In 2005, GReddy Japan went Rotary when choosing for their official demo car with the Mazda RX-8. One year later, it has found a new permanent home- right here in Malaysia.

Thank heavens for stubbornness. If not, then we would have been deprived of so many things in life. A significant example would be something like the insistence of our forefathers in gaining total independence for the country, while a trivial one might be the tenacity of small budget film makers in showing us how Malaysians can do much better than the next installment of another Yusof Haslam/Rosyam Noor movie.

For us car lovers, what about Mazda's almost fanatical interest with the Rotary engine? If I didn't know any better, I'd think that they actually invented the whole system and have been continuing to stick to the program because of well; pride really. Think about it, an idea that was hatched from a young German boy's dream (literally!), saw initial development in the early 40s' facing as much problems as it did breakthrough, only realizing its true potential after then Mazda's President Tsuneji Matsuda expressed his intention of a proposed technical cooperation which they acquired. Even then, it took the Japanese company decades for any real ground-breaking penetration into the mainstream market that is of course monopolized by conventional piston engine configuration.

That penetration was only after they addressed the more critical issues regarding the Wankel engine with chatter marks inside the trochoid housing as well as the sealing within the powerplant. Once that was taken care of, the world saw a first well-received rotary engine (RE) with two rotors- the Cosmo Sport in 1967.

But that is old news. Both the Savanna and later on the third generation RX-7 is probably what took RE equipped Mazda cars to the attention of more performance oriented drivers the world over. Apart from the 787B which triumphed at the 1991 Le Mans, the third generation 7 simply was years ahead in terms of pure sports car looks. The 13B engine too contributed a lot to its appeal, with its very smooth power delivery augmenting the rest of its quality.

(The rest of the article can be found in Hypertune Vol. 55)

Text: Cimatt
Photo: Victor Chen