Mazda RX-7 Papercraft Model by Crafting Guy

16 Dec, 2021

Mazda RX-7 (1978-2003): An Iconic Car Identical to a Rotary Engine

This car has been praised in the US media since 1978 as a reinvention of the affordable sports car. Awarded the award as a future-oriented car.

The Mazda RX-7 was celebrated with the same enthusiasm it arrived in Mazda dealer showrooms in Germany in the spring of 1979.

The silhouette is a slim, wedge-shaped sports car with an enormous glass rear door. Equipped with a new compact rotary piston engine in the front center position.

The Mazda RX-7 immediately captivated many fans in the country. Nearly 500,000 units of this 2+2 car were sold worldwide in 1985.

Making the Mazda RX-7 the car with the most rotary engine produced to date.

In Germany, it sold about 6,000 units and put the Mazda RX-7 in a leading position among all rotary engine sports coupes.

The athletic Mazda RX-7 not only became a hit in sales statistics, it even beat its toughest rival, the Porsche 924, in North America.

Mazda RX-7 is also the best in the racing arena. More than 100 wins and five championships were won.

This nimble rotary coupe is a formidable opponent for all Otto piston-engined cars.

The Mazda RX-7 that was presented in Japan is known as the Mazda Savanna. Designed not only as a racing car but more than that.

It can be seen from the pop-up headlights and of course the rotary engine which is projected to be the future of similar cars.

Using an engine with a rotating piston is not good for business but Mazda still insists.

You see, the first car in the world to use a rotary engine, the NSU Ro80, stopped production in Germany and Europe in early 1977.

However, the first global energy crisis after 1973 also disrupted Mazda's success story with this rotary piston engine.

Despite their lightweight, compact design, and relatively high power output with turbine-like smoothness, rotary engines are still more wasteful than Otto piston engines.

Kudos to the Mazda engineers in Hiroshima who consistently use a two-disc rotary engine and can sell more than 900 thousand units of this kind of car.

They succeeded in making an "efficient" rotary engine so that it could be accepted by consumers. This is economical for the size of a rotary engine.

For Mazda, this rotary engine is like a mythical Phoenix bird that disappears to dust but rises again.

Inspired by that, Phoenix became the name of a project at Mazda to rethink how to innovate for this rotary engine.

Led directly by Head of Development Kenichi Yamamoto (pictured above with glasses) with a very bold target.

Mazda wants to present a rotary car with a consumption value of 40 percent lower than before.

Yamamoto's approach is also very creative and completely new to the Asian automotive industry. First, develop a rotary engine and then apply it to the car.

The new type 12A engine with 2 times 573cc chamber volume produces an output of 105 horsepower with significantly optimized consumption and emission values.

For this purpose, the combustion chamber depressions in the rotor are designed in the form of a droplet rather than a trapezoidal shape. The exhaust system is also equipped with a new type of post-combustion.

This flat rotary piston engine is integrated into the aerodynamic sports coupe body so that the engine can take full advantage of its advantages.

Thanks to its consistent lightweight construction, the Mazda RX-7 weighs just over 1,000 kilograms at no load.

Making the Mazda RX-7 able to compete with sports cars which are nominally much more powerful. Above all, the Mazda RX-7 sets a new standard in driving pleasure.

The reason is, the compact rotary piston engine can be placed behind the front axle to support an almost ideal weight distribution between 52 to 48 percent.

Before the RX-7, Mazda also had a legendary car called Cosmo Sport 110 S 1967. This was Mazda's first car to use a dual-disc rotary engine.

Mazda RX-7 can be said to be downsizing from its predecessor while maintaining a rotary engine.

Since then, Mazda's strategy seems to be so appropriate when utilizing existing technology. Both gasoline engine cars, diesel engines, and rotary engines.

Mazda is also innovating with the use of hydrogen fuel in this rotary engine.

This was demonstrated for the first time in 1991 by the Mazda HR-X concept car and in 2006 by the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE.

Currently, Mazda has launched the Mazda MX-30. This is their first electric car. It could be that they will develop a rotary engine again in the future with an electric format.

However, the Mazda RX-7 remains a unique icon among all rotary engine sports cars and has proven its worth even in world record-breaking attempts.

In 1978, for example, the RX-7 was specially prepared to reach a speed of 296 km/h and broke the Bonneville Salt Flats record, United States (US).

The 80,000-kilometer warranty, which is standard in the US, marks the unmatched reliability of this rotary engine car.

The Mazda RX-7 in Europe developed revs to 8,000 rpm and passed the test in 1981 and won at the Spa 24 Hours

On the German market, the Mazda RX-7 was offered in three generations until 1996, while in Japan, a car with a top speed of 250 km/h was produced until 2003.

If we visit the Mazda Classic - Automobil Museum Frey, there are displayed all kinds of Mazda cars with rotary engines.

This unique Mazda museum in downtown Augsburg features the entire RX-7 parade. From the 1979 Mazda RX-7 to rare items like the 1983 RX-7 Elford Turbo, which dropped in Group B at rally events.

There is also the 1984 Mazda RX-7 Küwe Cabriolet with a small series body in Germany to Felix Wankel's vehicle, the Mazda RX-7 Turbo.

The second-generation Mazda RX-7, which was built from 1985 to 1992, also exists. One of them is represented by the luxurious 1989 Mazda RX-7 Turbo Cabriolet. While the last generation was produced from 1991 to 2003.