The Rotary Engine: A Marvel of Innovation and a Fading Legacy

GM also spent a lot of dough to make the rotary a viable option like I mentioned in the C8 Corvette episode a few weeks ago. GM put rotaries and a few mid-engine Vette concepts back in the day. The Chevy Vega was supposed to get a rotary but every time they improved one thing about the engine something else started to suck.

We're a tough sell to begin with then the oil embargo happened and that was probably the nail in the coffin. Almost every other company also threw in the towel on the rotary by 1980. Mazda was the only automaker who didn't give up on the rotary legend among today's sports car enthusiasts.

The rx-7 launched in 1978 and more than 811,000 of them were sold before production ended in 2002. One of the things that helps it sound so good is the fact that a rotary can read higher than a piston in Japan. That's just how it works. There are no valves valve trains connecting rods or a crankshaft really.

It's easy to fit into super small cars and can be placed lower and further back in the engine bay that lowers the center of gravity gives the car a better weight distribution and fewer pounds for horsepower. That's the stuff that sports car dreams are made of. My friend, the lightweight rev-happy rx-7 won races and gearheads' hearts all over.

The rotary engine is an intimidating beast to understand, but once you get used to it, there's nothing else like it. Mazda proved rotaries can be reliable way back in 1968 when a Cosmo finished fourth in the 3,000-mile long marathon de la route road race.

Mazda was also the first Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a 4Runner 787b in 1991. To drive the car is absolutely fantastic and at the moment, it's in good shape to win. Which brings me to the sound. Holy crap, there's nothing as sick as a rotary just listen to the 787b screamed down the track at 9,000 rpm.

The more I talk about these things, the more I realize that as long as we still have gasoline and internal combustion engines, there are going to be a few badasses out there keeping the rotary alive. And I salute you, my friends, thank you but yeah, cause like you're going on be nice. I'll see you next time.

The RX-8 replaced it in 2004 to 2012 and it didn't fare nearly as well. People didn't know how to maintain them, and tighter emission standards and bad fuel economy completely hurt sales. We can't expect the rotary to be at the same level when so much less time and money has been spent on it.

Even though there are plenty of reasons the rotary should have faded into the sunset, a certain set of gearheads fell hopelessly in love with them. Kind of like automotive hipsters. They just want to do things a little differently. I don't blame them. Yeah sure, there's a better way to do it but damn it doing it the weirder and harder way makes it more interesting.

Because the rotor is so different, it's intimidating at first. There's a ton of vacuum lines, first of all, and if you add a turbo, they're notoriously hard to tune without blowing an apex seal. First Plus Kelly playing Halo on Legendary right automatically makes you one of the cool kids because if you drive a limited it means you've got that figured out.

My buddy Aaron said you can't stumble into a good rotary build when they're working right. There's nothing else like Mazda proved rotaries can be reliable way back in 1968 when a Cosmo finished fourth in the 3,000-mile long marathon de la route road race.

The rx-7 is an idol to many. Aaron would bet if you ask him, his favorite thing about rotaries is the sound. The more I talk about these things, the more I realize that as long as we still have gasoline and internal combustion engines, there are going to be a few badasses out there keeping the rotary alive.

The underpowered warranty nightmare rx-8 replaced it in 2004 to 2012 and it didn't fare nearly as well. People didn't know how to maintain them, and tighter emission standards and bad fuel economy completely hurt sales we can't expect the rotary to be at the same level when so much less time and money has been spent on it.

In conclusion, there's nothing like the sound of a rotary engine. Mazda proved rotaries can be reliable way back in 1968 when a Cosmo finished fourth in the 3,000-mile long marathon de la route road race. The rx-7 is an idol to many, and its legacy lives on in the hearts of gearheads around the world.

The RX-8 may not have been as successful as its predecessor, but it's still a testament to Mazda's innovative spirit. And who knows, maybe one day we'll see a new rotary engine hit the market and change the game once again.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ena foreign oil they're low on torque and maybe a cat seals for breakfast so why is the rotary engine so beloved by gearheads and what the is an apex sealed well today we're gonna find out let's go over how they work let's do some history talk about the pros and cons and why they rule even though they really shouldn't it's time to do a deep dive on the rotary hey we partnered with butcher box to bring you this week's episode butcher box is a subscription service that delivers high quality meats right to your door they offer 100% grass-fed beef free-range organic chicken wild caught salmon and heritage breed pork you can choose a pre-selected box or even customize her own I'm a sense of guy who loves his veggies but cook me a juicy burger and I'm all yours lucky for you butcher box has a special offer for doughnut fans if you sign up right now you'll get $20 off plus two pounds of delicious salmon and ten ounces of bacon free head over to butcher box.com / wheelhouse right now and sign up support the companies that support donut get yourself some freaking meat baby all right I'm gonna pass out in my opinion people who still drive rotary powered cars are the hardest core car nerds of all and they have to be when comparing a rotary engine to a piston engine through rotary is objectively worse in pretty much every way when cool rotaries are so much worse that nobody sells a car with one in it anymore here's basically how it works the rotor itself is a triangle with rounded size called a raloo triangle aka the Dorito it spins around an eccentric crankshaft that runs through the middle of an oval-shaped housing it's not a true oval though it's called it at the trow point each point of the rotor has a little thingy in it and those are the infamous apex eels they create three sealed pockets of air against the inside edge of a housing because of the shape of the housing those pockets get smaller or larger depending on where the rotor is as the space expands air and fuel gets sucked in through the intake port then as the rotor moves further along it compresses the mixture on the other side of the housing you have your spark and combustion and then that explodey pocket of air gets pushed around to the ah sport for every three turns of the crankshaft the rotor makes one complete circuit around the inside of the housing German engineer Felix Wankel came up with the original idea for a piston lyst engine in 1919 his first version called the dkm had both a spinning housing and a spinning rotor and made 21 horsepower which wasn't the best idea the second version called the kkm was reworked by Hans GTO Pasha to have a stationary housing with only the rotor spinning around inside that was the ticket and that's how they're all designed now the kkm prototype was so simple smooth and quiet that other manufacturers rushed to licensed attack from an SEO the 1964 NSU Spyder was the first production car to be powered by a rotary it was a tiny engine with only a single rotor it was in the back so there was room for both a bunk and a trunk it looked great revved high and had more power than competition so it should have done well right well instead it tanked the apex eels didn't work right and the rotor was scarring the inside of the housing they stopped making it in 1967 with less than 24 hundred cars sold and as you fixed the apex seal issue by 1970 and sold the RO 80 until 1977 but only a few thousand cars a year their rotary never recovered from the bad reputation Mazda on the other hand took their time and made sure their rotary launched with fewer problems and introduced a first Winkle with two rotors in the 1967 cosmos sports car but keep them compliant with new emission standards that make changes that hurt the fuel economy and to keep the APEC SEALs happy the engines had to burn oil despite all that though Mazda seemed to have cured the worst of the reliability problems and put rotaries into other models for 30 more years the rotary engine rx 2 sold from 1970 to 78 the RX 3 from 71 to 78 the RX 4 from 70 to 279 crippled Mazda even made the world's only rotary engine pickup truck the re PU they were so confident in the wincle that when they launched it in 1974 they had a big rotary power in caps across the tailgate but since trucks kind of need low-end torque it was dead by 1977 r.i.p the cosmo was the longest-running rotary nameplate you could get the luxurious final generation with a 2-liter sequential twin-turbo 3 rotor linkle making 300 horsepower and almost 300 foot-pounds of torque these things are awesome and the cosmo had a long line but a super high price tag and horrible MPGs finished it off in 90 minutes GM also spent a lot of dough to make the rotary a viable option like I mentioned in the c8 Corvette episode a few weeks ago GM put rotaries and a few mid-engine Vette concepts back in the day the Chevy Vega was supposed to get a rotary but every time they improved one thing about the engine something else started to suck weird engines that people didn't understand weren't always reliable and didn't even get good gas mileage we're a tough sell to begin with then the oil embargo happened and that was probably the nail in the coffin almost every other company also threw in the towel on the rotary by 1980 Mazda was the only automaker who didn't give up on legend among today's sports car the rx-7 launched in 1978 and more than eight hundred eleven thousand of them were sold before production ended in 2002 one of the things that helps it sound so good is the fact that a rotary can read higher than a piston in Japan that's just how it works there are no valves valve trains connecting rods or a crankshaft really it's easy to fit into super small cars and can be placed lower and further back in the engine bay that lowers the center of gravity gives the car a better weight distribution and fewer pounds for horsepower that's the stuff that sports car dreams are made of my friend the lightweight rev-happy rx-7 won races and gear heads hearts all over the engine for most artery heads it was their first introduction of the piston with engine sadly though the rise of the SUV and unfavorable exchange rates killed the rx-7 this is the final time that we will see the rx-7 as we know it an insta competition with full factory support the underpowered warranty nightmare rx-8 replaced it in 2004 to 2012 and it didn't fare nearly as well people didn't know how to maintain them and tighter emission standards and bad fuel economy completely hurt sales we can't expect the rotary to be at the same level when so much less time and money has been spent on it I wonder where the rotary could have been today at the same amount of time and money had gone into it even though there are plenty of reasons the rotary should have faded into the sunset a certain set of gear heads fell hopelessly in love with them kind of like automotive hipsters they just want to do things a little differently and I don't blame them yeah sure there's a better way to do it but damn it doing it the weirder and harder way makes it more interesting because the rotor is so different it's intimidating at first there's a ton of vacuum lines first of all and if you add a turbo they're notoriously hard to tune without blowing an apex seal first Plus Kelly playing halo on legendary right automatically makes you one of the cool kids because if you drive a linkle it means you've got that figured out like my buddy Aaron said you can't stumble into a good rotary build when they're working right there's nothing else like Mazda proved rotaries can be reliable way back in 1968 when a cosmo finished fourth in the 3,000 mile long marathon de la route road race Mazda was also the first Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 Hours of LeMans with a 4runner 787b in 1991 to drive the car is absolutely fantastic and at the moment are in a good shape to win which brings me to the sound holy crap there's nothing as sick as a rotary just listen to the 787b screamed down the track at 9,000 rpm listen to Aaron's wolf rx-7 an idol I bet if you ask Aaron are hurt from Hoonah Gaiman Mad Mike would Deb what their favorite things are about rotaries the sound would probably at the top of the list the more I talk about these things the more and more as long as we still have gasoline oil and internal combustion engines there are going to be a few bad asses out there keeping the rotary alive and I I salute you my friends thank you but yeah cause like you're going on be nice I'll see you next timea foreign oil they're low on torque and maybe a cat seals for breakfast so why is the rotary engine so beloved by gearheads and what the is an apex sealed well today we're gonna find out let's go over how they work let's do some history talk about the pros and cons and why they rule even though they really shouldn't it's time to do a deep dive on the rotary hey we partnered with butcher box to bring you this week's episode butcher box is a subscription service that delivers high quality meats right to your door they offer 100% grass-fed beef free-range organic chicken wild caught salmon and heritage breed pork you can choose a pre-selected box or even customize her own I'm a sense of guy who loves his veggies but cook me a juicy burger and I'm all yours lucky for you butcher box has a special offer for doughnut fans if you sign up right now you'll get $20 off plus two pounds of delicious salmon and ten ounces of bacon free head over to butcher box.com / wheelhouse right now and sign up support the companies that support donut get yourself some freaking meat baby all right I'm gonna pass out in my opinion people who still drive rotary powered cars are the hardest core car nerds of all and they have to be when comparing a rotary engine to a piston engine through rotary is objectively worse in pretty much every way when cool rotaries are so much worse that nobody sells a car with one in it anymore here's basically how it works the rotor itself is a triangle with rounded size called a raloo triangle aka the Dorito it spins around an eccentric crankshaft that runs through the middle of an oval-shaped housing it's not a true oval though it's called it at the trow point each point of the rotor has a little thingy in it and those are the infamous apex eels they create three sealed pockets of air against the inside edge of a housing because of the shape of the housing those pockets get smaller or larger depending on where the rotor is as the space expands air and fuel gets sucked in through the intake port then as the rotor moves further along it compresses the mixture on the other side of the housing you have your spark and combustion and then that explodey pocket of air gets pushed around to the ah sport for every three turns of the crankshaft the rotor makes one complete circuit around the inside of the housing German engineer Felix Wankel came up with the original idea for a piston lyst engine in 1919 his first version called the dkm had both a spinning housing and a spinning rotor and made 21 horsepower which wasn't the best idea the second version called the kkm was reworked by Hans GTO Pasha to have a stationary housing with only the rotor spinning around inside that was the ticket and that's how they're all designed now the kkm prototype was so simple smooth and quiet that other manufacturers rushed to licensed attack from an SEO the 1964 NSU Spyder was the first production car to be powered by a rotary it was a tiny engine with only a single rotor it was in the back so there was room for both a bunk and a trunk it looked great revved high and had more power than competition so it should have done well right well instead it tanked the apex eels didn't work right and the rotor was scarring the inside of the housing they stopped making it in 1967 with less than 24 hundred cars sold and as you fixed the apex seal issue by 1970 and sold the RO 80 until 1977 but only a few thousand cars a year their rotary never recovered from the bad reputation Mazda on the other hand took their time and made sure their rotary launched with fewer problems and introduced a first Winkle with two rotors in the 1967 cosmos sports car but keep them compliant with new emission standards that make changes that hurt the fuel economy and to keep the APEC SEALs happy the engines had to burn oil despite all that though Mazda seemed to have cured the worst of the reliability problems and put rotaries into other models for 30 more years the rotary engine rx 2 sold from 1970 to 78 the RX 3 from 71 to 78 the RX 4 from 70 to 279 crippled Mazda even made the world's only rotary engine pickup truck the re PU they were so confident in the wincle that when they launched it in 1974 they had a big rotary power in caps across the tailgate but since trucks kind of need low-end torque it was dead by 1977 r.i.p the cosmo was the longest-running rotary nameplate you could get the luxurious final generation with a 2-liter sequential twin-turbo 3 rotor linkle making 300 horsepower and almost 300 foot-pounds of torque these things are awesome and the cosmo had a long line but a super high price tag and horrible MPGs finished it off in 90 minutes GM also spent a lot of dough to make the rotary a viable option like I mentioned in the c8 Corvette episode a few weeks ago GM put rotaries and a few mid-engine Vette concepts back in the day the Chevy Vega was supposed to get a rotary but every time they improved one thing about the engine something else started to suck weird engines that people didn't understand weren't always reliable and didn't even get good gas mileage we're a tough sell to begin with then the oil embargo happened and that was probably the nail in the coffin almost every other company also threw in the towel on the rotary by 1980 Mazda was the only automaker who didn't give up on legend among today's sports car the rx-7 launched in 1978 and more than eight hundred eleven thousand of them were sold before production ended in 2002 one of the things that helps it sound so good is the fact that a rotary can read higher than a piston in Japan that's just how it works there are no valves valve trains connecting rods or a crankshaft really it's easy to fit into super small cars and can be placed lower and further back in the engine bay that lowers the center of gravity gives the car a better weight distribution and fewer pounds for horsepower that's the stuff that sports car dreams are made of my friend the lightweight rev-happy rx-7 won races and gear heads hearts all over the engine for most artery heads it was their first introduction of the piston with engine sadly though the rise of the SUV and unfavorable exchange rates killed the rx-7 this is the final time that we will see the rx-7 as we know it an insta competition with full factory support the underpowered warranty nightmare rx-8 replaced it in 2004 to 2012 and it didn't fare nearly as well people didn't know how to maintain them and tighter emission standards and bad fuel economy completely hurt sales we can't expect the rotary to be at the same level when so much less time and money has been spent on it I wonder where the rotary could have been today at the same amount of time and money had gone into it even though there are plenty of reasons the rotary should have faded into the sunset a certain set of gear heads fell hopelessly in love with them kind of like automotive hipsters they just want to do things a little differently and I don't blame them yeah sure there's a better way to do it but damn it doing it the weirder and harder way makes it more interesting because the rotor is so different it's intimidating at first there's a ton of vacuum lines first of all and if you add a turbo they're notoriously hard to tune without blowing an apex seal first Plus Kelly playing halo on legendary right automatically makes you one of the cool kids because if you drive a linkle it means you've got that figured out like my buddy Aaron said you can't stumble into a good rotary build when they're working right there's nothing else like Mazda proved rotaries can be reliable way back in 1968 when a cosmo finished fourth in the 3,000 mile long marathon de la route road race Mazda was also the first Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 Hours of LeMans with a 4runner 787b in 1991 to drive the car is absolutely fantastic and at the moment are in a good shape to win which brings me to the sound holy crap there's nothing as sick as a rotary just listen to the 787b screamed down the track at 9,000 rpm listen to Aaron's wolf rx-7 an idol I bet if you ask Aaron are hurt from Hoonah Gaiman Mad Mike would Deb what their favorite things are about rotaries the sound would probably at the top of the list the more I talk about these things the more and more as long as we still have gasoline oil and internal combustion engines there are going to be a few bad asses out there keeping the rotary alive and I I salute you my friends thank you but yeah cause like you're going on be nice I'll see you next time