zachisageek

theres something wrong at mazda when their mazdaspeed6 makes more power than the rx8....

dream '94 Z28

Dispite a powerband more narrow than a neo-con's point of view, I think it's rather spectacular what Mazda get's out of the RX-8's 1.3 liters.

91_z28_4me

I don't think that the physical displacement of a rotary should be counted the same as a regular ICE because it is SO different. When rotarys were being run in race classes didn't they multiply the displacement by a figure to put them into specific classes?

HAZ-Matt

I want a 5.7L rotary.

Back to the matter at hand, it is over the top, but I neither love nor hate it. My reaction is just "eh".

Diognes56

Not really my thing, but I liked some of the ideas.

David

RussStang

Yeah, they always put them in a higher displacement bracket, sometimes by 2 or 3 times, depending on the event.

I don't think it is spectacular at all. We have nothing to reference this achievement to, seeing they build the only viable massed produced rotary on the market.

dream '94 Z28

The fact no one else gets close to 236-odd horsepower out of any other petro-fired powersource makes it pretty damn impressive.

RussStang

My point is that no one else has tried, so why should I assume it is some great feat to get 232hp (new SAE standard) out of a production rotary? I guess I am not easily impressed. Rotaries are nothing at all like reciprocating pistion engines, so a comparison between the two makes no difference to me.

newby

Um, many other people have tried. Mercedes, Chevrolet, and others have all tried, but Mazda was the only manufacturer (for better or worse) that stuck with it and made it work.

Anyway, back to the Kabura, It's interesting. There's a lot of it I like, it'd be interesting to see what it looked like in production form.

The fact that they're trying to do an entry level RWD car is awesome in my book. Something in the civic/srt4/cobalt range, but RWD, would really grab my interest as a DD.

RussStang

I really don't want to turn this thread into some rotary discussion, but Mercedes and GM did play their hands in rotary development, and they did not feel the cost of development would justify building the engine. Mazda seemed to start using it as a novelty, and made a niche market for it. No other manufacturer has taken a serious look at the rotary engine in decades, so there is still no other viable referrence for just how well Mazda has gotten rotaries down with their current 13B Renesis.

It is cool that Mazda did spend their time and money to create something unique in the marketplace, and I often wonder what the rotary might have been capable of given a fraction of the years of development the reciprocating piston engine has gotten, but my point was that getting 232hp out of a 1.3L rotary doesn't blow me away, even naturally aspirated. I have heard of guys getting alot more than out of it, even without turbo/superchargers.

On another note, I do like the Kabura concept, but I think I said that already.

Z284ever

The remarkable thing about this 2+2 (or 3+1 as they call it), RWD car is, that if produced, Mazda wants to price it with the Scion tC.