Zoom, Zoom! New Mazda rotary in the works?

Jbird

Jbird

Kick Henry Jackassowski
Rumor has it a 2019 RX9 ?

:cool:

I always wanted an RX7 when I was younger. Those engines can last forever, cant they?

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-car...zda-really-is-working-on-a-new-rotary-engine/

Mazda.00_01_49_03.Still001.jpg
 
Hmmm.

I love the insane power per litre that a Rotary motor produces. Mazda has made some fantastic cars with them. Unfortunately, they never figured out how to keep them together internally.

Let's face it, when you have to build an armored shroud between the motor and the firewall to protect the car's occupants from the inevitable shrapnel, it's not a good sign.


I am curious what this generation has up its sleeve to temper this trend of catastrophic failure.
 
I've been following the RX-9 news.

I had a RX-7 when I was younger, and it was a great car. TONS of fun. Picture a go-kart on steroids.

The rotary engine,however, (as @OGG eluded to) is not bulletproof.

Mine seized IN THE DRIVEWAY while I was on my honeymoon. Never to turn over again.
Nobody could explain how that actually happened, but it most certainly DID happen.

(It did have something like 130K miles on it at the time, but still.....)

And that was the end of my Mazda RX-7.
:(
 
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I've never heard of them exploding :eek:

I've always read that if you kept the oil changed in them regularly they'd last forever.
 
Jbird said:
I've never heard of them exploding :eek:

I've always read that if you kept the oil changed in them regularly they'd last forever.
Click to expand...

I don't know about them exploding, and while they're running, they're very reliable, but they DO do some strange things.
 
Mazda actually puts a "Scatter Shield" around them for the very reason I gave above. They are notorious for firing their internals through the block. The term "grenaded" was often used to describe the final moments of a Rotary engine, and it's profoundly appropriate.
 
Apex seals. Google it. My brother's RX8 needed new ones at 55K miles. It seems to be a common early failure point on the rotary. All of them. Seriously.

Every few years there is a new rumor about the RX rotary comeback...and it never seems to materialize. Mazda is a small company with pretty limited R&D compared to the bigger Japanese car companies, so it seems unlikely to me they would put so much money and effort into a new RX type halo car when they make all their money on 3s, 6s, and SUVs. Even if they wanted a new RX, why bother with a rotary? Why not drop an off the shelf turbo 4 or 6 in there? Rotary engines are light on torque, too rev-tastic for street use, pretty bad on gas mileage, and not so good on emissions. Their only upside is the small size to power and the fact that they are content spinning at 8K rpm all day long (good for a race car, useless on the road).

FWIW, I own and drive a mazdaspeed3, and drove the previous speed3 before getting my current model. I raced in SCCA with another speed3....so I like Mazda a lot.
 
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As a person deeply involved in the day-to-day operations of a thriving Mazda dealership, I can only say....Please God no!

Fucking POS RX-8s were the absolute bane of my existence from 2006-2012. Fun to drive but a complete nightmare.
 
You can simply look at mazda's racing prototypes in sports car racing. Mazda is pretty famous for doing unique and unusual things and using racing as development for future products. They won LeMans with a rotary engine car. Their current prototypes are running gasoline turbo direct injection motors. Last year they ran diesels. No sign of a rotary in their prototype car, which is the best possible place someone could put a rotary, so I suspect there isn't really a real development of a hi performance rotary engine. If there is, it isn't advanced enough to test out on a race track.

I read an article last week that one of the senior brand development guys at Mazda mentioned they are not going to develop the next generation speed3/speed6 cars, as the brand was trying to develop a more "mature" image to help move more 6 series cars and SUVs (which are higher profit margin). How a new RX would fit in to that model isn't clear.

Of course, mazda is quirky as hell, and often does things they say they are not going to do, and doesn't do things they say they will. They are just crazy enough to ignore everything I wrote, and everything they have said, and just release an RX sports car anyway. If history is any indicator, it will suck on paper compared to the competition (always so 0-60 and 1/4 mile centric) and sell very poorly, but be absolutely fantastic on a race track and embarrass many more expensive cars. I'll probably buy one too. :facepalm:
 
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