Friday 6th October 2017

Pic of the Week: Mazda's Wankels

For the epitrochoid admirers among us, behold a rotary love-in...

---

You don't have to stand far back from Mazda's 50th anniversary celebration of its rotary engines to think it a funeral procession. Google the term "rotary engine is dead" and you'll find plenty of people keen to explain why the once mighty Wankel may well have heard the death knell.

But at PH, we remain devotees of small capacity, high-revving engines and have pinned our hopes on Mazda will reveal something rotary powered at the Tokyo show later this month.

In optimistic expectation of a replacement to the RX-8, we were given the keys to a multitude of rotary-engined beauts from the Cosmo and RX-3 to the RX-7s and RX-8 at Goodwood last weekend. Of them all, this group shot is the one most requested. You're welcome...

Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)

[cib24]

Guys, thank you very much but how are you only going to limit this to 1920x1200 or 1920x1080!!!!!!!!!???????



Please, can we have a copy in 2560x1440 and/or 3840x2160?

Pretty Please!!!

[Dodgey_Rog]

How come there's 2x of the 92-99 versions, but none of the 86-91 RX-7? Would have thought you could have got a Turbo II coupe in there. Great cars the RX's.

[James Junior]

Thanks guys. Great shot.

[Maca]

No R100s, RX2s, RX4s or RX5s either.

[samoht]

Nice pics. With the rotary being so compact, it really allows small, lithe sports cars to be built around it; park an FD next to a Boxster and you'd swear it was the German car with its engine between its front wheels. Compared to a normal car which is usually distended in some area to accommodate its piston engine, the best rotaries have a real elegance and balance of proportion.

The selection of cars was Mazda UK's, not PH's. The RX-7 moved steadily upmarket and down in volumes over the generations, with the MX-5 coming in underneath it to replace the original RX-7's affordable sports car role. So while the first car sold quite widely in the UK, and the final FD model has been plucked from obscurity by GT and the grey-import boom of the early-noughties, the middle FC version doesn't have such a profile in this country, perhaps why Mazda UK didn't include one.

[cib24]

A little FD meet today. A shot of a couple cars and a 20B.

They are alive and well in the UK.

[stevew1]

Sorry, just had to throw this in here.