Hot_Dog

The official word is finally out. See link below for full article:

Mazda CEO Rules Out Rotary-Powered Sports Car

ibeljin

iTrader: (1)

Not all that surprising

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, there is no way Mazda (or anyone else) brings back the rotary...emissions/CAFE prohibit it.

mach.80

iTrader: (2)

We'll all be driving electric anyways... haven't you been watching any movies lately? haha

At least we have some awesome stories to tell our grandchildren. " Yes sonny-boy I
really did drive a Wankel engined RX7., and it made 400hp per liter too!, and son, If you could hear the beautiful sound it made, Brrraaaapp-ssst. Oh Nelly! That's how I landed your
Grandmother.

Anyways, it looks like we'll all have to do an engine swap at some time. Bummer, I wanted to swap to the new rotary powerplant.

Cheers

jjwalker

Considering my wife drives a mazda 3, this news kills me even more. That car is powerless. When i drive it I am always yelling at it "go you gutless little thing!".

I guess you produce products for what the market wants, which right now, is powerless 4cyl sedans.

rogrx7

iTrader: (11)

Mazda CEO: Wankel rotary engine won't return | Autoweek


This is a better read...

"No plans now," Kogai said in an interview Friday. "It has to be a viable commercial proposition. If we are going to adopt it, it has to be a product that can generate at least sales of 100,000 units a year. We have to be able to achieve a profit."

Plus, this guy has been CEO for what.. one year?

w0ppe

If it rolls off the assembly line, yay.
If it doesn't, oh well.
It will never disappear, an engineer one day will pick it up and tinker with the design for a bit and see if it works or fails. Personally, as far as different engine types goes, we've lost so many different interesting designs and yet, find many more new ones.

I'd like to see the turbine car come back in my opinion!

Dizzy117

Noooooo!! Freakin lame.....

Rob XX 7

iTrader: (8)

darn, now we cant buy a used one 15 years from now

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

..WHAT?..NO Rotary cars?
(as tears of JOY run down my face as thoughts of Credit cards being paid off, the dream of being debt-free starts to be conceivable and a reliable car lays in the shadows..)

Say it Isn't SO..!

w0ppe

Any machinist want to get together and start a rotary engine production business?!

Rob XX 7

iTrader: (8)

Hey you want to know how to become a millionaire in the rotary engine production business?

Start with 3 million!

w0ppe

Want to know how I know there's money to be made?! I put it there!

driftxsequence

iTrader: (8)

All you gotta do is buy all of Mazdas antique tooling equipment for the rotary engine. They obviously dont need it anymore! Then you can product lots of factory parts and bring prices down! Hooray!!! Cheap housings and irons for everyone!!!

ibeljin

iTrader: (1)

i picture it snowing rotors, housings and irons for Christmas. It's nice to dream

Dizzy117

Private mazda 13b production plant...

clokker

iTrader: (2)

That seems decidedly lethal...and noisy.

driftxsequence

iTrader: (8)

TonyD89

iTrader: (10)

For what it's worth, there really isn't anything fancy about Mazda manufacturing techniques. All are commercially available at the moment we speak. The rotors are precision sand cast iron which is still done today, mainly for brake calipers and other non automotive applications. The housing are permanent mold/die-cast. There's no problem finding that if you want to pay for it. Most modern cylinder heads and intake manifolds are made this way. I suspect the S4/S5 intakes were made with this method also. Irons are sand cast (maybe precision), machined, and nitrided. No problem finding someone to that either.

All you need is good virtual 3D models either from Mazda or, your own oh so better design.

And bank...

clokker

iTrader: (2)

And a market.

Often as FC owners are categorized as cheap, I found an interesting parallel in the Z world.
As long as the Z used the straight 6 L-series engine, people lusted after the extremely rare "4-3-2" head (four valves, three carbs and two cams), the crossflow head eliminating many issues inherent in the stock intake over exhaust layout.

A few years ago (the thread is still active) this guy says he's going to design and build such a head using components from easily sourced modern units. I think he ended up using Honda stuff because of the bolt on cam towers or something.
Anyway, he's no flake, the project actually progresses to the point where sand casts are made and a foundry casts a couple of prototypes.

This is like a real, actual deal...he gets them finish machined and assembles a prototype engine to work out the chain drive and front cover details (Honda parts again) and at this point starts to look for five buyers to support the project.
Projected cost is @10k, which does not include the induction system or some of the finish machining (valves).

He hasn't found them yet.

The Z is way ahead of the FC on the "collectivity curve".
They bottomed out long ago (fortunately, before the drift craze, so they rotted away rather than crashed into oblivion) and started to rise again as a bona fide collector car (they're like the Miata of 70's sports cars).
People spend serious cash on them and the market is pretty healthy and yet, there aren't five guys willing to pony up less than the cost of an LSx crate engine for a really exotic setup.

It ain't just us, it's everybody.

Dizzy117

Is there not someone on here who has that kinda money? Odds there is, it would be a legitimate business venture for someone with the time and money.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Been reading the forum lately?
Rob couldn't get enough together for a run of fuel pump cradles...at a much lower pricepoint.

Dizzy117

Not enough I guess, just tryin to be optimistic man.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Optimism is what you need to approach Anna Kendrick, not a FC.
An optimistic rotary owner is soon on foot.

pfsantos

iTrader: (1)

Many good points made. It would take a breakthrough change in mfg. tech and cost to really work. As in housings and rotors for $100 retail each. Or a keg for, say, $800. But that would only help keep a few more FC's alive.

Or Mazda could hand out rights to the rotary patents or whatever and let other companies play with it in return for a small royalty or some credit. Mazda alone can't keep the rotary up with emission and f.e. demands compared to piston engines that are being refined by many, many others.