Mazda Continues to Work on Rotary Engines

2018 Mazda RX-9 Rendering (Credit:© Hodge Ltd)

The rumor mill is continuing to churn out reports of rotary power in Mazda’s future. The latest report, however, is one of the first to come from a reliable source, as it was straight from the mouth of Mazda’s president, Masamichi Kogai.

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Kogai made the announcement during the Frankfurt Auto Show, according to Autocar. The report claims that he said the brand still has an engineering team working on this technology and that they are working “very enthusiastically” toward resurrecting it.

While this all sounds well and good, there are some big-time issues with rotary engines, and Mazda learned this valuable lesson with the RX-8. In its latest rotary-powered rig, it learned that it lacked the low-end torque needed to make it more fun to drive, dumped a lot of CO2, and that it swallowed fuel.

Mazda thought about resorted to turbocharging to overcome the torque issues, but it later found out that turbocharging the RX-8’s engine would result in the engine not being legal in Europe due to its CO2 emissions.

While Mazda is supposedly working on rotary tech, there is no timetable for its return. In fact Kogai stated that we would not see it until it was able to meet the fuel economy and emission standards of modern pistons engines.

Rumor has it that Mazda is close to hitting the required numbers, which adds to the reports that the automaker is planning a new RX by 2018, which happens to be original RX-7’s 40th birthday.

While this date may seem like a stretch, none of us know exactly how far Mazda has gotten with this tech. Keep your eyes peeled for the revival of the RX and the rotary engines, as the tea leaves seem to indicate that one is in the works. Stay tuned for more.