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2006 RX-7???

27K views 51 replies 22 participants last post by  DeDster 
#1 ·
Anyone know if there is truth to this, I found it on MotorTrend.
2006 Mazda RX-7: If the RX-8 is the success Mazda is banking on, a two-door RX-7 may follow for 2006. On the drawing board is a shortened, lighter car boasting 280-330 hp.
 
#52 ·
Sorry for necromancing but I landed on this topic by chance, don't even remember how I got here. Anyway, there are few tings we need to note about rotaries. First of all the only reason they have been so gas hungry is because the design inherently prevents the fuel from burning completely. This isn't a problem performance wise because you still get a hell of a lot more power per RPM than Otto cycle engines. It does, however, create an emmision control problem because of all of the unburnt fuel sent into the exhaust. In pre-Renesis wankel engines Mazda countered that problem by making the mixture excesively rich and creating a secondary burn in the exhaust to burn off the excess fuel. As you can imagine, it reduced mileage. In the late 70's and 80's the only way Mazda could justify such high consumption was putting the engine in a sports car. Therefore, Mazda never really bothered trying to make the engine thrifty.

With the Renesis Mazda had no choice but to make the wankel engine thriftier. They solved part of the problem by putting two spark plugs. Other than that there's nothing much that can be done to make the engine more efficient. Until we find a metal with a tensile strength that's higher than steel even at high temperatures and that has a friction cooeficient of teflon, we won't be able to increase the compression ratio of the wankel which is the only way we'll make it more efficient.

As for Otto cycle engines they're about as fuel efficient as they can be. There's too much heat loss and gimmicks to power and weight in the vehicle to make them any more efficient. The only way we'll make gasoline and diesel engines more efficient is by using new technologies like the Crower 6 stoke engine, Direct Gasoline Injection, and the Ottawa University Gasoline converter.
 
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