Mazda Cars

Mazda is Japanese manufacturer who is a subsidiary of Ford.  Mazda has made a name for it's self with the cars such as the MX5 roadster and the rotary power RX7.  The rotary engine has been used almost exclusively by Mazda.  Rotary's can be found in the early R100's, RX2's, RX3's, RX4's, RX5's right through till finally in the RX7.  

The Rotary engine (aka the Wankel engine, that's right WANKEL. Named after the bloke who invented it.) works completely different form the conventional piston engine.  Rotary's have the following advantages: they're a compact small light engine, can put out the power of a V8, Smooth at high revs and can rev to huge amounts.  However there are lots of disadvantages: Idle rough at low revs, parts and labour are expensive, aren't very fuel efficient, need to be rebuild more regularly than piston engines and they sound like mum's whirlpool.  There are a couple of different rotary engines.  The 10A, 12A, 13B, 13BTurbo, 20B(used in the Mazda Cosmo, which never came to Australia).  The number in the engine initials refers to the capacity of the engine.  For a example a 13B is a 1.3 litre be series engine.  That is a 1.3 litre engine that can fry V8's.    

The Rotary Engine

RX7

All Rx7's are rear wheel drive and have a rotary engine. There are seven series and three generations (shapes) of RX7. 

• Series I       1978-1980    1st Generation        12A         

• Series II       1981-1983    1st Generation        12A

• Series III       1984-1985    1st Generation        12A

• Series IV       1986-1988    2nd Generation       13B or 13B Turbo

• Series V       1989-1991    2nd Generation       13B or 13B Turbo

• Series VI       1992-1995    3rd Generation       13B Twin Turbo*

• Series VII      1996-2000    3rd Generation       13B Twin Turbo*

* The twin turbos on the generation three Rx7 are sequential. 

            1st generation                              2nd generation                                   3rd generation  

MX5

The Mazda MX5 is considered by many to be one of the best handling cars ever.  Released with with two different engines, the earlier 1.6 and the newer 1.8.  This roadster will never be considered to be considered to be brown trousers sort of performance, more a all round good package.  

Other Mazda Pictures