With rotary engines long out of production, the job of building and maintaining them has fallen to individual experts, like wizards of some kind of dark art. But there was a time when things were official, and this is what that factory assembly process looked like.
I love aircooled Volkswagens. I should—in theory—hate Paul Nelson’s car, but I can’t. It’s a Mazda Miata under a Type 3 body, and I ain’t even mad.
Learning how to drive a stick shift is hard. There’s a little shifter knob with a weird pattern, some numbers and an “R,” along with three—yes, three—pedals. That’s a lot to pay attention to. But if you’re sitting on a dealership lot in your brand-new car and no one is there to teach you, check out your owner’s manual.
When it debuted, Mazda’s K-series engine was the smallest V6 ever put into production. While it was quickly overtaken and then expanded into a more reasonable 2.0- and 2.5-liters (as opposed to a minute 1.8), it remained almost oddly overbuilt.
What do we have to look forward to in our far-flung future year of 2018, besides the sweet release of death? Nothing. To find happiness again I will take you back—back to a time of unbridled optimism, of cheerfully bizarre niche vehicles, of turbocharged world-conquering performance, of gull-winged kei cars. Let us…
Now is not a good time for sedan sales as crossover madness pervades the market. Even the excellent 2018 Honda Accord is having trouble finding customers. But the segments’ losses could be your gain. The new 2018 Mazda6 is here with a punchy turbocharged engine, and it looks to be a killer value.
YouTuber Warped Perception built a transparent Wankel rotary engine in his shop, and the resulting footage of the combustion process is absolutely stunning.
The Hoonigans bought a lousy $200 Miata with questionable mods and history, but never quite fell in love with it. It wasn’t fun to rip around their yard and took too much time away from their first love, a beat-up $350 BMW E36 named Shitcar. So, they made it into a “deathkart,” which is the most delightful revenge you…
At this point in the game, it seems highly unlikely that the famed Mazda rotary will return as a standalone engine. Sorry about that. But as a range-extender in a new electric car? Maybe!
The Mazda Miata’s never been known for outright power, and at 155 horsepower and a much lighter weight than its predecessor, the current one moves just fine. But who are we to say no to more? And more could be what we’re getting soon.
When the twin-turbo Mazda RX-7 got too expensive in the 1990s, Mazda responded by devising the smaller, cheaper, naturally aspirated RX-01... and then never made it. That’s a shame, if you ask me!
Before the Mazda RX-8 came onto the scene and reminded the entire automotive world of the existence of triangles, we had the little RX-7. The Mazda RX-7 has become an “internet car.” Currently, YouTube is full of theoretically infinite videos of highly modified RX-7s of all generations with far too many angry rotors…
The older my mom gets, the more she reminds me that you can’t take money with you when you die. She’s right, but that didn’t stop her from demanding I give her at least $7,000 for her 2008 Mazda Miata. She’s happy to let me inform you that she got her price, and rolled home in a 2017 Miata with 52 miles on it.
Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.
Mazda has been vocal about its plan to continue developing internal combustion engines despite a major industry push towards electification and EVs. The company displayed its innovative Skyactiv-X engine last year, and now Automotive News reports that a next generation motor—called Skactiv 3—will offer efficiency…
Mazda has one of the most esoteric collections of cars in the basement of their Southern California facility, and they’re looking to expand that collection with perhaps the strangest car they’ve ever produced: The Mazda Millenia S. With a supercharged Miller-cycle 2.3-liter V6 engine, this large front-wheel-drive…
