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My grandfather had an early rotary-engine Mazda RX-4 in the late 1970s. It was interesting in many ways, but the Achilles’ heel was very poor gas mileage. This week, I’m driving the 2006 Mazda RX-8 and it’s absolutely brilliant – the best-driving sports car I’ve experienced all year. But, son of a gun, it gets terrible fuel economy: just 18 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway. I’d expect the average road-hog SUV to do at least that well.
From Howstuffworks.com: "In a piston engine, the same volume of space (the cylinder) alternately does four different jobs – intake, compression, combustion and exhaust. A rotary engine does these same four jobs, but each one happens in its own part of the housing. It’s kind of like having a dedicated cylinder for each of the four jobs, with the piston moving continually from one to the next."
The rotary engine even looks completely different: a cross section that would reveal a giant triangular "rotor," which creates sealed combustion chambers in an oval housing as it travels around in an elliptical orbit. It’s a radical design, and made quite an impression when German engineer Felix Wankel first demonstrated how it worked in 1924. The setup is ideal for getting high output from a lightweight engine, but less than ideal for fuel economy and emissions.
Mazda introduced the RX-7 in 1978, but its first rotary-engine car was the cool-looking Cosmo of 1967. That car was never sold in the U.S. and is quite collectible today. The RX-7 was an almost instant hit, especially the sleekly styled first series. Owners lived with the fuel economy problem, but gas was only a buck and change per gallon then.
I was at the North American International Auto Show in 2001 when the RX-8 was unveiled, and I found the design bulky and the rear half-doors gimmicky. But that impression formed before I drove it.
Simply put, the RX-8 is a blast on the road. It accelerates in a swiftly climbing arc of smooth and creamy power, making gorgeous noises as it goes. Zero to 60 comes up in an estimated six-and-a-half seconds, but feels even faster. The red line is up around 9,000 rpm and you really can rev it right to the edge. With a near-perfect 50-50 weight balance and only 3,000 pounds to carry around, the stiffly suspended RX-8 is a perfect joy to fling into corners. The short-throw six-speed gearbox offers ideally spaced ratios. If it got 30 mpg I could just love it to death.
The multicolored seats make quite a visual impression, but the interior is otherwise subdued and functional. Now, about those rear doors: they don’t do much for the car’s bulbous styling, but they are practical. Open either front door and the rear ones fold out in suicide fashion, giving fairly graceful access to a rear seat that otherwise would be an ordeal to reach. My kids happily climbed back there, and the legroom (while limited) was acceptable for smaller folk.
You’ll want to bring your string-backed driving gloves when piloting the RX-8. It’s won all kinds of awards from the enthusiast press and, in this case, the plaudits are well-earned. But 18 mpg around town? That’s going to have an impact on sales in the era of $3-a-gallon gas.
