The new Mada Rx-8 has a new type of rotary engine dubbed, “Renesis”, which stands for Rotary Genesis. It is a four-door sports car, which provides comfortable seating for four full sized adults. Mazda continues to show their excellence in design with the rotary engine and the beautiful design of the body, which Sam Mitani, of Road and Track Magazine (April 2002 issue), says, “I believe this is the prettiest car to have ever come out Japan…ever”. It also has a superior blend of comfort and handling into its sporty design, which a lot of sports car lacks.
The key factor is the engine, which has been is the best fuel-efficient rotary engine to ever have been design. It is smaller than the 13B found in second generations and up Mazda RX-7’s. It lays down a whopping 250 horsepower and is naturally aspirated without the help of turbo chargers. It has cleaner emissions that meet U.S regulation which as we all know was the biggest challenge and what almost led to the demise of the rotary concept.
Rotary Genesis
Due to the compact design of the new engine the Renesis Powerplant which is located a little bit behind the front axle and lower to the ground provide the car with a center of gravity for cornering at high speeds. This means the cars has better performance and overall grip and not to mention is 50:50 weight distribution to the front and back of the car.
Ford Motor’s, which owns 33% of Mazda, gave them the green light to proceed with the Mazda RX-8. The car was first shown in October of 199at the Tokyo Motor show as the Rx-Evolv. The most attractive and distinctive feature that the car has a suicide door, which is a door, that opens opposite to conventional doors. It doesn’t have a central pillar, which adds to easier access to the back seats and is even unnoticeable at a quick glance, but you will be guaranteed a double take.
Rotary Revolution: Hydrogen Renesis Engine
There is even current development that Mazda Engineers are working on which is a hydrogen-fueled car and the rotary engine is the only one in the world that can change to hydrogen power with little changes. The rotary engine has a displacement of 1380 cc competes and only 1.3 liters, which is very small for a sports car and competes with some of the worlds top sports car. If this sounds like Dejavu than your absolutely correct and the RX-8 will cost under $30,000 compared to $197,00 for a new Porsche GT2 (which is still worth everything), but you can be economic and have yourself the worlds famous, “Pocket Rocket”. The Rotary engine is finally back and will have a big impact on car history, you can already see the craze, the RX-8 has blazed front car magazine and newspapers since it first came out in 1999.
This car will most likely go into production in 2003 and be available by 2004 with minor differences but not anything drastic. The Mazda RX-8 is not the predecessor to the legendary RX-7, but it has regained consumer passion for the company. Now in this day and age we might be able to appreciate it more and have it as the main engine type in the world. This is far fetched because as we all know we don’t like change, but mazda will continue to show the world the power the RX-8 has in store.
