Mazda RX-8

Today, doing my IAM duties, I attended a garage selling Mazda, Kia, and Dahatsui cars.

As well as giving assessed drives, like the ones at BMWCC events, I was able to drive any of the cars they were selling.

I drove many cars, and they were all superb in their own ways, I was especially pleased with the budget Kia brand.

But the Mazda RX-8, wow what a car.

Its 1.4 litre rotary engine was something else, I've never driven one before.

Its handling was superb, the driving position would take some getting used to, and a low slung coupe doesnt exactly suit my flabby frame.

I found it a little noisy, and a "strange" noisy.

You need to rev the engine, but when you do it responds.

Not exactly my choice of car, but nice all the same, I wonder if BMW will ever look at that type of engine ?

MY mate works for Mazda... they are the ony manufacturer that can build the rotory ...
bought the rights.... ivan is right in the 70s lots of people tried it ....
it was only ...Mazda that kept it on......
up to 17000rpm......

O.K
History lesson...........
Ever heard the name ...octive botner .........he was the person who broght Nissan to the u.k.......(Datsun at the time)..
His brother brougth n.s.u (rotory)....they fell out
next lesson in the morning.........

I too have driven the RX8 and the RX7 twin turbo import..both quite extraordinary cars to drive.  Definately on par with the Nissan Skyline R33 GTR and R34 GTT.

On Sunday afternoon there is a new series of programmes about women trying their hand at racing RX8's...should be fun...pity I can't remember which channel though...lol

-the TV programme is on ITV1. The cars look great, but the driving left something to be desired (i.e. all the cars got crashed). More destruction next week....

-in the '50s ****el-type units were used as superchargers. NSU held the world 50cc motorcycle speed record with a highly modified 50cc 'NSU quickly' engine, fitted with twin ****el-type superchargers. I don't know if BMW ever used this type on their supercharged motorcycle engines or not.

-Norton wanted to put a rotary into a motorcycle for years, but were for a long time likewise bedevilled by 'rotor tip seal issues', just like NSU and Mazda.

-The rotor tips thing wasn't really solved until new materials were developed inthe late '70s (with help from the materials dept at Cambridge university). I don't know if Mazda also use these materials or not.

-Anyway, the result was an incredibly smooth engine that could last 150000 miles on the same set of tips, even on a motorbike. Some police forces used them for years. 

-However, when highly tuned (how about 130+ bhp in race trim from a '600'...) the emissions were a bit 'two-strokey', and no-one quite knew how to measure the engine size for competition use. The noise, when fitted with an 'extractor' type exhaust system, was unbelievable, quite unlike anything else.

-after a brief, but unequivocally glorious racing career (TT senior win, absolute TT lap record, BSB wins etc) Norton stopped selling bikes. I don't know if they folded or not (they, like Moto Guzzi, also made engines for military target drones, which at times was considerably more lucrative than making bikes).

-for  a long time it was mooted that rotary engines in road cars were things of the past, because of the emissions. Hats off to Mazda for making it work!  (even if the fuel consumption is a bit poor).

-I like the rear doors on the RX8, too, very cool way of sorting out the traditional 2+2 door dilemma. 

cheers

 

Brucey wrote: -The rotor tips thing wasn't really solved until new materials were developed inthe late '70s (with help from the materials dept at Cambridge university). I don't know if Mazda also use these materials or not.

NSU went through a number of materials in the panic period up to 1972, including Nikasil (which led to premature rotor housing wear; BMW were to make the same mistake with Nikasil in the Nineties) and Ferrotic.

Brucey wrote: -Anyway, the result was an incredibly smooth engine that could last 150000 miles on the same set of tips, even on a motorbike. Some police forces used them for years.

NSU's rotary was mated to a 3-speed clutchless manual transmission; they never did quite get the hang of roughness on the over-run, so never used a full manual gearbox unlike Mazda.

NSU rotaries (now with the benefit of Mazda seals) will last 60,000 to 100,000 miles - but a good number of the 1967-72 failures were because drivers, especially in the UK, simply did not know how to make the best use of a rotary. Many ended up in short-distance town use, and drivers assumed that, with the clutchless manual, you could start and pull away in 2nd or even top. To a certain extent, the engine could be "slogged" like this, but only eventually to its detriment.

A member of the NSU Ro80 Club GB, Mr. John Mallan, is still using the same NSU engine in his Ro80. He has now gone round the clock three times with it - that's right, over 300,000 miles! - apparently without needing any new sealing tips at all. He puts it down to regular oil changes (just as you would do with a piston engine) every 3000 miles, and only using Mobil-1 oil.

Rotaries work best when revved (the lack of low-down torque is a factor here).

Brucey wrote: -However, when highly tuned (how about 130+ bhp in race trim from a '600'...) the emissions were a bit 'two-strokey', and no-one quite knew how to measure the engine size for competition use. The noise, when fitted with an 'extractor' type exhaust system, was unbelievable, quite unlike anything else.

Mazda's sole rotary win at Le Mans was in 1991, with their "787B" quad-rotor sportscar. It basically left the rest of the field standing, to the extent that the rulebook was immediately re-written, effectively banning rotaries!

Brucey wrote: -after a brief, but unequivocally glorious racing career (TT senior win, absolute TT lap record, BSB wins etc) Norton stopped selling bikes. I don't know if they folded or not (they, like Moto Guzzi, also made engines for military target drones, which at times was considerably more lucrative than making bikes).

The "Norton" name and trademarks, etc. are now owned by an American who apparently specialises in parts, service and repairs for the bikes. It seems unlikely at this stage that new bikes - particularly rotary-engined ones - will ever be made again.

Brucey wrote: -for  a long time it was mooted that rotary engines in road cars were things of the past, because of the emissions. Hats off to Mazda for making it work!  (even if the fuel consumption is a bit poor).

The intake and exhaust ports have evolved from "all peripheral" (NSU), through "side intake, peripheral exhaust" (Mazda), and now "side intake and exhaust" (Mazda again). The last two configurations apparently gave significantly better low-down torque, although still not to piston-engine levels.

There are two major firms - and a whole host of smaller ones - in the UK which will help keep your rotary going, or soup it up, and one of them is:

Hurley Engineering, Coventry

Edited by Horsetan