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Too bad about the diesel. Would like to have seen success in that program.
i recognize the diesel is practical, and its economical, but its also boring. its too boring to keep track of, but i thought they did have some success?
the diesel is out. they have given up racing it, it melts every session.
Good riddance! It goes hand in hand with pulling the plug on the 6 diesel for the U.S. market, which was supposed to have been on sale sometime last year. Not sure how the car is faring in ROW.
i think what i really learned is that information doesn't make it across the ocean. to wit.
saturday i was at a US mazda dealership, standing behind the counter with kenny, and a customer walked up and was asking about the miata launch edition. it turned out that, the dealership had gotten 3, and they had all sold and left, and they knew that there were 999 out of 1,000, because that one got totaled, and that was it. they had no brochures, no shop manual, nothing. the other funny part of course is that the customer was talking to kenny and i, but neither one of us actually worked there, which is one reason why working at the dealership is great.
sunday i was at another friends house, and he had been to Japan a couple months ago, and he had a JDM Miata brochure. its as you'd expect, lots of pages, lots of pics, it shows all the accessories we won't get here, all the colors besides red, and then there is a separate little thing with all of the specs of the car.
roundabout way of saying that the flow of information, well isn't
Good riddance! It goes hand in hand with pulling the plug on the 6 diesel for the U.S. market, which was supposed to have been on sale sometime last year. Not sure how the car is faring in ROW.
That's interesting – I wonder if it's because Mazda's SkyActiv diesel (low compression) works better in a street configuration than for racing. Obviously, Audi and Peugeot were doing something right with their LMP1 engines.
I hope strong CX-3 and ND MX-5 sales help to underwrite the new rotary project.
That's interesting – I wonder if it's because Mazda's SkyActiv diesel (low compression) works better in a street configuration than for racing.
My understanding is that they have been intent on using street components, but they street components keep fragging when they crank up the power. I guess they can't have a competitive diesel without exotic alloys that wouldn't make it to the street anyways, so they threw in the towel.
My understanding is that they have been intent on using street components, but they street components keep fragging when they crank up the power. I guess they can't have a competitive diesel without exotic alloys that wouldn't make it to the street anyways, so they threw in the towel.
I have to imagine its hard for a factory team to justify itself when the data its producing isn't actually relevant to the business proper, so that makes sense.
My understanding is that they have been intent on using street components, but they street components keep fragging when they crank up the power. I guess they can't have a competitive diesel without exotic alloys that wouldn't make it to the street anyways, so they threw in the towel.
the prototype, is the one with the engine problems. the head has the manifold cast into it, and i guess the EGT's get high enough to melt it. ive seen em run, they looked like they were changing engines every session, which has to get old... the rotaries run for a season
Originally Posted by mjc1055
I have to imagine its hard for a factory team to justify itself when the data its producing isn't actually relevant to the business proper, so that makes sense.
it was one thing when it looked like they were gong to sell it here, but the rumor is that when its detuned to pass emissions on US diesel fuel, its no fun.
so then it became surreal as they were racing the prototype and some 6's, which were cars you couldn't buy here.
Is an OMP(or similar) inevitable? In otherwords, are rotaries - by nature - oil consumers? Off the top of my head I do not see any way around it.
they did a study of oil flow in the engine, and they found that crankcase oil was leaking around the oil seals, and that some of the metering oil wasn't making it to the seals. so expect redesigned rotor oil seals, and then a metering system that does a better job of lubricating the things it needs to lubricate.
Basically much of the rotary oil consumption is because it's an old design from the 60s and 70s that was carried over all the way into the 21st century to save money on tooling and development time on manufacturing processes and seals.
You can see oil moving under the oil seals here:
and going past the side seals and corner seals here:
Part of the problem is that the tooling and manufacturing process for the side housings are so old and the side housings were never fully redesigned, even on the series 2 Renesis. Distortion causes the oil seal to lift and let oil blow by. That's probably been a big problem since day 1 of Mazda's rotaries.
After learning this I'm pretty confident they can make significant improvement in oil consumption without hurting reliability. Will the OMP go away? Probably not. Some of the newest turbo piston engines have oil consumption problems for various reasons (blow by, PCV system, etc).
^^That's why when you're the only manufacturer of a production rotary engine, the technology is much slower to advance. Had there been multiple competing producers of rotary engines, issues re oil consumption and fuel mileage would have been more effectively addressed by now. That's why such high efficiencies are being achieved with reciprocating engines. Greater numbers of competitors, leads to more tinkering, leads to more technological advances, leads to better numbers year after year out the door.
I thought Prototypes rules made the diesel intelligible next year and that's why it's being dropped. I remember them saying the engine was good minus the early setbacks melting pistons and the DNfs were all around drivetrain breaking under the torque. Also thought the diesel is on hold in the U.S., because like the Germans, our strict carbon rules combined with our crappy diesel quality are making it hard for them to pass. Which the Germans have had more money and time at mastering.
I am disappointed a mazda6 diesel wagon never came. It would be nice to see some competition to the JSW TDI.
Last month Mazda released a new look for upcoming US Dealers.
I find it taunting that Mazda would highlight two iconic RE cars and yet production for a RX successor has not be confirmed. You can clearly see a Cosmo 110S (Cosmo 110S picture can also be seen on p.234 of the SA/FB/FC Yamaguchi book) and 787B.
We will find out shortly if the "little engine that could" will make a comeback.
This here quote regarding why Mazda didn't bring the diesel to the U.S.:
Originally Posted by j9fd3s
it was one thing when it looked like they were gong to sell it here, but the rumor is that when its detuned to pass emissions on US diesel fuel, its no fun.
Mazda clearly made a prudent decision! VW discovered the same thing and instead made another choice...
For one, I'm glad that the U.S. has never had diesels inflicted on it like in Europe, which is in a perpetual haze, and where every single fuel station has smelly nasty diesel fuel all over the ground. No thanks....
This here quote regarding why Mazda didn't bring the diesel to the U.S.:
Mazda clearly made a prudent decision! VW discovered the same thing and instead made another choice...
For one, I'm glad that the U.S. has never had diesels inflicted on it like in Europe, which is in a perpetual haze, and where every single fuel station has smelly nasty diesel fuel all over the ground. No thanks....
keep in mind, that was the rumor i heard, no idea if its true or not. we did get a chance to race against the diesel 6's. at first blush it seemed really unfair, as they unloaded the 3 car factory team against two crappy 90's hondas. then we took our crappy 90's honda and qualified on the pole, by a LOT.
in the 2 hour race we have to stop for gas, they didn't so they won...
as far as the haze goes, silicon valley is way worse than anywhere in Europe, note the brown stripe in the picture.
Make another Furai, mid engined 16X based NA 3 rotor, throw a couple electric motors front and back to make an even 1000bhp, keep the weight at or under 3000 lbs and go fight McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche!
But keep the price under $70k... (destroy Hellcats, Shelbys, Corvettes and Vipers! Bwahaha)
Make another Furai, mid engined 16X based NA 3 rotor, throw a couple electric motors front and back to make an even 1000bhp, keep the weight at or under 3000 lbs and go fight McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche!
But keep the price under $70k... (destroy Hellcats, Shelbys, Corvettes and Vipers! Bwahaha)
keep in mind, that was the rumor i heard, no idea if its true or not.
Understood. But those rumored reasons perfectly align with why VW did what they did.
as far as the haze goes, silicon valley is way worse than anywhere in Europe, note the brown stripe in the picture.
Silicon valley would be FAR worse if the diesel car population were as high as it is in Europe. Particulates, NOx, secondary organic aerosols are all much much worse for diesels than gasoline engines.
And now VW's "clean diesels" have now been shown to not be clean at all except while being tested!
Last month Mazda released a new look for upcoming US Dealers.
I find it taunting that Mazda would highlight two iconic RE cars and yet production for a RX successor has not be confirmed. You can clearly see a Cosmo 110S (Cosmo 110S picture can also be seen on p.234 of the SA/FB/FC Yamaguchi book) and 787B.
We will find out shortly if the "little engine that could" will make a comeback.
Ok, ok, lets look at this objectively, just because they release a teaser of the silhouette of a sexy concept doesn't m..........OMG ITS HAPPENING!!!!! Take my money Mazda!
