, I guess, but let’s see — I’ve had the RX-8 for 4 years now, and I’ve spent on maintenance . . . hmm . . . oh, yeah, absolutely nothing. For the used Ferraris, on the other hand, Autoblog observes: “Do bear in mind that a Ferrari is the gift that keeps on giving – to the dealership service department, from your wallet. The entry price might be reasonable enough (note the joke), but the maintenance costs are horrendous.”

MICKEY KAUS on politicians who drive 100 miles per hour: “Isn’t this a pretty basic violation of social equality?”

Er, yes. Lots of people drive fast — I was going to visit my brother a while back, zipping along in the left lane at what I thought was the highest prudent speed for the road in my Mazda RX-8, only to find an endless array of minivan-driving soccermoms coming up on my rear bumper and signalling me to move over. Everybody drives awfully fast nowadays — but the rest of us face tickets if we do it. As Kaus points out, Bill Richardson wouldn’t even pull over when a cop tried to ticket him.

UPDATE: Reader Joe O’Rourke emails:

Though not environmentally responsible or safety conscious, most cars nowadays are more than capable of holding speeds in excess of 80mph comfortably. This is noted by your minivan experience.

20-30 years ago, cars would shake a lot while doing 75mph, or they would feel “floaty”. Chassis and suspension engineering and good quality tires have eliminated these sensations, and superior engine technology means the car doesn’t strain to hold the speed.

I think it’s time for our longer highway systems, at the least to begin raising speed limits. When a supermajority of the populace does not obey the law, is that not a mandate for increasing the limit of the law?

The problem with that is that highways would need to be maintained to a level consistent with high speeds…and, at least in the northeast, no state ever maintains their roads to a level of safety consistent with modern day speed limits…

True on all counts.

READER KEITH GUARD sends these thoughts on Hybrid driver etiquette:

It occurred to me a couple of days ago that this may need to be said…

It is NOT OK, in a 55 MPH no-passing zone on a rural highway, with cars behind you, to drive at a slow enough speed to avoid engaging the gasoline engine.

As a hybrid driver, I thought you might be interested. But as an RX-8 driver, I doubt that you’re part of the problem.

I should hope not.

SO I SAW THE LINK AT BAINBRIDGE’S PLACE and naturally, I took the quiz. I guess it works!

I’m a Mazda RX-8!

You’re sporty, yet practical, and you have a style of your own. You like to have fun, and you like to bring friends along for the ride, but when it comes time for everyday chores, you’re willing to do your part.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

UPDATE: Okay, I seem to have killed their server with the picture link, so I’ve substituted one of my own. Here’s another.

MAZDA INTRODUCES a hydrogen-powered rotary-engine sports car. There’s also a hybrid version, combining two of my automotive interests in one!

Sadly, they’re just concept cars at present, though the hydrogen-powered RX-8 will be available for lease next year.

BACK HOME: Drove to Nashville this morning, did my talk, drove back. About 6 hours of driving for 4 hours there. But the event was put together by a former research assistant, so I couldn’t say no.

I can attest that however much people are complaining about gas prices, it doesn’t seem to be slowing them down. Traffic was flying. I drove the RX-8, which got a so-so 22 miles per gallon. However, they were FKMPG: “Fred Krause Miles Per Gallon,” defined as “the mileage obtained by a vehicle traveling 85 miles per hour with the air conditioner set on ‘MAX.'” It’s a somewhat more demanding standard than the EPA version . . . .

IN NASHVILLE NOW, blogging from the parking lot of the studio where I’m going to do Kudlow & Company along with some mystery guests later, before heading over to the BlogNashville conference — it’ll be on at about 5:40 Eastern. It was an odd drive; the blog documentary producers put a producer in the back seat of the RX-8 (at 5’2″ she fit just fine) and a cameraman in the passenger seat and interviewed me while I drove, with the director following in their truck and asking questions via the producer over a wireless intercom.

Kind of like William Gibson, except that nobody made him drive while he answered questions. . . .

Still no takers on the Lileks documentary idea, though.

UPDATE: Video of the Kudlow appearance here.

TOOK MOST OF THE DAY OFF and went to the mountains, digital camera in hand. I drove up US 129 from Maryville toward Bryson City, NC (known as “the tail of the Dragon” to motorcyclists as it’s both twisty and hilly), though I only went a little bit past Deal’s Gap, NC. I saw lots of bikers, almost all of whom were going much faster than I was. (Notwithstanding the RX-8’s very impressive performance, especially in light of my somewhat rusty heel-and-toe skills, I didn’t try to keep up, and I suspect that the Supra that I saw in the ditch had made the mistake of attempting just that.) You don’t try to keep up with a motorcyclist in the mountains — you just figure you can always find him in the emergency room, later. . . .

Took a lot of lovely photos, and enjoyed the spring weather — it got up to 82 today, and it was surprisingly warm even up in the mountains.

I’ve been enjoying the photography a lot, and I may post an online gallery later, in case anyone is interesting. While I suspect that most readers don’t care much, there are definitely some whose interest is very strong. And as I mentioned a while back, I’m recovering an early love of mine with this.

UPDATE: Here’s a motorcycle blog with photos, devoted to the Dragon’s Tail.

THE WEDDING WAS YESTERDAY, and today, instead of going to the office as I usually do on Sundays, I took advantage of near-70-degree sunny weather to go to the mountains. I drove around in the RX-8, which hasn’t gotten enough exercise through the winter, and hiked the Laurel Falls trail. (It was a good thing I did, too, as the weather went to hell later this afternoon, just as I was on my way home). The picture above is from Laurel Falls, with the Toshiba, at the 1/1600 sec. shutter speed, which freezes things rather nicely. (Larger version here. As you can see, even consumer-grade digicams have gotten pretty good.)

Here’s another picture that shows one of the advantages of hiking during the off-season: this view will be completely obscured once the trees leaf out. It’s rather pretty.

The downside of hiking this time of year is slickness. There was a woman at the Falls looking pretty unhappy, as she had sprained her ankle badly slipping on some rocks. (A bystander said it was on ice, though I didn’t see any — it was 60 degrees there, but it’s still somewhat plausible as it may well have been below freezing there last night). The only ice I saw was the icepack on her ankle as she waited for rangers to haul her out. They use a rather clever stretcher that has a single mountain-bike-like wheel on it so as to navigate the trails without giving rangers hernias. I’m glad that they have it, and I hope that I never need it. . . .

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY, so I took the day off and went to the mountains. I can be there in 30 minutes from my door, but I do it less often than I should. I’m trying to do better that way, and not just because of Andrew Sullivan’s call for an intervention by Bloggers Anonymous.

I took the RX-8 of course, and had a great time. Had lunch at The Burning Bush in Gatlinburg (no revelation appeared, but the chicken club sandwich was good), went up to Clingman’s Dome and Newfound Gap, and just drove around and had fun.

The park was less empty than I expected — a mix of senior citizens and foreign tourists (mostly German and English, judging by the accents I overheard). The weather was perfect, 80 and sunny at the park entrance, 50 and mostly foggy at the top of Clingman’s Dome, but that was the only place not drenched in sunshine.

I should do this sort of thing more often. Maybe I will!

UPDATE: Some people wondered about the dead trees in the top photo. I’ve heard various things blamed for the large number of dead Fraser firs up on Clingman’s dome — ozone pollution, acid rain, even the horrific coldsnap of 1984, where it was 24 below in Knoxville and probably 50 below up on Clingman’s dome. But the actual culprit, according to the Forest Service, is an imported insect called the wooly adelgid. They’ve contained the infestation, more or less, by spraying a soap solution that kills them, but it wiped out a bunch of trees some years ago, and the skeletons are still standing. I think they’re also using biological predators to try to control them.

All part of nature’s cycle, I suppose, and it does improve the view — in the old days, that photo would have shown nothing but up-close trees. On the other hand, I liked the feel of the trail to the summit better back when there were big tall fir trees all around.

THE CALIFORNIA RECALL ISSUE is one that I’m not paying too much attention to. It’s important, but California politics isn’t something I know a lot about. Mickey Kaus — though he’s “maintaining his silence in the face of questions” about the RX-8 — is covering this issue. So are PrestoPundit and Justene Adamec. And, of course, there’s the Sacramento Bee blog, California Insider, by Daniel Weintraub. Go there if you want more, as my coverage is likely to be spotty.

[You’re doing it again! Sending people to other blogs! — Ed. Any progress on that dollar-per-pageview thing? No? Well, then.]

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES is up. If you tend just to read InstaPundit and a few other blogs, you should follow this link and check out the many other fine blogs listed there. You might find one you like better!

[Isn’t that bad marketing, sending people to other blogs? — Ed. When I start getting paid by the pageview, I’ll reconsider. And shouldn’t you be over at Kaus’s site? He got mad when I told him to quit obsessing over Arianna Huffington’s charms and focus on really important stuff, like the Mazda RX-8 question. — Ed. The philistine!]]

MICKEY KAUS CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN HIS SILENCE in the face of troubling and still-unanswered questions about the RX-8.

MICKEY KAUS is on a hot streak.

But Mickey, when are you going to do a Gearbox review of the Mazda RX-8? USA Today likes it, Business Week calls it “supercool,” the Washington Post calls it “transcendental”, and the Insta-Wife think’s it looks “hot.” But I won’t know what I think until I read your review!

I sure liked my 1980 RX-7.

SCHROEDER MAY BE A FECKLESS LOSER, but no one ever said that German auto executives were stupid:

MUNICH — German auto executives are keeping a wary eye on the United States, fearing a boycott over the German government’s opposition to war with Iraq. . . .

Industrialists are so concerned that the Atlantic-Bruecke (means Atlantic Bridge) group, which calls itself the oldest German-American friendship organization, ran an ad in The New York Times on Feb. 16. The ad emphasized the 50-year bond between the United States and Germany.

So far, it says, they’re not hearing a lot from American consumers.

UPDATE: Maybe people are voting with their pocketbooks, rather than emailing. Reader Ann Ellwood sends this:

I am in the market for a new car–I am buying one in March. I was considering either the Mini (bought by BMW), the Bug, or the Chrysler Sebring–but no more. I am now looking at other alternatives. I am not going to the dealers and telling them this–so how would they know? It is not a “boycott,” but why should I spend my hard earned dollars supporting an economy whose workers think that I am worse than Saddam Hussein?

I have to say, I’ve felt the same way.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Robert Denton emails:

Reading today’s post about possible German products boycott and wanted to mention my action. I own two 1996 cars and intend to replace them soon enough. I have been looking at Jetta Turbo or Passat for one, and if our Jeep can stand the wait I wanted to get a VW Microbus (2005 release) as its replacement.

I wrote a letter to the best email contact I could at VW’s web site telling them I can not buy their products as long as the strong anti-American sentiments are boiling over as the predominant attitude in Deutschland.

Someone in one German company knows the sentiment.

Meanwhile another reader sends this:

Mr. Pundit, I am in the market for a new car and have long desired a BMW for the amazing driving experience they provide. However the astounding degree of anti-Americanism issuing forth from Europe, and especially Germany, makes it impossible for me to prop up their ridiculous stance with my hard earned money. Instead I will take delivery of a brand new Nissan 350Z from our steadfast ally, Japan. German business does well to be concerned, people in the market for high end cars are likely well informed as to current events. It will not take many to make a noticable dent in sales.

I still haven’t driven a 350Z, but they look awfully sharp.

UPDATE: D’oh! Several readers remind me that Nissan is now a Renault property, making it worse than German — French! And I say remind, because I knew that but forgot, which makes me doubly stupid. Or something. There’s always the Mazda RX-8.