Probably no real surprise at this news, but interesting that the excuse they are making is because of emissions, not the inherent litany of defects in the engines over the years!
tinyurl.com/63qc96p
Probably just costs way to much to continue investment in such a non-mainstream piece of technology. Shame nevertheless.
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I guess it's also not attractive enough to attract sports car buyers compared to e.g. a 6 cylinder engine. Mazda can go on about the rotary engine in the RX8 having fewer parts and being smoother than a reciprocating engine all they like. In practice though, apart from being thirsty, it has no torque at low revs and sounds like a hoover.
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A pity, at least they persevered.
It's alleged the other teams in the pit lane at Le Mans would applaud when they switched it off.
The 'braying donkey' sound is dead.
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If they fitted a normal engine (even a diesel) to the RX-8 it would have sold far more. Stubborn to stick with the Wankel engine for so long IMO.
I know the swept capacity of the 1.3 Wankel engine in the RX-8 was said to be the equivalent of 3.9 litres. But a 3.9 litre V8 engine would have good torque. Probably lower emissions too. And be able to be used for short trips without flooding the engine with petrol.
I commented how my last car (Mazda6 diesel) was more refined than the Mondeo diesel before it. The current VW diesel is so much quieter again! Very refined. And plenty of oomph.... but didn't someone tell me I could get it remapped to over 200bhp on here! Not that I could/would as it's not my car.
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I remember chatting to the owner of an RX8 a year or two ago. The figures were staggering. 16-20 mpg and a litre of engine oil every 850 miles. He described the running costs as "ruinous".
Thing is, it isnt even THAT quick....
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A former neighbour of my son leased one of the earliest RX8's. It broke down, failed to start, about 8 x in 2 months...........he told the Mazda garage he would not be picking it up and cancelled the Direct Debit to the lease company.
The Lease Company threatened to sue for several thousands, deluged him with threats .........he said "See you in Court" Nothing came of the threats.
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i read somewhere the other day that Wankel-type engines are used extensively in unmanned 'drone' aircraft because the mode of running suits the design.
Developmental dead-ends are inevitable, I guess - just ask Subaru - but it's a shame that potentially ground-breaking ideas fall down in the real world.
Many years ago I was friendly with an elderly man who had been a steam engineer in India for most of his life. He drove a Rover 110 but had a receipt for a small deposit to Chrysler (I think it was) on a production steam car when it finally appeared. He never saw it - or his money!
Incidentally, we were invited one evening to see some of his slides of life in India and they turned out to be glass ones shown with a magic lantern. I guess he was just set in his ways...
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>> It broke down, failed to start, about 8 x in 2 months
He'll have started it and then not let it run long enough to burn off the large amounts of petrol pumped into the engine on startup. They can refuse to restart afterwards and need taking to the garage to sort it. Do it often enough and the rotor tips are damaged and need replacing.
Sounds like he chose the wrong engine type for the sort of driving he did. Similar I guess to DPF problems when you do lots of short journeys.
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>> Sounds like he chose the wrong engine type for the sort of driving he did.
>> Similar I guess to DPF problems when you do lots of short journeys.
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I can just see the saintly sales geezer sitting the customer down and telling them the absolute truth hand on heart about their prospective choice, rotary, DPF and several other results of progress, if you use it as probably the majority of private owners will it is not suitable for you....and an RX8 would most likely be a private buyer.
''if you need to move your RX8 to let your wife out of the drive you'll have to take it for a blast to get it warm and burn off the excess fuel, if you don't do that all sorts of ruinous things will happen''... it's just not going to happen in the real world.
You really do have to have your wits about you and do your research to buy anything not bog standard these days.
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>> You really do have to have your wits about you and do your research to buy anything not
>> bog standard these days.
You sure do. And I['d say most who bought an RX-8 (and the RX-7s before) won't have decided on on based purely on it have a Wankel engine. I can see how the physical characteristics can have had an impact on handling etc. Aren't these rotary engines compact?
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I thought the RX7 made a lot more sense. With forced induction it made respectable torque and decent power which made the fuel economy much easier to swallow. The last models were 265 bhp and easily capable of almost twice that with tuning. The naturally aspirated version in the RX8 is much weaker and still drinks like a fish.
These are light, compact engines though which does help with packaging flexibility and handling. I just think its a lot of fuss and compromise for a relatively low output. At least the turbo version had grunt.
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Should've dropped the engine into an MX-5.
The 2.3 4 cylinder turbo in the MPS variants would surely have been a vastly superior unit in the RX-8 rather than in the fugly 3-series and bulging bonneted 6.
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I would love to see the 2.3 MPS engine in the MX-5. With an LSD and the appropriate chassis tweaks, it would have been the bargain drivers car of the century at say £25k
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Are these not ideal for say cold start 3 mile trips? Ironic as this thread is, one of my colleages has just bought one and I guess he has just bought for looks although I'm aware he might have had a idea of how pokey they are.
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>> Are these not ideal for say cold start 3 mile trips?
You are joking aren't you? No they are far from ideal for this. In fact the engine will often not start and the rotor tips will fail early.
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AFAIK he has bought one, not seen it but I will only know tomorrow at work. I'm not saying anything, it's not my place to interfere but I'm guessing it will have been bought on looks alone without looking up insurance costs, MPG or issues mentioned above.
Nationally there is 60 RX-8's on AT for £3,000 or under and these cars are all 53, 04 and even a 55 plate. Combined with the sleek looks and the prospect of a 200 or 230 hp car for everyday car money, I can see the appeal to the uninformed.
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Do warn him though - or you're not much of a friend. He needs to be aware that every time it starts he needs to let it warm up. And to check oil levels and top up regularly. Or he'll be out of pocket.
I am surprised people get so excited when they see a car with 230bhp (but poor torque)...
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230bhp is 230bhp, whatever the torque. I doubt an F1 car has any more torque at 9000rpm.
Lot of rubbish talked about torque, but let's not do that argument again!
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F1 cars are very light. So don't need too much torque.
Regardless of torque or power... the Wankel engine in the RX-8 is not what most people think it will be :-) I bet a lot buy it without knowing it's a rotary engine. And that the equivalent swept capacity is 3.9l and therefore this will use a lot of petrol. And oil. And is unsuitable for short journeys.
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Mazda - Mazda to scrap rotary engines - Bagpuss
