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For your information June 4, 2003


Mazda's 'RENESIS' Wins 'International Engine of the Year 2003'



Mazda's new-generation rotary engine, "RENESIS," which powers Mazda's all-new RX-8 sports car, has been named "International Engine of the Year 2003."

Established in 1999, the International Engine of the Year Awards are hosted by Engine Technology International every year with the winner selected by a majority vote of 50 motoring journalists from 22 countries around the world. Engines are evaluated based on the criteria of drivability, performance, economy, refinement, and the successful application of advanced engine technology. There are a total of eight awards for the eight capacity classes of all current production engines between sub 1-litre to above 4-litre capacities, and three special awards of "Best New Engine of 2003," "Best Fuel Economy," and "Best Performance Engine." The "International Engine of the Year" is selected from among the winners of the eight engine capacity classes. With an impressive 44 out of 50 votes, the RENESIS clearly outshone this year's competition to claim the honor of "International Engine of the Year." In addition, Mazda's new-generation rotary engine also won the "2.5-litre to 3-litre" Capacity Class Award and "Best New Engine of 2003."


Mazda's new-generation rotary engine 'RENESIS'

Nobuhiro Hayama, executive officer and general manager of the Powertrain Development Division said, "Mazda firmly believes in the virtues of the rotary engine and we have spent many years developing rotary technologies. This award recognizes the significant technical innovation achieved through the ingenuity and enthusiasm of our engineers after overcoming many challenges. We will continue to pursue developments in engineering to further advance the rotary engine's potential."

The rotary engine performs the four processes of intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust in succession by turning a triangular-shaped rotor in the cocoon-shaped combustion chamber to generate power. In comparison with the reciprocating engine, it excels in features such as "compact size and light weight," "flat torque performance," and "less vibration and low noise." Through the introduction of innovative technologies for the rotary engine such as the use of "side-exhaust and side-intake ports" and the new sequential dynamic air intake system, the RENESIS delivers a high power output for a naturally aspirated engine. In addition, the engine demonstrates significantly improved fuel economy and reduced emissions when compared with previous rotaries.

Mazda has developed and introduced a series of insightful cars, such as the Cosmo Sports in 1967 and successive RX-7s, utilizing the intrinsic technical benefits of the rotary engine. The development of the RENESIS, from design to production, represents the sum of its extensive experience with rotary engine technologies. The company has created a new page in rotary history with this innovative engine designed specifically to power the four-door four-seater Mazda RX-8, a totally new concept in sports car design.

The award ceremony will be held on June 4 in Stuttgart, Germany.

Outline of RENESIS engine (for Mazda RX-8 Type S/Japanese specifications)
-Type: Rotary engine, two-rotor, water-cooled
-Total Displacement: 0.654L x 2
-Maximum Output (JIS net): 184kW (250PS)/8,500rpm
-Maximum Torque (JIS net): 216N·m (22.0kg-m)/5,500rpm

wakeech

*thumbs nose at rotary nay-sayers, and bitchers of fuel economy and torque*

gord boyd

Here is a prediction on my personal record:
Next year's Award will be Hybrid Synergy Drive
for "Torque on Demand" AND 15% MPG improvement
(and 30% less emmissions than squeaky clean current Prius).

Congrats to Mazda for this years' Award!

DisneyDestroyer

The put it in the "2.5-litre to 3-litre" class, despite listing its characteristics as "Total Displacement: 0.654L x 2" which makes 1.3-litre. What's up with this?

DrKillJoY

here is the link...

http://www.ukintpress.com/engineoftheyear/ieoty.html

as far as the reason it is classed as a 2.5-3.0l motor...

....Traditional swept volume measurements are confused when tackling rotary engines. A rotary engine has three chambers created by the gap between the rotor itself and the rotor housing, as opposed to a the chamber between the head and piston in a reciprocating engine. The motion of the rotor moves the chamber itself (with the mixture contained in the chamber) from the inlet port, compresses the mixture, moves the chamber in line with the spark plugs to ignite the mixture, then moves the mix to an exhaust port... there are three chambers doing this constantly. So it's a very different process to a traditional reciprocating engine. That said, in motorsport and as far as many government bodies are concerned, a rotary engine in displacement is consider to be the equivalent of a reciprocating engine of double the capacity. In this case, RX7s are generally consider to be the equivalent of a 2.6 litre piston motor. On a four stroke there's only one intake stroke for every two revolutions, so from a breathing standpoint, displacement is how much combustion chamber volume gets sucked in over two revolutions. for a rotary, with one intake stroke per revolution, that means measuring two combustion chambers per rotor, not one, like mazda says. each chamber in a 13b displaces 654cc, so by mazda's two-stroke method, a 13b is 1308cc.

i hope my cut and paste from the internet helps.

MRocks

Nice nice! Anyone else here think that when the 8 comes out it will win Motor Trend's car of the year?

cueball

That is not necessarily a good thing. The PT Cruiser and T-Bird both won car of the year and look at how well they are doing.

On the other hand it would give us more ammo against all those rotor nay-sayers.

Sharky

It's a tough balancing act. We want it to be popular enough so Mazda keeps making it but on the other hand we want it to be exclusive enough so you don't see one on every street corner. It seems a very fine line indeed...

Quick_lude

Not to be a "nay-sayer" :p but was the fuel economy test done in a "real" world? I doubt it.. Good for Mazda though! Maybe more money and research will be put forward to the rotary development..

wakeech

oh i don't care what the fuel consumption rates are... if they match the FD, than it's 1 or 2 mpg lower than the next best competitor, and i say "sucks to you bitchers of fuel economy", as it's one of the lowest costs of a car (and not something you should really be concerned about if you like going quickly), not to mention it's a performance machine first... fuel economy is just a comprimize you have to be willing to make... well, at least i am.

ed hall

fuel consumption is important. I'm not a tree hugger, but the rest of the world is concerned about fuel consumption and pollution emissions.

The Mazda rotor, for what it is, compares well against motors double its size and that is good enough for me.

The world summit on the environment held in South Afirca late last year demonstarted that the world actually cares about the air we breath...except of course the USA, which could not be bothered to even attend.

Well well, so **** happens...but I do care and I hope Mazda does too!

Jerome81

MT's car of the year award is garbage. They've picked some pretty bad cars over the years (Chevy Citation?? I think...)

While the T Bird and PT are indeed good cars, I certainly don't think the T Bird is anything that changes the landscape of the american road. It is a good, solid car, but it was nothing ground breaking at all. no new engine technology, no new trannies, no new gagets. Nothing.

Automobile's Automobile of the Year I feel is a much more prestigious award, and I can definitely see Mazda winning that one. Heck, I wonder if Mazda6 might also be up for that award or if it was included last year.

The car will definitely be a C&D 10Best.

gord boyd

I agree with Ed Hall. Geopolitics are a new factor and
we'd get fewer guys & gals shot up if we'd moderate reliance on MidEast.

I'm beginning to "change my eyes" (Proust) and I want to be part of the change. You have to live here in the midEast to be
infuriated with SUV owners. And now Hummers can be written off in one year against US businesses!

MRocks

Is the Cruiser really doing that bad? Did the T-Bird really win? Have I been living under a rock? Well the T-Bird is really impractical compared to the 8 so I don't think the same fate will happen to that.

Rob Tomlin

So who did they give the award to for 2004?

moatz

The Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive used in the Toyota Prius.

The Renesis still won the 2.5-3 litre class.

See http://www.ukintpress.com/engineofth...egories04.html for more details.

Rob Tomlin

Cool.

Thanks moatz