Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Cars, Dates, and Home Theaters

I haven't had that big a laugh here for a long, long time. Thank you, Bluey.

All women are "molder's"
Some work quicker than others

Wow, the front rotors for the '8 are heavy. I like to keep my unsprung, rotating mass as low as possible, but I also like to stop.

If anyone is curious I went with Racing Brake's stock upgrade slotted rotors, with Hawk HPS pads, and Goodridge G-Stop stainless braided flex lines.

Oh, I found a neat bug in the 2004 design tonight. If your coolant is on the full side (probably overfilled because the radiator was replaced with the crash damage, and who knows how much coolant the stupid body shop added), and you make a hard right-hand corner with a hot engine the over-flow will dump right on the connector of the electric power steering pump.

Let's say that makes for an interesting second half of the corner.

The coolant overflow tanks were redesigned in 2005. I think I'll pick up the new one. Thankfully the power steering did come back after the car sat for a bit. I'll clean the contacts too.

Chris, back when I was shopping for cars in 2002-2003 I went to a Mazda dealership and they only had a show floor model of the new RX-8, which was a shame because I really wanted to test drive one. The salesman did show me a part of the casing to the rotary engine and let me pick it up. I was astounded by how lightweight it was.

I have a few of those laying around. I also have a 2.0L (the RX-7 and RX-8 are 1.3L), 3-rotor engine in storage. There are only about 1500 of them in the world.

I really love the rotary engine. It kept popping up in my life since about 1996. While my dad was driving me to the airport where I'd be flying to college, he was telling me about how Mazda had a unique engine that kept getting banned in motorsports. Then when I got to college I ended up dating a girl who owned an RX-7, even thought I didn't know it at the time. Once I was far enough in debt, I dropped out of the art school, and came back home to a community college. In my Calc class one chapter of the book had a photo of an RX-7 sitting on the Bonneville salt flats (where, I later learned, it had set a land speed record), that that chapter we learned to calculate the displacement of the engine by computing the area between two curves (and multiplying by the rotor's width). Once I started a full-time job, I had to buy one.

That's my tale.

Chris. Any idea why the rotary engine is not more popular?

It had, perhaps deserved, reliability problems when it initially launched. So the other manufacturers, like Mercedes, and Chevy (for the Corvette), scrapped their plans to use it. Ironically if there were more people using it, the advances needed to make it more reliable would have come quicker. But it was up to Mazda to go it alone.

There's also the fuel economy. People saw 1.3L and expected it to get 30 MPG, but it got closer to 15-20. The 70s wasn't a good time to launch such an engine, when everyone was changing mode from power to economy.

Aside: Sure the rotary engine displaces 1.3L total, but unlike a 4-stroke piston engine it displaces that full amount on every revolution, instead of between two combined revolutions. So a 5.0L V8 really should be a 2.5, since that's what it moves in one revolution. And then there's the redline, even the old rotaries were turning 8000 RPM. Take that 1.3L and fill it 8000 times in a minute vs. 4000 per 2.5L revolution of a V8, and you'll see why they burn the same amount of fuel. People knew the rotaries made a lot of power for their small size, but didn't equate that you need to burn fuel to make power.

Mazda was the only company to stick with it, and have had at least one rotary for sale almost continually since 1976. But since they are so rare people are afraid to go near them, and because people are afraid to go near them, no one puts them in cars.

I built a Revell model of one when I was a kid.... but only remember the basics of how it works.

Nice looking car Chris. Very few things are more satisfying that owning that special car you've always dreamed of.