The rotary-powered Hercules W-2000 motorcycle is real. I know this, because I saw one with my own eyes at Merks Motor Museum in Nuernberg, Germany, and I’m now fundamentally changed because of it. You will be, too, after reading about this amazing machine.
Mazda may be well on its way to introducing a new Mazda3 already, and reports indicate the new model may be bringing along an all-new, sparkless ignition gasoline engine with it.
When people talk about Mazda’s 13B twin-rotor Wankel engine, they tend to imagine lowered, twin-turbocharged FD RX-7s with giant wings and huge front splitters. But that 13B engine doesn’t get nearly enough credit for powering what has to be the greatest little bus of all time: the Parkway Rotary 26.
Don’t buy a Mazda RX-8, but if you’re going to anyway, now is probably the best time to do so.
Formula Drift Japan is this weekend at nowhere else but the legendary Ebisu circuit. That means Mad Mike is there, and that means that we get to bask in the sights and sounds of a four-rotor Mazda RX-7 doing backwards entries and shredding eardrums.
Fifty years ago today, Mazda sent a shockwave through the industry by offering for sale the world’s first rotary powered sports car—the beautiful and futuristic Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S. Despite its lackluster sales, the Cosmo set the stage for rotary engine use in the automaker’s lineup, and what resulted are among the…
The Mazda 787B is famous for its ear-piercing wail at high RPM, made possible by its four-rotor engine. Rarely do we take time to listen to how insane these cars sound at idle.
The 1990s Nissan R33 Skyline in this video has a 3.0 liter RB30DET, an engine that was never sold from the factory, an aftermarket-only hybrid of a high-displacement block with a twin-cam turbo head. It is one of the coolest straight sixes of the modern era, and it is still utterly silenced by the scream of a…
Last night, Mazda CEO Masamichi Kogai abruptly shut down any notion that his company was currently working on a sports car larger than the existing Miata. This may in fact be the last word on the subject. Surprised? You should not be.
Mazda CEO Masamichi Kogai put the kibosh on any sort of rotary sports car, hybrid-rotary sports car, or basically any sports car larger than the Miata in an interview, so, you know, that sucks.
We’ve all been convinced that some RX-8 hasn’t had any problems like those other RX-8s. Definitely not. That one RX-8 is fine. It’s great. But it doesn’t matter what you’ve heard, because now almost every Mazda RX-8 is being recalled for a potential fuel leak.
A prototype of a new rotary-powered Mazda ‘RX-9' has been approved by the company’s board of directors to hit dealerships in 2020, according to a report by Motoring. That’d be an awesome way for Mazda to celebrate 100 years of Zoom-Zoom, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Like many of our readers, I have an unhealthy fascination with rotary and other non-reciprocating piston engines. In fact, that very first sentence right there probably alienated most of our saner readers, but I don’t care, because a new type of rotary, non-reciprocating combustion engine was just tested on a kart for…
Every time a new Mazda model is announced, a certain number of unwashed yokels always seem to mention that the car would be hella better if only they used the Wankel rotary. News flash: the rotary is a garbage engine.
Rotary engines aren’t perfect. They’re known to burn oil, blow seals, make very little torque and above all, not do so hot on EPA fuel economy drive cycles. Despite all that, there’s something about the high-revving swirly hamentaschen that has our hearts, and now Mazda’s filed a patent that could make them feasible…
Rob Dahm is a man of many varied and particular talents. He’s a successful entrepreneur, runs a YouTube channel with nearly 200,000 subscribers, owns the unluckiest Lamborghini Diablo in the universe, and he’s an avid Mazda RX-7 enthusiast. But when he tried to ship a very peculiar engine to America for one RX-7, the…
Might. MIGHT. I’ve been burned before on this one, so I’m having a hard time believing it. But Australia’s Motoring, citing reports and the rendering you see above from a Japanese car magazine, claims the mysterious concept sports car Mazda will unveil at the Tokyo Motor Show could have a rotary engine after all.
It’s amazing where a bit of luck can land you. Over the last few days, I’ve found myself adrift without GPS on a sinuous bit of remote Japanese rural road, blitzing along in a Murcielago R-GT without ear protection, and the lone Westerner in a Mazda fan event numbering 1200 cars - and then Yojiro Terada broke out the…
There aren’t many Mazda RX-7 rally cars out there, let alone rally-winning RX-7s. Here’s one doing some much-deserved celebratory donuts.
