Speculation on the next RX-8 revision
 

I was just thinking how prime the RX is to become a hybrid. It would shut down the engine at idea, a great fuel savings for a rotary. The electric motor would give it low-end torque. The engine is small enough to accommodate an electric motor integrated into the flywheel with minimum increase is weight and size. Battery pack could fit into the recess in the bottom of the trunk. The engine would run cleaner. We finally get a car with acceptable fuel mileage.

The real trick is to keep the weight down; this would be the greatest challenge.

Yeah, I'm sure the the hybrid sportscar that gets 24mph will be a big hit...

mpH ike?

raptor- mazda has shown gas/ electric hybrid rotaries several times over the last decade- they are definetly looking at it.

Something I agree with Ike on! That just isn't going to go over well.

Mazda has shown hybrid/direct injected/hydrogen/etc... rotaries for almost 2 decades now.

rotary = sports car fun base only... FOK gas mileage... I've given up on trying to get gas mileage in a rotary.. too much of a compromise. Only thing they need to do is make a production mazdaspeed 20B Renesis rotary RX8.

I think it might be interesting to see what mazda could do in this field, I probably wouldn't buy one unless it got 30 mpg, but it'd be interesting. hybrids just suck tho to tell the truth, they get worse fuel mileage than diesels.

And, the yet undetermined long-term maintenance costs associated with Hybrids is not making people too comfortable.

I'm about to go looking for a beater pickup truck for hunting / fishing, and parking at Austin music and outdoor festivals without fear of it getting dinged. I'm considering a diesel over gas.

Gas mileage would be a side effect in this plan, we are looking for low end torque which the current rotary lacks. It would be nice to take out a 350z off the line. An lets face it the higher the price of gas the less RXs will be bought. This becomes a survival matter for the Rotary.

I dont know. Mazda has turbo prototypes. Only time will tell.

This was not always so, at least in the US.

When Mazda marketed the Rotary in the early 70s it was in family sedans and coupes. They offered piston versions of the same cars but they were substantially outsold by the rotary versions. People were impressed that a car with an itsy bitsy rotary could blow away some cars sporting V8s. My take is that, at that time, Mazda really believed they had a viable competitor to the piston powerplant.

Then came rising gas cost and rising pollution standards and as piston engines became more fuel efficient and cleaner the rotary could not keep up. By the late 70s Mazda had backed off the rotary and was primarily selling piston cars. In 1978 they reintroduced the rotary in the US market in the RX-7, which was a sports car and where the benefit of reliability, simplicity, small size and low weight offset moderate fuel economy and moderate HP. This is where the "rotary=sport" association came from. They have reinforced that perception again with the RX-8, using a high performing sport car package to offset low gas mileage and moderate HP.

I still believe that deep down, there is a cult in Mazda that wants to see the rotary excel over the piston and become a competitive alternative engine. Maybe the hybrid market space will let them do that.

I think that a lot of people think hybrid means simply better economy. I believe it can be used to improve performance with out increased fuel consumption or reducing it.

With increased cost of course......

Yeah improved performance then the weight factor comes in, back to square one.