MAZDA president and CEO Masamichi Kogai poses next to the company’s new concept rotary-engine sports car RX-Vision. AFP
THERE’S nothing like a jaw-droppingly-beautiful car and exciting technology to bring a motor show to life. Mazda Motor Corp. had both of these, in one car.
This is the RX-Vision, the first car to be unveiled at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, and the most gorgeous car at the show.
Under the hood is Mazda’s new SkyActiv-R rotary engine. This marks the return of the technology that made Mazda famous.
The concept of the rotary engine has been around for hundreds of years. In the 1960s, Mazda began developing a particular type of rotary engine, the Wankel, first proposed by Germany’s Felix Wankel.
Instead of pistons that move up and down within cylinders, the Wankel uses a triangular rotor within an ovoid chamber.
The rotary motion makes this type of engine theoretically more efficient than a piston engine. Indeed, a rotary engine can produce relatively high power for its displacement.
However, there are several problems with the rotary engine. The main issue has to do with the sealing of the rotary engine, where the triangular rotor meets the housing.
For the development of its first production rotary, Mazda had to test every possible material to ensure a good seal and eliminate friction damage, and eventually use an aluminum-carbon composite material.
The success of this development led to the introduction of the rotary engine in the Mazda Cosmo Sport.
Its lines, drawn with the rotary engine in mind, were striking during its 1967 introduction. Even now, the Cosmo Sport has the look of a genuine classic.
Then came the RX-7, for decades known as Mazda’s flagship sports car. We had the chance to drive a first-generation RX-7 in the 1980s, and it was thrilling.
The way the engine quickly and smoothly revved to its 7,000-revolution-per-minute redline was quite an experience.
Mazda was able to produce two generations of RX-7. A modified version was immortalized—or mortalized, rather—in the movie series “Fast & Furious” as the preferred car of Sung Kang, aka Han Seoul-Oh.
Alas, that RX-7 was “destroyed” in one of the film’s stunt sequences.
The greatest height reached by the rotary engine was as the power source of the Mazda 787B. That Mazda prototype racecar took outright victory, as well as pole position and fastest lap, at the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours race.
The 787B was powered by a 700-horsepower, four-rotor rotary engine. It was the first—and to date—the only Japanese car to win the world-famous endurance race.
With tightening emissions and fuel-efficiency regulations, the rotary engine was faced with several obstacles. Mazda decided to cease production of the rotary temporarily amid an economic crisis.
Still, development continued within the brain thrust of Mazda’s engineering department.
The Mazda RX-8 debuted in 2003, powered by a new-generation “Renesis” rotary engine. The compact rotary allowed Mazda to engineer a four-door, four-seat sports car within a small footprint.
The RX-8 provided quite a rush when driving the rotary to its 9,000-rpm redline.
During the factory tour and demonstration of the company’s design and engineering capability at its Hiroshima headquarters in August, talk naturally turned to the rotary engine.
Mazda’s R&D chief, Kiyoshi Fujiwara, even mentioned the name of a possible new engine being developed: SkyActiv-R.
It was named after the company’s latest fuel-efficient engine technology. But we were asked, politely, not to mention it for the time being.
Two months later, at the eve of the Tokyo Motor Show, Fujiwara confirmed, without restrictions this time, the development of the new SkyActiv-R rotary engine.
He joined the unveiling the following morning at the show, together with design chief Ikuo Maeda.
Maeda is in charge of making Mazdas desirable and representative of the driving pleasure contained within. His hobby is racing cars.
Maeda says that Mazda’s current Kodo–Soul of Motion styling is all about capturing a living form within the car’s lines and curves.
The next phase is to use the car’s surfaces, expressing motion through the reflections on the body surface.
That’s certainly borne out on the RX-Vision. Even with the subdued lighting on the Mazda stand, its bodywork, painted in soul red, shimmers as you go around it. Its curves are soft while still looking aggressive.
Maeda says that sports car design is the freest form of car design, and that the RX sets the stage for the next generation of Mazda cars.
Our columnist Botchi Santos put it best when he said (transcribed to a PG-rated version), that the RX-Vision is pure sexual arousal.
Maeda said that the design team opened all of their secret drawers to get the design just right. “For Mazda’s brand, this vehicle is absolutely essential.”
He would like to drive the car himself, and possibly race it, as soon as it is created. Put us next in line, please.
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