We Wanted Mazda’s RX-9 So Much That We Forgot How Stupid We Were Being
Okay, we admit it: we really, really wanted Mazda to build a new rotary-powered sports car. The FD RX-7 was such a legend that, almost 15 years after it was killed off, we look at it with the most rose-tinted of Ray-Bans.
Despite a catalogue of faults you could list with respect to the practicalities of living with one, to its fans it can do no wrong, like that girl at school who you’d swear has dropped out of your dreams but is actually a bit of a bitch.
It’s a bug, and the FD bit us hard. Blame the Fast films if you like, but either way we go as gooey-kneed over it at least as much now as we did in the 1990s. Which probably goes some way to explaining how happy we were to give ourselves up to the goddess of future rotary perfection, Mazda’s RX Vision concept.
Its curves were feminine and powerful; shapely without being delicate. God, it was a good-looking thing. Who wouldn’t want that on their driveway? Who wouldn’t want to upgrade the exhaust (overnight parts from Japan, obvs) and listen to it brap-brap-brapping away all day long?
But no. It wasn’t to be: Mazda’s CEO took the dream away from us in an interview given to Automotive News, stating categorically not just that there won’t be a rotary-powered coupé, but that there won’t be a coupé sized above the MX-5 at all.
Given all the coverage we’d dedicated to the RX Vision, the amount of times we pictured what a production version might look like and the number of times we daydreamed about driving the damn thing, you can imagine this pretty much wrapped our bubble in barbed wire and squeezed.
After the sobbing had stopped and those too emotionally broken to carry on had been taken away in wheelbarrows, we had to set ourselves straight. The RX-9 was never going to happen and we were idiots to think it. We let our epic desire for it to be brought to life cloud our better judgement.
Rotary engines just aren’t efficient when used as the principal drive unit in a car. They can rev to silly heights and create God’s own music from an exhaust pipe, but for all their low-displacement technology they drink fuel like Barney Gumble drinks Duff. And let’s not mention the oil consumption, or the lack of low-range torque, or the service intervals.
Much as we were hoping for Mazda to have pulled a miracle solution to the design’s problems out of some recently-discovered orifice (we wouldn’t care which orifice as long as the solution worked), that sort of wizardry is beyond economical sense to even attempt. That’s why the rotaries that we now have confirmation that the Japanese are working on are specifically aimed at range-extender hybrid drivetrains. BMW i8 aside, these sorts of cars are not generally all that much fun to drive.
Cars like the ones it sounds like Mazda is developing are necessary. The RX-7 is the absolute epitome of unnecessary, but that’s why we love it so much. We wanted Mazda to give us more wrong because it always felt so right, but as of this moment we’re giving up on that and moving on. Internal combustion isn’t dead yet so we may as well enjoy pistons - and rotors - while we still can.
Comments
Wasnt there a whole news article on here about a yellow rx9 that would apparently be coming in 2019
Great article bro
it is like mclaren.. all people are saying to as that they want.. 3 seater but we don’t have plans makeing it. because there is no market for it.. xDD like WTF? CEO.. meanwhile they are working on 3 seater but they say they are not working because there is no market when everyone one is saying build new F1 like!..
with mazda same sht… They all people are screaming bring rotary back! everyone is love.. but mazda says.. no no..we are not working on that… meanwhile they register RX names etc.. some stuff with rotary stuff.. they even make RX-vision concept.. but nonono we are not working on any rotary car.. yeah sure…
as far as registering names, thats common practice on any industry.
Imagine that Mazda did not register any “potential future RX names”
Say the left out something like RX-9 RX-10 or RX-X some cool name like that.
And then a company like Daewoo sees that name is available, puts it on one of their cars and sells it as a NEW Daewoo RX-9.
With the quality that daewoo is known for, The RX name reputation would go down the drain and cause stock losses for Mazda…. all because they did not register a name.
It all comes down to protecting the name… regardless if they plan on building it or not.
Remember Scion Xa and Xb came out… They they showed a 3rd car. It was the tC, when the tC came our everyone asked why not name it the Xc. Well Volvo has that name on lock… XC90. Volvo has all variants of that name on lock. so they just said, call it a TC, short for Toyota Car,
You guys are not reading the article correctly, he said no sports cars BIGGER than the Miata. Ergo the new RX will be a similar size to the Miata because as he said the rotary only makes sense for light cars.
they could at least sell body shells. and we will put an engine what we like
But people would still put LS engines in em though!
f**k the nature i want damn rotary car i want it i dont care about future kids im bad guy if you can kill me kill right now i dont care i just want it so bad
craigslist.org
cars and trucks
click the search bar
type “rx7” or “rx8” or “rx3” or “rotary” or whatever
find the rotary car you want and buy it
i wonder how much money will it take to make this on a FD chassis or a sls chassis
Should I buy a used RX-8 ? They are pretty cheap now
Buying a used rotary takes as much balls as running across 8 lanes of highway traffic during rush hour, something is going to go catastrophically wrong
Do you have another car? If so, yes and no. The RX8’s biggest drawback compared to the RX-7 is engine complexity, the only ones who can fix it are extremely specialized mechanics and Mazda themselves. It’s not too hard to work on a naturally aspirated 13B, and the turbos are still easier than the Renesis. The thing about rotaries is that you will most of the time know more about them than the local mechanic will. As a result, you should get one you can work on. FC RX7’s are going for about the same as RX8’s, take a look at those. But if you have enough money to maintain it, by all means do get an RX-8.
This cruel reality is making me tear up.
Oh my god, I found another! I just wrote a blogpost on that a week ago, I thought I was the only one!
Topics
Sponsored Posts