When I was looking to buy a sports car I was heavily pressured by the dealer to stay away from the one they had on the lot. My friend went to the same dealer later and overheard him talking on the phone, there's apparently only 1 guy in the province who's certified to work on the engine.
Mazda sticks with rotary power
- Thread starter Pebb
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- 13,892
- Adelaide
- Neomone
On the other hand, they're incredibly good value for the money as long as you don't mind maintaining them.
You can get a ten year old sports car that was $60k new for around $15k with less than 50,000kms on it. All the problems with them can be dealt with if you know what you're doing, but they're not plug-and-play cars. You need to actually take some interest in the care and maintenance of a rotary, unlike a V8 Commodore which you can probably just drive into the ground.
The rotary is and probably always will be a trade-off. Some people, like you it sounds like, aren't willing to make the trade.
- 51,243
- Australia
- SpacedustDaddy
I find it interesting how some view the rotary. Growing up in NYC, there were plenty of RX-7s. Plenty of 12As in everything from Corolllas to 510s. The 13B was pretty rich if someone could get one. Never heard a bad thing about them until I came to Australia.
Many people here tell me how craps they are.
As mentioned, this car, especially a Renesis engined car, can't sit at 30-50km/h through its life on two-lane roads. Especially if it's only being driven to the shops and back home. The thing revs to 9000rpm for a reason. Owners of these rotaries, have no clue.
Many people here tell me how craps they are.
As mentioned, this car, especially a Renesis engined car, can't sit at 30-50km/h through its life on two-lane roads. Especially if it's only being driven to the shops and back home. The thing revs to 9000rpm for a reason. Owners of these rotaries, have no clue.
- 12,895
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
You can buy one with a rebuilt engine and a warranty for less than that. They're an absolute bargain if you're willing to drive the hell out of them daily and look after them properly. They come loaded with kit as well. I used to love taking mine onto the local roads to take it to the limiter each day.
- 2,047
- New Zealand
- TIZZLAA
You don't just have to maintain them, you will most likely need to rebuild the engine. They all have low km's because none of them get past 100k's without blowing a seal. So unless you are made of money I don't see why anyone would want one when there are far better alternatives out there.
At least the RX-7 FD was actually fast, the RX8 was all the bad things of a rotary with 50-100hp less. Not to mention how ugly it is compared to the FD.
- 13,892
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Good to see you're not biased.
They don't all have low kms, there's a normal range for a sports car. I've seen a 2003 with 20,000kms on it, and there's numerous ones on carsales right now with 200k+.
Blowing seals at 100ks is part of the tradeoff. Like I said, either you accept that it might happen, or you buy a different car. There are things you can do to extend the life, but it's always going to be a bit of a lottery. It's part of the price you pay for having an interesting engine.
There are other alternatives out there, but for $15k an RX8 is a lot of car. It's a reasonably practical daily driver, and it's incredibly engaging to drive. There's plenty of other things that you can buy for $15k, but I think depending on your situation a good case can be made for an RX8. Particularly if you're in the market for a driver's car, and you don't mind getting your fingers grubby and paying attention to how you maintain your engine.
Obviously not for you, you just hate the things. That's fine, buy yourself a Maloo and be happy. You can get a V8 ute of a similar age for a similar price, and it'll be bulletproof.
Like I said, you're not willing to make the trade off. I don't think the RX8 was a bad looking car, although it's not as good as an FD. The more I look at them, the more they grow on me. Especially with a nice set of wheels.
However, with an RX8 you get most of the power of an FD without having to deal with the turbo issues, and you get four usable seats. I'm 6 foot, and I can sit in the back of an RX8 fairly comfortably. It actually does a fairly good impression of a four door sedan, if it has to.
If you get an FD you're paying at least $5k more, you're losing those two extra seats, and you're getting something even more unreliable, even though it's then pure sports car. I like the RX8 as a middle ground, especially the series 2 ones where they fixed a lot of the gremlins that plague the first ones.
I figure it's an Alfa Romeo type thing. Either you get it or you don't. People that don't get it will never understand why you would buy an RX8. Or any rotary, for that matter. Why buy an FD when you could just buy a Supra or a GTR and not have to deal with the whole rotary business?
Because you can, and because they're glorious.
- 10,829
- Plymouth, UK
- motorforum
You can buy one with a rebuilt engine and a warranty for less than that. They're an absolute bargain if you're willing to drive the hell out of them daily and look after them properly. They come loaded with kit as well. I used to love taking mine onto the local roads to take it to the limiter each day.
That's flipping mental!
CodeRedR51
Premium
- 55,307
- United States
- 12,895
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
Yep. For that you get a car with plenty of power for UK roads (I struggled to find places to use mine at full throttle for any decent amount of time), Bose stereo with 9 speaker system, HID headlights, full leather interior, alloys, electric everything, steering wheel controls and an engine that revs to 9,000RPM and sounds glorious. They're really nice to drive.
- 5,065
- Fort Worth
- That_sneaky_azN
I would like to see a render of RX-V in REA-styled glory. Hmmmmm I wonder how that would look. 
- 30
- Toronto, Ontario
Yea I checked the new nsx is going for 155K estimate. bf the nsx is a real super car not a wannabe. Supercars are expensive by their nature. Unless you're looking for sports cars/coupes like he nissan 350/370, the rx-7, miata/mx-5, toyota supra, FT-86, etc. Those go up at most ~50K. Usually around 30K. Affordable coupes/convertibles/sports cars.
Super/hyper/mega cars are pretty much mostly for the top middle class to the super rich.
the other stuff is for the upper middle class & lower classes, imo.
CodeRedR51
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This car sold for 370Z level money would sell like hotcakes.
- 5,065
- Fort Worth
- That_sneaky_azN
Exactly how much was an FD3S back in the day in comparision to the other upper level Japanese cars?
- 5,303
- Riverside, Ca
- GTP_Leonidae_MFT
FD RX-7 was 35-39K USD depending of the spec and options.
- 22,551
- Arizona
- HamiltonMP427
Which was 60k+ in Today's money
So sadly will most likely not be at this level, but I too wish it was.
- 11,853
- Marin County
Don't forget the 300zx TT was just as as expensive or more expensive, depending on options. Even without adjusting for inflation, the 370z can be had for less. The contemporary 911 was similar money then but they have gone stratospheric in price since. Just because a car lives in a particular price bracket in one generation doesn't mean it can't move around in future iterations. The first generation RX-7 was dirt, dirt cheap when new. Remember they sold half a million of them....
CodeRedR51
Premium
- 55,307
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Too many renderings based off the concept. I'd like to see someone try to make it look production ready by adding door handles, more realistic headlights (you could probably just follow those lines already there) etc etc.
- 40,822
By the time it came out, it was way cheaper than its most direct competition. The Supra was never less than 40 large, and the 300ZX and the House were both rapidly approaching the same threshold.
To be fair, the RX-8 is a bit harder of a sell when it basically sold the same time as the S2000; which was superficially pretty similar but without being "weird".
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- 13,892
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Kinda, but they're pretty different to live with.
It's like comparing an M3 to an AMG SLK. Superficially, some of the numbers and stuff may be similar. In the real world, having a convertible is like nothing else. But having four seats and a non-tiny boot is incredibly useful.
An RX8 is not a no compromises sports car, in the same way that an M3 isn't. They're practical cars that happen to be incredible to drive at the same time. It's real comtemporary competitors were things like Imprezas and the Evo X, but that's where it's style worked for it. If you wanted something more coupe-ish and less like a shopping trolley with a scoop on the bonnet, it was pretty much all there was from Japan.
An RX8 was totally not worth the money that they sold for, and frankly I'm surprised so many people bought them at the time. But there's always people with more money than sense, and the fact that they depreciated like an Alfa means that they're surprisingly good value for what you get now.
A good S2K is in the same price bracket as an FD, about $5k more than an RX8. Ditto Skylines, Imprezas and Evos. Turbo Supras are even more again, and don't even think about buying an NSX. The JDM tax on any Japanese sports car is nuts, except for the RX8 because everyone thinks that they're awful.
They're not as good as the rest, but they're surprisingly close. If you want something comfortable, modern, that fits four people and can still beat the snot out of any Commodore around a windy road then it's a solid option. If you happen to like rotaries it's a great one.
I think every petrolhead should be made to take a rotary out onto the open road and redline it. There's some sort of magic that hooks the rev counter into the smile muscles in your face. It's impossible not to grin as the thing just keeps revving higher and higher. It's a bit like revving out an S2K, but the buttery smoothness is just unlike any other engine.
It seems daft until you drive one, and then you understand why people will put up with all the BS that comes along with a rotary.
- 11,853
- Marin County
Take this with a grain of salt.
http://www.caradvice.com.au/392141/mazda-rx-rotary-engine-turbo-inevitable-no-electrification/
Mazda says the just announced rotary engine will first be introduced without any electrification, in order to showcase the company’s expertise in this field.
Speaking to the Australian media at the Tokyo Motor Show today, Mazda’s global boss of R&D, Kiyoshi Fujiwara, said that any initial release of the rotary engine would be without electrification, though he admitted turbocharging is on the agenda.
“If we can produce this kind of engine and this kind of product with rotary engine, firstly I would like to introduce rotary engine itself, no electrification,” Fujiwara said.
“Because if we had help of electrification, people will say this helped the rotary engine, therefore personally I want to introduce the rotary engine without electrification, as the first step, then with severe requirement for CO2 and emission systems, we continue to add some applications.”
Fujiwara also confirmed the rotary engine is a continuation of the work on the 16X, meaning the Mazda rotary engine of the future will be 1.6-litre in capacity. Known a the Renesis II, the 16x made its initial appearance in the Mazda Taiki concept car at the 2007 Tokyo Auto Show. At the time Mazda said it had around 223kW of power.
However, those power figures are likely to change considering the inherent torque defecit of rotary engines will likely lead to some form of assistant technology like turbocharging.
“Yes it is inevitable – [a] turbocharger is one of the big contributors for rotary engine in the future.”
Also, while hybridisation will not be available to start with, Fujiwara says that helping that initial take off speed could potentially be well served by an electric motor.
“Rotary engine has some weakness with low RPM in terms of torque, therefore if we can have a good motor system for helping for that kind of area for low RPM, weakness of the torque range, that is one of the solutions for the future.”
Much like the RX-8 introduced friction welding that filtered down the Mazda range, the new RX sports car will also serve as the basis for new technologies being introduced into the Mazda family.
“Firstly we use this new technology in new sports car then it can be delivered to other passenger cars.”
According to Fujiwara, the engine is very close to starting prototype testing, however the company is focused on making sure that the emission systems, fuel economy and reliability are addressed as top priority before the engine sees full-scale production.
http://www.caradvice.com.au/392141/mazda-rx-rotary-engine-turbo-inevitable-no-electrification/
- 15,394
- TRAPPIST-1g
- ProjectWHaT
This was posted on Motor Trend. It gives a different point of view compared to all of the positive excitement.
Some interesting points:
http://blogs.motortrend.com/mazda_rx_vision_and_now_the_bad_news.html
Some interesting points:
http://blogs.motortrend.com/mazda_rx_vision_and_now_the_bad_news.html
CodeRedR51
Premium
- 55,307
- United States
So ~300hp without a turbo. Nice.
Edit: I'm just going to ignore that second article from Motor Trend because, let's face it, he doesn't work for Mazda so what does he know?
Edit: I'm just going to ignore that second article from Motor Trend because, let's face it, he doesn't work for Mazda so what does he know?
- 5,065
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- That_sneaky_azN
