1990 Mazda RX-7 - The Lightweight Rotary you NEED to Drive (POV Binaural Audio) 

So many car RU-vid crossovers happening lately 😁

short gearing would make a world of difference! I was so impressed with the level of grip and eagerness to swap direction. I'd have been much more brave on a track with some run off, and no risk of rocks/cyclists, but you could really just bury your foot, point and shoot. Incredible car you've got here

@@TedwardDrives Appreciate you being responsible yet still pushing!! Great POV

​@@Samurai6936 nice car bro I like your car

Hey out of curiosity, what all have you done to it so far as far as mods go? I picked up an ‘86 gxl last year that had been been sitting since the 90s, and haven’t had a chance to get it running yet. I know he mentioned the coil overs, but I’d love to hear what else you’d suggest based off your experience with it

@@kirkeverett295 Just the very basics actually. Decent brake pads, feal coilovers, racing beat cat back exhaust / high flow cat and a few aesthetic items. My goal is to lose another 70 lbs or so, and add an LSD & shorter final drive and I think it'll be much more fun. Its not bad as is. I love cruising around in it. Good luck with your build!

Right!? Ppl forget only 1 company really stuck with them long term, but literally billions have been invested into piston engine design and manufacturing.

how mature was it supposed to get? it might be "simple" in assembly w/few moving parts, but the engine was at maturity in the Renesis line. longevity (apex seals), fuel economy, and ever increasing emissions regulations all had a hand in its demise. could the 3-rotor have saved the engine in the US (debatable)? no doubts the RX-7 was a great car, but it's temperament wasn't for everyone. BTW, a non-turbo Renesis is a dog at altitude (Denver), smooth, but gutless....

@@K03sport? The first combustion engine was in the 1800s and Mazda's first rotary was in the 1960's, yet we're still seeing new tech with piston engines to this day. Obviously with any technology, you get more refinement and improvement over time. Maybe they could've kept making them more reliable, or made them more energy efficient and emissions compliant. But with higher emissions standards, EV mandates coming, and the cost of developing a niche product these days, we'll never know.

@@kevinandrew_...yes, we are seeing new tech w/piston engines. A lot of that new tech is in cam phasing/timing w/the valves; something the rotary does not have. Other tech involving variable connecting rod length is another area the rotary can't benefit from. Mazda did great things w/the Rotary engine (essentially a 1.3L 6 cyl). The Renesis engine was about as far as a rotary engine was going to go (tech wise w/3 moving parts). If Mazda increased the combustion chamber 0.1L or 0.2L (x6) , what would be the resulting performance/fuel economy/emissions of the now 1.9L and 2.4L 2-rotor engines? How big would the rotors, apex seals, and engine housing have to be to contain the extra energy? The 3-rotor Cosmos engine (20b) was 1.9L-2.0L wasn't it? It made great power, but fuel economy was abysmal. The Cosmos still has a nice (cult) following outside of the US. I saw a program/video where ppl were experimenting w/ultra tiny displacement, single-rotor engines for drone/ hobby aircraft platforms. They reversed the combustion chamber location to the outer wall vs on the rotor. In the reverse rotor, there were 3 spark plugs (60* apart) and the center rotor looked like a peanut 🥜 or solid '8'. Only 2 moving parts. Again we are talking tiny engines, maybe 10"x10 in size. Mazda did experiment w/a small displacement (1.6L) V6 in the MX-3, but it didn't catch on. Making improvements in the wankle/rotory engine is difficult because there are few moving parts. The amount of research necessary compared to incremental gains wasn't worth Mazda's R&D time. good news is you can pick up relatively cheap 80k - 90k mile RX-8s that only need a seal change.

It ain't dead yet. Mazda still chasing the rotary dream even as the sun is starting to set on mass production ICEs. If they can get SCCI working properly and reliably in a rotary, and take advantage of all the other emissions tech that has become commonplace since the RX-8 was discontinued, we might see one last rotary sports car. Or maybe a biofuel-optimised one which can carry the torch into the EV future.

Weren't the rotaries prone to lots of maintenance though in general?

@@RoxusRemo sports car levels of maintenance, nothing extraordinary. Compared to other cars from their time, less than most cars. They have less moving parts which helps in comparison to bmw's and mercedes that have all sorts of parts breaking all the time. The only "bad" rotary is the renesis and its down to mostly 1. emissions regulations 2. Negligence and 3. Higher standards. In the 80s every car had to be warmed up properly, you couldnt start the car to change the parking spot or you'd ruin your battery etc. things that you need to take in consideration when driving a rotary, but that used to be common practices with cars in general. Today other cars dont need that, so rotaries look "worse". These issues are resolvable though, which is why mazda is launching a rotary engine again and why there are some rotary enthusiasts with a bit of engineering experience driving reliable rotaries.

@@RoxusRemo not at all. i owned 3 and the most i ever had to do was keep them topped off on oil. they have a bad rap from stupid owners.

@@RoxusRemo more oil hungry than most cars and the amount of car owners I've seen who don't even know how to change their oil suggests that would be a big issue

@@Cichlid_Visuals if it was reliable, why did you have 3 of them?

Especially in white Uffff

Literally the Initial D Aston Martin driven by James Bond from Initial D a.k.a Ryosuke Takahashi

Akagi’s white comet

Akagi’s white comet 💫

Cringe

I don't know if the US specifications are different from the European ones, but this type RX7 delivers 200 HP in Europe. As to the relationship between horsepower and displacement, compared to that of a normal engine: you need to multiply the displacement of a Wankel engine by a factor of 2, to have a good comparison. So 200 HP from 2.6 liters is not that crazy.

wait till you hear about the 3 cil yaris GR

@@Zjudoransj Yaris is not NA

@@maxx_vdv4960 oh yea fair point, I’ll use superbikes as an example I guess

@@Lajos279200hp was with a turbo. This one is NA

agreed... these vids make u feel like u are There!

@TedwarsDrives I reported this guy!

Thank you for watching!

No way! Nah it was great. I hung back a couple times to make another but it was fun to cruise with you guys :)

Where are these canyons located?

Was yours a manual rack? Mine has power steering and I think the steering feel is overboosted and doesn't give much feel. It's one of the weak points of the car.

@@sjhart14 Mine was hydraulic and I guess mine was just in good condition. It had a lot of feel and precision. My buddy had the manual rack and they felt pretty close once you got over 40. Or maybe mine was worn out and not giving as much boost as it should, it's a mystery. Was yours an S5 or an S4? Mine was some weird S4.5 with half the stuff from an S5 and half from an S4 AND the rear 2+2 bucket seats that were only supposed to be on the JDM versions. I think mine was some weird one off dealer special.

Mine's an S4 (1988). It does have the variable assist power steering however it is usually stuck in the higher assist levels at the speeds I'm cornering. For comparison the best steering feel I've ever had was in my E46 BMW. You could get the rear seats in the US they are just very rare.

@@sjhart14 Odd. Maybe swap in a gen 1 Miata pump. Mine also was an 88 and the back seats are one of the reasons I've kept it and still have plans for a full restoration.

I've owned a few FCs and one FD. As far as the steering on those cars go, I'd rate the manual-rack FC steering as best, followed by the FD (power only) rack, and a distant third would be the FC variable power rack.

smooth as a hot knife thru butter!

Yessir! That was the car nd I posted a couple weeks back!

I got to take a quick "testdrive" in one as a passenger, its real fun and so cool to finally see an FC up close in person.

@@caliberaid8527 that's really cool dude

Glad you like them!

Don't worry theres plenty more of those in the pipeline! I just make a LOT of content when I was out west

@@TedwardDrives how do you feel about being a car enthusiast out there vs. Massachusetts? Could be an interesting drive and chat topic!

as a chassis the rx8 is far superior and a good running renesis is much faster,

Cool aunt!