Mazda Stops Production of the Last Rotary Engine Powered Car 359
Hugh Pickens writes "After a 45-year production run, Mazda Motor Corp announced that the latest edition of the Mazda RX-8 will end production in June 2012. The Japanese automaker ... introduced its first rotary engine car in 1967 and is the only automaker in the world that makes rotary engine vehicles, once the darling of the automotive industry. Such engines have fewer moving parts and are quieter than comparable piston engines but are more expensive to manufacture and consume more fuel. Cumulative sales of Mazda vehicles with rotary engines total about 1.995 million but Mazda sold only 2,896 RX-8 cars last year, with 1,245 of them in North America and 963 in Japan. 'Although R-X production is ending, the rotary engine will always represent the spirits of Mazda, and Mazda remains committed to its ongoing development,' says Mazda Chief Executive and President Takashi Yamanouchi recalling the victory of Mazda's rotary engine at Le Mans 20 years ago... Mazda does not have flashy green technologies in its lineup that its bigger Japanese rivals do — such as the hybrids at Toyota Motor Corp. or electric vehicles at Nissan Motor Co. The fading away of its prized rotary engine — although largely symbolic — is yet another blow."
Re:Efficiency check (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, but Mazda does have flashy green.... (Score:4, Informative)
Fuel efficiency (Score:4, Informative)
It's worse than that (Score:5, Informative)
The advantages of the rotary engine are power (relative to weight) and simplicity. Even though the rotary engine has fewer moving parts than a piston engine, service life is LESS. In theory, IF there were many manufacturers competing and making interchangeable parts, rotary engines might become cheap enough to be disposable. But with Mazda as the only game in town, forget it.
As engines evolved, people discovered it was easier to reduce the weight of a piston engine than to build a long-life rotary engine. Of all the components that can fail in a car, the pistons, engine blocks, rings, rods, valves, fuel injectors, and camshafts are normally good for the life of the vehicle. With the possible exception of timing belts, the simplicity of the rotary engine does not translate to lower maintenance cost because the admittedly complicated piston engines are generally quite reliable.
Re:There's nothing spectacular about the Rotary (Score:4, Informative)
One of my former flatmates had a RX-7, he used to keep a spare engine on the landing.
Riding with him was always an adrenaline pumping experience, he lived in inner city Melbourne (Australia) and used to make a point of dragging off trams and pulling in front of them at intersections, accellerating and breaking heavily on tram tracks so as not to run the red light, with several tonnes of tram having to break heavily behind him so as not to rear end him.
Re:There's nothing spectacular about the Rotary (Score:5, Informative)
No offence, but your former flatmate sounds like a complete dickhead.
As someone who has experienced Melbourne trams having to break hard to avoid an accident which resulted in all the passengers being hurled forwards (some off their feet) it is just not cool.
So very very wrong. (Score:3, Informative)