The Mazda RX-7 / RX-8 Story

(music) When you think of Mazda sports cars, you inevitably think of the MX-5, their great success convertible. But 11 years before the MX-5, Mazda introduced its unique version of the classic two-door sports car, the RX-7. It had a strange rotary engine that achieved terrible fuel economy, worse emissions and a reputation for unreliability. So why did this “unreliable” car sell like hot cakes and win almost every major endurance race, beating more expensive rivals in almost every aspect? This is the

story

of the Mazda RX-7 and RX-8. (music) The

story

of the RX-7 cannot be told without talking about Mazda's long history with the Wankel rotary engine.

Devised by Felix Wankel while he was still a teenager in 1919, it is a much simpler design than standard internal combustion engines. A rotor rotates eccentrically around the drive shaft and performs the intake, compression, ignition and exhaust normally performed by a multitude of pistons in normal engines. With fewer parts the engine can be smaller and lighter. In the early 1960s, rotary engines appeared to be the next step in the evolution of the internal combustion engine, and many automobile companies poured resources into them. But it was only Mazda that stood its ground and perfected an engine that was practical.

In 1967 they had their first production engine: the 982 cc 10A that was installed in the Cosmo two-door coupe. However, it was the 1971 Mazda RX-3 that was the first best-selling car with a rotary engine. With the two-door coupe version selling well, Mazda was convinced that a two-seater sports car with a specially designed rotary engine could sell well. The team that produced the car had its sights on the Porsche and Datsun Z, and the car had similarities with the Porsche 924. But it was also inspired by the Lotus Elan. The slippery shape gave the car a drag coefficient of only 0.36, which was excellent for the time.

The lightweight rotary engine with plenty of power meant the car would have an almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution, despite having the engine in front. Why use a big V8 when you can have a 1.1L rotary engine in a 1' cube with the same power? The smaller engine also allowed the car to have a lower center of gravity. With such a small engine, Mazda would shamelessly advertise the car as “front mid engine”! But that engine was thirsty. Rotary engines had sold well until the 1973 oil crisis wiped out demand for an engine delivering less than 15 mpg and plunged Mazda into a deep financial crisis.

But by the late 1970s, Mazda had managed to improve fuel economy to around 20 mpg. The car was aimed primarily at the Japanese car market, and its hopes were pinned on two Japanese tax rules. The car fell into the tax bracket for smaller cars and the 1.1L rotary engine fit comfortably into the 1.5L tax bracket, but would produce much more power than the regular 1.1L engines. Due to the The way rotary engines work, the car can produce about the same level of power as a 4-piston engine twice its size. Due to the nature of the engine, Mazda recommended running it at high rpm to help remove deposits.

It's a good thing that an automaker recommends giving the engine a beating! The car debuted in 1978 as the Mazda Savanna RX-7 with rear-wheel drive and 100 HP, both as a two-seater and as a 2+2, that is, a two-seater with 2 very narrow seats in the back. There were 4 and 5 speed manuals, as well as a 3 speed automatic. Since it wasn't obvious that the car was at the redline, Mazda installed a buzzer to let you know when it had reached the rev limit. But customers found it annoying, so it was removed in 1980. It was an immediate success in Japan and the company sought to export it to other countries.

In 1979 it was introduced in Australia and in 1980 it reached North America, where sales were even greater than in Japan. It compared favorably to the Datsun 280ZX and Porsche 924. But since the car was almost half the price of the Porsche, there was initially a long waiting list. Even though the car had a top speed of 124 mph, recently introduced federal rules to discourage speeding required that speedometers on all new cars in the US could only display a top speed of 85 mph. After proving to have no effect, the law was repealed in 1981 and the RX-7 returned to using a standard speedometer.

The RX-7 helped lift Mazda out of its financial difficulties and served as a halo car of sorts for its family cars. To increase sales and show off the RX-7's speed, Mazda and Racing Beat took a specially modified car to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1978, where the car clocked a class record of 183 mph. They returned in 1986 and set a new record of 238 mph. Mazda launched the Series 2 RX-7 in 1981. Engine power was slightly increased, the dashboard was redesigned, it was slightly lighter, and the exterior was slightly redesigned, further reducing drag. For the first time, full disc brakes were offered as an option.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the rotary engine was considered innovative, but unreliable. Mazda itself had many problems, especially with the rotating cam joints. To prove the car's reliability, Mazda decided to test it in the grueling Spa 24-hour race in 1981. What's more, it won. Tom Walkinshaw Racing raced RX-7s in the British Touring Car Championship, winning in 1980 and 1981. This car was fast and reliable! It now had a 0-100 time of 8.3 seconds, but the turbocharged Porsche 924 was quicker. Mazda added its own turbo in 1983, boosting the car from 113 hp to 163 and reducing the 0-100 time to a staggering 6.4 seconds.

At this point it was, at least according to Mazda advertising, the best-selling two-seater sports car in the United States. The 1984 RX-7 Series 3 offered a larger 1.3L bored-out engine, and the engines were tuned so the RX-7 could now achieve 29 mpg. The automatic now received 4 gears, the suspension was stiffened and the fascia was updated. This marked the end of the first generation of the RX-7, with 474,000 cars produced. Almost 80% of them went to the United States. The styling of the second-generation 4 Series RX-7 took its influence from the Porsche 944, as that car was popular in the US and Mazda designers knew it had to work well in its main export market.

But Porsche and the Nissan 300ZX were not its only rivals. Toyota had launched its Supra in 1978, a car that my teenage brain still remembers hit 60 in 6.5 seconds with either a manual version or an automatic like the turbo version in 1988. I spent a lot of time looking at Toyota's sports car brochure! Toyota! The RX-7's handling was improved, with less oversteer, and the car gained more precise rack-and-pinion steering. But the new RX-7 could now accelerate to 60 in just 6.1 seconds and could reach 149 mph with the new Turbo II model, using a twin-chamber turbocharger that would help the car at both lower and higher revs.

In 1988, Mazda launched a special 10th anniversary commemorative model and the same year launched a convertible with a power roof. Like so many seated video games of that era, Mazda offered speakers built into the headrest, so you could listen to the latest Def Leppard tunes as you cruised down the road. However, the convertible would be phased out after just three years. In 1989, Mazda launched the 5 Series with even more power. The 212 hp engine now took the car to 60 in 5.6 seconds and eventually reached a top speed of 150 mph. And the competition kept coming, with the Nissan Skyline GT-R in 1989 and Honda's incredible NSX the following year.

This was an era of crazy, exciting Japanese cars, a mantle passed to Subaru and Mitsubishi in the 1990s. 1989 would also be a landmark year for Mazda with the launch of its next sports car, the MX-5. It wasn't the real Porsche killer, but a fun roadster in the style of British cars like the Triumph Spitfire. The RX-7 established Mazda as a serious sports car company, which helped when the MX-5 was introduced, but the MX-5 would eclipse the RX-7 in terms of popularity. Although the MX-5 did not have a rotary engine, Mazda had not given up on technology.

It was the only company that still believed in it, and it proved it could be a reliable, conquering powerhouse when a 2.6-liter four-cam rotary engine car won the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, also becoming the first automobile Japanese to win. as the only car that won without a piston in its engine. Were rotary engines really unreliable? The third-generation Series 6 RX-7 of 1992 was a lesson in curvaceous style, reflecting the fashion of the time. And it's the form that many people will be familiar with from its inclusion in countless console driving games. The larger size meant it no longer qualified for those Japanese tax breaks, but it mattered little since most cars were exported.

Although revs were now limited to a relatively pedestrian 8000rpm, the annoying rev limiter whine returned! The twin turbocharger increased power to unprecedented levels, but was complex and unreliable. Momentum could come at unexpected times and it took a good driver to make the most of it. But that power and a lighter car took the car to another level of performance, with 236 hp and a 0-60 time of 5 seconds. It was a time of an arms race between manufacturers that would culminate in an incredible 274 hp version in 1995. A high-performance SP version was produced in Australia in limited numbers so it could compete in GT.

It competed in the famous Bathurst 12 Hour Endurance Race and dominated, winning for four consecutive years between 1992 and 1995, beating Porsche, BMW M5 and Honda NSX. To celebrate, Mazda produced a commemorative “Bathurst” edition in Japan. But the RX-7 suffered a serious blow in 1995, when it had to be recalled in the United States because it could not meet new emissions standards. Even though Mazda improved the engine over the years, the specter of bad emissions had caught up with them. The updated 7 Series appeared in 1996, but with sales only in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, it was only sold as a right-hand drive car.

Like the original 1978 model, the 1998 Series 8 was exclusive to Japan, and Mazda withdrew from all export markets due to poor sales; however, many RX-7s were imported directly from Japan by enterprising British owners. The 8 Series had an innovative ABS system that brakes differently on each wheel, allowing the car to steer better during braking. Mazda decided to end it with a bang with the 1999 Spirit R model that combined everything Mazda had learned over 20 years into a truly wonderful car. Over its lifetime, Mazda sold 811,000 RX-7s. In the late 1990s there was a resurgence of interest in imported tuning and performance cars and the RX-7 was one of the cars featured in 2001's "Fast and Furious." And Mazda hadn't given up on its sports car. rotary.

A small team worked on a replacement using an extended MX-5 chassis that was nicknamed the “cockroach car.” The design aroused the interest of management and it was agreed to put the car into production only if it could have 4 doors. Now they had to figure out how they could get 4 doors in such a small car! Taking design cues from their previous 1995 RX-01 concept, they worked on the engine to provide better emissions and designed the 1999 RX-Evolv concept to show what this new car could look like. It was also designed as a replacement for the 2.0L Eunos Cosmo rotary 2+2.

It had a jaunty front grille that made it look like Lightning McQueen from the movie “Cars.” And it had four doors, using an innovative split front and rear door design to allow easy rear access. It was designed as a true four-seater, but like the Audi TT, the rear seats still could not be considered comfortable. The car would be designed by Ikuo Maeda, and I'm sure I mispronounced his name, son of the designer of the RX-7. Public reaction was good and the car went into production as the RX-8 in 2003. It was cheaper and sold for £22,000 in the UK, where the RX-7 cost £25,000.

The exterior styling remained largely unchanged, but the license plate obscured the smiling front grille. The interior was improved from the concept, and the swivel seat detail, door sill, and taillight were a nice touch. To give the car a 50:50 weight distribution, weight was saved by using aluminum and plastic, and the driveshaft was made from a carbon fiber composite to reduce rotational mass. The car lost its turbos and had less power to reduce emissions and increase fuel economy, but the MX-5 had taught Mazda that it doesn't take a lot of power to make a car great.fun to drive.

The RX-8, now a 6-speed manual, had 247 horsepower with a 0-100 time of 5.9 seconds and a top speed of nearly 160 mph. Hydrogen-powered cars were trending in Japan in the early 2000s, and Mazda modified its rotary engine to run on both gasoline and hydrogen with the 2004 concept which was put into production in 2006. Mazda launched a series of special editions around 2006 to boost sales. and in 2007 it produced a special version to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Mazda's rotary engine. 2008 brought a slight styling update with a stiffer body and improved rear suspension. But increasingly strict emissions regulations hit the car again in 2010, this time in Europe.

With the economic crisis of 2009, the car was on loan and production ended in 2012 after producing 192,000 cars, but not before it came out with a bang with another limited edition "Spirit R" version. With the end of RX-8 production, the rotary engine dream died, although it continued in limited motorsport production until 2017. At that time Mazda stated that they would continue to work on the rotary engine, possibly using hydrogen. Mazda continues to promise it will return, most recently as a range extender for its first electric vehicle, the MX-30, in 2021. Mazda showed a possible revival in 2015 with the RX-Vision concept, which is rumored to launch in 2017:50 years. after the original Cosmo.

It would have been wonderful, but unfortunately it was not to be. Mazda took a chance on the rotary engine in the 1960s, wanting to outdo its competitors. But although Mazda's engineers are some of the best in the business, they couldn't solve the fuel economy and emissions problems that became increasingly important. But ignore this and you have an incredible engine allied to a great chassis, which gave you a ton of fun! This happy little pig just received a Big Car t-shirt using the link in the description and became a patron for just $1 or 80p a month. Join him in subscribing and see you in the next video.