Bye rotary

http://jalopnik.com/mazdas-new-ceo-has-no-plans-to-bring-the-rotary-engine-1467670527

100,000 sales? Means rotary is dead, they would pretty much have to put it in most of their cars at that point and that is not happening.

I'm not surprised though, the engine makes no sense today it's failed to keep up with piston engine technology.

The only reason it hasn't 'caught up with piston engines' is that Mazda is the only company developing it. Keep in mind the piston engine dates to the late 1800's and was well established before the rotary came on the scene.

FWIW, the Germans gave up on the rotary, then Mazda turned it into a commercially viable powerplant which speaks volumes about their engineering prowess. It still has many advantages but is a 'niche' powerplant, frankly that's because most drivers are lazy and prefer mindless torque to having to actually put some input into their driving.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

The same could be said for 2 strokes(remember, the dodge neon was originally supposed to be a 2 stroke car), but I don't think any engine that burns oil by design, or is simply heinously inefficient, has a place in today's environmentally overegulated world. Not only Germans gave up on the rotary, GM gave up on it too, in a time when had they thought it were remotely viable, they could have easily bitched and moaned to the government to ignore whatever emission issues it may have had.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to Curmudgeon: GM gave up on it too,

Get a read of this:

There's a reason GM gave up, and it has a lot to do with engineering and intellectual property rights.

Cliffnotes from what I remember: The original license to develop from NSU required that companies shared all of their information from development with NSU and all of the other companies with a license. GM wanted the rights, but didn't want to share anything. As a result, they weren't privy to any info from the other companies developing it, and got hung up on a number of problems that were already solved by others.

2 stroke diesel is pretty wild

It makes good business sense.

Why throw huge development dollars into it, simply to get it to power and efficiency levels equal to another engine you have already sunk development money into.

There's nothing horribly wrong with rotaries but the money has already been spent on piston engines.

Better to take the rotary budget and spend it on squeezing more out of the piston engine.

Rotaries are an evolutionary dead-end until more people want them.

Trans_Maro wrote: It makes good business sense. Why throw huge development dollars into it, simply to get it to power and efficiency levels equal to another engine you have already sunk development money into. There's nothing horribly wrong with rotaries but the money has already been spent on piston engines. Better to take the rotary budget and spend it on squeezing more out of the piston engine. Rotaries are an evolutionary dead-end until more people want them.

yeah piston engines are pretty awesome, I think we'll all agree. Rotaries are awesome, too, but pistons are awesome, and common, and CHEAP. I've never heard of a totally awesome, reliable, powerful rotary for cheap. Could someone possibly make a rotary as awesome as the LS3 crate engine for the same price? With the same power, potential, efficiency and reliability? I doubt it.

Take heart though, rotary guys - Mazda does have a 330cc single-rotor rotary engine that they put into a hybrid Mazda2 prototype and might put into generators and stuff.

http://driving.ca/mazda/reviews/road-test/rotary-engine-returns-with-electric-mazda2-prototype/

In reply to ssswitch:

Yeah that is the future of rotaries. Or hydrogen