Rev to Your Heart's ContentThe sound of Mazda's Renesis rotary engine and the willingness of it to rev its way into the stratosphere immediately distinguish the
RX-8 from
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| (Photo: Rob Rothwell) |
any other sports car. The petit, 1.3 litre rotary engine does not use an assortment of reciprocating pistons to deliver a stout 232 horsepower and 159 foot-pounds of torque to the rear wheels. Rather it follows a design that utilizes a couple of triangular-shaped rotors spinning within an oblong housing, creating an intake, combustion and exhaust phase with each revolution. German engineer, Felix Wankel originally invented the rotary engine in 1960 or so; since then it has undergone considerable refinement- most of it under the tutelage of Mazda engineers.
While finishing-off high school in the mid-70s, I owned a 1973 Mazda RX-3 wagon. Yup, it could pretty well demolish big block American V8s while producing an exhaust "woosh" that rivaled a Boeing 747 nose-up at take-off. Although Mazda's rotary powerplant had a reputation back then
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| (Photo: Rob Rothwell) |
for disposing of engine seals like used Starbucks cups, my example dutifully sustained the continuous abuse associated with 17-year old punks with new driver's licences and more bravado than intellect.
Fast forward to 2006 and the rotary mill becomes bulletproof, although quite fuel-thirsty by today's standards, with the RX-8 achieving only 12.8 and 9.2 litres per 100 kilometres of city and highway driving respectively with a 6-speed manual gearbox. But hey, if you want outstanding fuel economy, park your "sports car dreams" and do your stylin in a Yaris. Along with its greed for the nectar comes plenty of performance tingle as the unique-sounding rotary engine whirls its way to a 9,000 rpm redline with more enthusiasm than a crazed whippet. In fact the turbine-like mill surpasses its redline so quickly and effortlessly that Mazda equipped the RX-8 with an audible signal to warn drivers of the rapidly approaching no-go zone. They also placed a huge analogue tachometer front-and-centre in the gauge cluster to keep drivers visually locked-onto the runaway rpm needle.
The RX-8's ground speed is communicated via a digital readout positioned inside the tachometer's face. Clearly Mazda has prioritized engine speed
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| (Photo: Rob Rothwell) |
communication over road speed! Still, the speedo is easy to read at it climbs from 0 to 96 kph in just 6.0 brief seconds under full acceleration (according to Mazda literature). Whether the 6-second rating is overly optimistic is debatable, what's not in dispute is the thrust generated by the rotary mill as it surpasses 5,000 rpm on its way to 9,000 rpm while delivering impressive acceleration from any speed. Even without using the upper half of its rev band, the RX-8 has no difficulty in providing spirited performance thanks to the production of strong, low-end torque. The presence of abundant low-end pulling power minimizes the need to repeatedly gear-down when wishing to reposition oneself in traffic.
