RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

What do you see wrong with a convex rotor tip against a concave housing surface? Doesn't even have to be extreme or severe to eliminate 'corners'

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

a car like that would never sell, because most buyers actually wants those stuff. supply and demand.

a basic Rx-8 weights UNDER 3000 pounds, it was hard because you need to reach crash safety standard, u don't want the testing to be "poor" or "good", you want "Excellent" cuz some buyers will put those into car buying decisions. Plus all the air bags and other safety equipment ... but with high tensile steel (1800+) we might actually have a car that's lighter, 2800 ish lbs fully loaded would be very possible.



No questions asked is just impossible, there is no reason for Mazda to pay for end user's **** ups.

be like Hyundai, 5 yrs 60K b2b EXCEPT electronic equpiment which is 36K 3 years (read the fine print! LOL) and 100K 10 years powertrain warranty. instant business.

See reason #1

They can make it upscale and keep it light, but I'm not sure if anybody wants to get a Mazda that's in the 100K range like the GT-R. I mean sure if it has GT-R kind of performance, no problem, but the "Brand name" is just not there yet.

the problem is Mazda gave US owners a wonderful "5w20" recommendation AND a few other very STUPID fault. it's fixed in S2. but too little too late. I'm sure they will not (try not to plz?) make the same mistake again (if you do Mazda, I'm gonna kick y0 *****)

Ferrari is expensive because of the brand, they can snap all the most expensive parts, sell it 10 times the price and ppl still buy it.

Is their car fast? sure yea, if I can throw 200K into my RX8 I'm sure I can make it as fast as a Ferrari.

ASH8

You have to hand it to those clever Mazda Japanese Engineers...much better now Ford are not breathing down the backs of their necks...lets just hope Mazda can get over all their serious currency losses, this is Mazda biggest threat to survival...I just hope the local Hiroshima Council and or Japanese Government will not allow Mazda to fold....IF it come to this.

ASH8

I have two Japanese Ferrari's in my garage Jackson.!!

pistonhater

I just can't see how you could create a curve of constant width that supports the 4 phases of combustion in a perfectly circular fashion. that's one of the reasons why the rotary engine has 'corners'

Can you do it without having any corners or triangular tips at all? Sure, but now you are getting into jet engine territory.

Roen

The hell is an FE? You mean SE?

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

If you check the VIN number on a RX8, you will see it is a FE. Just as was a RX7 1st gen a FB, a 2nd gen a FC and 3rd gen a FD. The VIN number is placed there by Mazda.

Mazmart

iTrader: (12)

This is one of the mysteries of Mazda as it is FE in our market and SE in some others.

Paul.

dynamho

Mazda recently had an ambitious share sale to raise money largely to build a factory in Mexico (and Russia?) I think.

The sale went well and was oversubscribed: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8E73Z220120307

I'm showing my support for this maverick carmaker and snapped up a handful of shares. They are as of this writing $1.6 as pink slips (MZDAF).

MattMPS

Thanx dynamho , this is a good news....i've waiting for this....

rotarygod

It would be simple to make it lighter. Get rid of the back seat and stupid 4 door sports car concept crap and get back to what the rotary should have always stayed relegated to. A small, light 2-seater sports car like the RX-7's. It could hit 2500 lbs this way.

ober

i like the four door four seat idea, 2 seats means i couldn't use it as my daily driver. And i like having a rotary car i can use every day. Probably not worth it for mazda to do a coupe and 4 door model rotary right? Cause having some options like that would be nice

pistonhater

Interesting, i didn't know that. I'm gonna start referring to my car as a "FE"

I - like many people out there I assume - sort of like the convenience of having those seats and suicide doors.

However, I agree with you. And I think the RX-8 would have been great as a 2-seater. Somebody a while ago did a photoshop of a real 2-door RX-8 and I really liked the concept within the overall design of the car. I would certainly love to drive a smaller, lighter 2-seater rotary

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

You will get a lot of push-back from RX7 owners. They still don't like the fact that the RX8 is a continuation of the lineage, because it has 4 seats & 4 doors.

pistonhater

I can imagine there's a good number of RX-7 purists out there. Well, I personally know a good number of them And I sort of understand where they are coming from to be honest with you.

I have never thought of the 8 as a hard core sports car as the FD was/is - for example; nor do I think it is a successor of the RX-7.

It's just something different, a pretty interesting compromise between a sports car and a regular car. Not a cup of tea for the purists, but hey, it has a rotary engine and it's still pretty damn fun to drive

dynamho

If it drives as well as the 8, has a rotary in it, bumps up the power, and doesn't look like crap, I don't care if it's 2, 4, or 5 doors, I wan't it.

I don't care if it's 5000 lbs or 50hp, as long as it feels like it's at most 10lb/hp, I want it.

13x

hey hey now

cannot take the words of a few to represent the whole

plus the Rx7's outside the US had back seats but still only two doors

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

ARgh ... I don't know if I can Call RX-8 a "Japanese Ferrari" ...

maybe FD but FE is just ...

FE is the body code of RX-8.

I keep on thinking : This has something to do with the way Japanese people speaks English. The way they pronouce "F" and "S" are actually very similar, there were probably some mistakes between the engineering team and marketing (or whatever). when The marketing ask the engineering team "what is the code name of the car, I need to publish this", then the engineer told him "F-fuuuu-Ee-San-S-i" , the marketing guy probably thought he said "S-su-E-San-S-i" and wrote the info down and publish it ...

that's true, even now if u take both back cusion off, replace the 2 rear door with carbon fiber door you will save like 200 lbs.

Oh well, let's see what mazda gonna do.

When Mazda design FD, they designed with competition and racing in mind. That's why it has a useless trunk, 2 seats, super low Center of Gravity (that time), Double Wish bone Front and rear and Twin Turbo Rotary Engine and a fairly light weight body. Just like what Honda did to NSX, High displacement NA Engine, Mid-Rear drivetrain, super light weight body, super good handling, yeah, another total competition and racing car.

FE is never meant to be a hard core sports car, they just wanna see if this market will work. Well that didn't turn out so well, so I guess the next one they will go back to pure sports car. It's actually a good time, cuz it seems that another "Affordable Sports car competition" is coming. Look at Subaru/Toyota's BRZ/FT-86.

HiFlite999

iTrader: (2)

I'm not sure I'd call the RX-8 an outright failure. Certainly they expected greater sales than were eventually obtained. However, in sales terms, compared to the FD, the FE was a splendid success. The FE saved the rotary for a decade and created a new generation of fans that were priced out of any chance to buy an FD. Many of those fans could not have justified buying a 2-seat-only car. As I've said before, I'd like to see a rotary-option for the Miata, with another 2+2 or full 4-seat rotary offered in a seperate car.

RX-7 and RX-8 production numbers: https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-media-news-11/mazda-rotary-production-number-history-169856/

Huey52

iTrader: (2)

The 16X has a slightly different internal rotor path shape than the present Renesis, so ... There's plenty of room in the math for advantageous changes.

Hi Flying 8

iTrader: (2)

With the idea of a differently shaped rotor, I had a thought that might improve the pressure on the apex seal at low rpm's. Might be as crazy a thought as something Olddragger would come up with, but brainstorming occasionally comes up with good ideas.

What if the apex groove was cut , instead of perpendicular to the housing surface, it was canted slightly obtuse so that the apex was pointed into the direction of rotation? This would push the Apex against the spring and against the back of the groove for a better seal, especially at lower revolutions. Also, could the rotor be shaped in a flat or maybe even a little toward a concave form rather than convex. This might allow for differently shaped exhaust and intake ports. It may allow an exhaust port design that doesn't interfere as much with the side seals.

May be crazy thoughts, but people thought the hemi was a worthless idea once as well.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Hmmm, the leading apex seal. If it was pointed in the direction of rotation, there would be a bit of a wedge corner as the combustion hit it. This could create a bit of a pocket that might actually help it against the pressure wave. The problem with this is that the pressure of the forward motion of the rotor is less than the pressure of the combustion. Or else the combustion wouldn't be doing anything. If you swept the apex seal backwards toward the combustion, it would 'cup' the combustion better? The problem in sweeping either way is that the leading vs trailing seal are pointing in opposite ways in relation to the combustion. Perhaps two seals, one pointing each way? Perhaps a triangularly shaped seal?

Crazy ideas sometimes work.

Hi Flying 8

iTrader: (2)

Yea, a slightly wedged shape apex might help that, but the low rpm problem seems to be from the lack of centrifugal force to press the apex against the housing surface and back against the back of the groove. That is why I thought of the slight canting to compensate for the lack of centrifugal force.

Mazmart

iTrader: (12)

HiFlite, there you go again . I could not agree more.

Paul.

dynamho

^ I like that.

I don't know what failure criteria are being used in this thread, but didn't the RX-8 recoup development costs and then some?

Doesn't feel like a failure to me at all.