Spinning in Circles: Mazda's Rotary Ambitions Still Very Much Alive

It seems like we get a new update about Mazda’s plan for the rotary engine every few months. The automaker kept tinkering with the technology after the RX-8’s demise, but efficiency mandates left the high-revving Wankel on the sidelines, prohibiting the introduction of a true successor to the rotary coupe. Yet the motor hung around as the company’s likely solution for hybrid cars, recharging the battery while electric propulsion takes care of forward momentum.

While that makes the probability of an RX-9 sound rather bleak, the company doesn’t want anyone to give up hope. Mazda still desires such a vehicle and the company’s European vice president of communications, Wojciech Halarewicz, has basically said it will be a done deal if they can find enough money in the budget for a flagship sports car.

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  • OA5599 Been there, done that--Fordlandia.
  • MaintenanceCosts I love urban condos, but the idea of sharing an association with 50 Aston owners makes me break out in hives.
  • MaintenanceCosts My dad had a closely related, but much less cool, Corolla Liftback of the same vintage when I was born. Typical of a Toyota, it was the low-drama car in the household, compared to mom's backfire-prone and fussy RX-3 wagon. Both cars got sold when we moved overseas in 1981, but neither parent had the sense to buy something low-drama again for quite a few more years.
  • MaintenanceCosts When they target one specific plant well outside of contract negotiation time, you know it's bad.Even if you distrust unions, ask yourself whether an individual whistleblower could have made any difference here without the union backing him up.
  • FreedMike IIRC, weren't '70s Japanese cars prone to rust?