How the Rotary was saved.

[altspace]

I scanned this article from my Sept. 1998 Sport Compact Car issue. Very insightful read.

 

[ZoomZoomH]

for those that AREN'T taking notes, that 'new side-exhaust-port' rotary engine became the RENESIS engine in our beloved RX-8 (rockon)

 

[SuperStretch18]

They are going to need to make more significant changes to save the rotary again if it is required to go 35+ mpg...

 

[P5w3kids]

Excellent article. Thank you for posting this.

 

[njaremka]

They are going to need to make more significant changes to save the rotary again if it is required to go 35+ mpg...

i think all they will need to do is modify it with a "hybrid-like" drive train - allow the engine to shut down at rest, and use the electric motor to restart the engine upon take-off, and use it to augment acceleration.

 

[altspace]

Most welcome. It's a hidden treasure.

 

[downtube]

Consider the tremendous difference in R&D effort spent refining the piston engine vs. the rotary, both in terms of $$ and decades.

It's really quite amazing the rotary can compete at all. And equally amazing Mazda has stuck with the rotary when the easier path would have been to abandon it entirely.

The combination of increasingly stringent emissions laws and increasing fuel prices are going to make it tougher to keep an alternative technology competitive. Let's hope Mazda finds some real breakthrough rotary improvements.

 

[altspace]

They have. Read up in the Mazda News threads on the new engine 16x.

 

[Antoine]

Man...I probably have this issue in my closet back home...SCC used to be my favorite car mag back in the day with TONS of juicy articles and features...I recently picked one up when I was in the states for Xmas and that damn thing SHRUNK! It's like a drink coaster now...a lot fewer pages and I think the actual dimensions are smaller...probably due to a publisher change...sad (notcool)

As for this thread...Awesome post Josh!

Yeah...Although I care more about performance than mpg...the "mainstream" buyer cares a lot about mpg...even with a rotary and I understand that Mazda needs to constantly develop its piston-less engine to provide more mpg and comply with the latest emission regulations.

I think Mazda enjoys the challenge though

 

[Rotary_Powered]

They are going to need to make more significant changes to save the rotary again if it is required to go 35+ mpg...

Direct injection + small turbo FTW!

 

[altspace]

Most welcome Antoine. Yea, I look at my many years of older SCC and they are almost .25 inch thick back then.

 

[altspace]

Sticky!

 

[Crazee D]

I was just reading from Josh's stash (I have some at my place)
Tons of great tech articles and more.
97 SCC feat the all-new 97 Prelude and the Spoon Sports N1 Civic!

 

[XoX1de]

btw scc bites the dust. they released their last issue