You're starting bad habits....
When you're coming towards a stop, gear down as you go.. You always want to make sure you are in the right gear every time. If something happens, you need to be able to accelerate and control the car. Plus, you use more fuel in neutral than in gear with no gas, so you'll save fuel coasting in gear as well.
Making turns in neutral? get out of that habit real quick. First off it's a sports car, and you've already mentioned how great the handling is. Making a car turn a car at anything more then pedestrian speeds requires balancing the car. Imagine you make a turn in neutral and the car starts to skid out of control, the last thing you want to do is try to find a gear, especially since I doubt you've got rev matching down yet, then bring the car out of a skid.
You need the throttle to control the car thru the turn. I'll go so far as to say it's dangerous otherwise.. not to be hypicritical, I've done it when I'm trying to dial my phone, drink my coffee, and shave at the same time, but I don't make a habit of it. Infact, you'll be surprised how much more planted the car is when you go thru a turn with some gas on it.
Remember, when you hit the gas, the front end comes up, the back end goes down, if the back end breaks loose, you need to counter steer and roll on the throtle to get the weight over the back wheels, conversely, if the front end starts to plow, you can let of the throttle to get some weight over the front wheels, plus steering in to the skid rapidly to regain traction, but that's something else all together.. I'm rambling.
Mileage on RX8s suck.. it's a known quantity with them, but I haven't driven one for a while, so I can't remember what a good figure is, but if it's much more then you're getting, I'd be surprised.
As for washing, once you've rinsed it, keep it wet until you can dry it.. if you're drying the hood, keep spraying the back until you can get to it. Dark cars dry instantly in the sun, you won't stand a chance otherwise.
Buy some microfibre towels and a california waterblade, and you can fly thru a wash.
As for wanting to be around it.. nothing wrong with that man, if you weren't passionate about your car, like we are, you wouldn't spend time on a website talking about it
