In Le Mans, France in June 1991, a green-orange Mazda 787B car finally pulled a 9,000 rpm high turn after a 24-hour battle, crossing the finish line with an advantage of two laps ahead of the second-place Mercedes-Benz C11 car.
This moment is perhaps the most glorious moment in Mazda's history. It is also the best proof that Mazda has been deeply involved in the research of rotor engines since the 1960s.
But unfortunately, the glory of mazda and rotor engines has also been stuck on that day forever.
With the adjustment of the Le Mans racing rules the following year, the rotor engine was forced to withdraw from the stage of Le Mans. Although in the more practical civilian car market, Mazda came up with a new generation of RX-7 (Keisuke Takahashi's car) code-named FD, which made the rotor engine and Mazda popular with fans around the world.
However, in the next 20 years, the shortcomings of the rotor engine's high fuel consumption, low durability, and difficult maintenance were increased. Eventually, with the official discontinuation of the Mazda RX-8, the rotor engine officially faded out of our sight.
This is also in line with the natural law of survival, just as today's internal combustion engine is about to be replaced by electric motors.
Although the rotor engine has the advantages of small size, light weight, simple structure, high speed, high power, etc., these so-called advantages are only applicable to racing cars or niche performance cars.
For daily use of civilian vehicles, the fuel consumption of 100 kilometers and 20L alone is unacceptable to ordinary people. Therefore, from a practical point of view, the rotor engine may be a backward technology.
However, there is also a layer of meaning in the craftsman spirit that represents the Japanese people, that is, "axis".
Unlike Honda and Toyota, Mazda has long been involved in the development of hybrid technology, and Mazda's "shaft" for the rotor can be said to be world-renowned. In the ten years since the rotor engine was discontinued, almost every year we have heard the news that Mazda is going to revive the rotor engine, but each wait basically ends in anticipation of next year.
Times have changed, and now other brands are gradually eliminating the internal combustion engine and switching to electrification. So even if the new rotor engine can solve many of the previous practical problems, is it still necessary to appear now?
But Mazda is shrewd, who said that the rotor must be an engine, it can also be a rotor generator.
I don't know if this news is happy or sad for all Mazda fans.
The good news is that the rotor is basically set to be mass-produced in March next year, and the Mazda MX-30 will be equipped with a single-rotor engine. But the bad news is that it appears as a range extender, not an engine that drives the wheels.
What is even more doubtful is whether the rotor engine, which was eliminated in the era of the internal combustion engine, can succeed in the era of electrification.
Let me boldly predict a wave first, and the success rate will be at most five or five.
First of all, since Mazda dares to mass-produce the rotor as a range extender, its own performance and practicality should be guaranteed.
For example, one of the reasons why the durability of the rotor engine was not high before was due to the special running structure of the rotor, it was actually not suitable for daily low-speed transportation, and high speed was the most suitable operating range.
Therefore, if used as a range extender, the rotor engine can always run in a reasonable speed range, effectively reducing the formation of carbon deposits and prolonging its service life.
In addition, after mazda's research and development of rotor engines for half a century, I believe that Mazda may have found a better solution to the two major problems of wear and combustion efficiency.
And there are also American companies that have claimed to have achieved more than 50% of the thermal efficiency of the rotor engine, so for Mazda, which holds the most thermally efficient mass-produced engine, it should also find a way to improve the thermal efficiency of the rotor.
Coupled with the rotor's inherent small size, smooth operation, low noise and other advantages, the rotor may become a new choice for range extenders.
But today's Mazda is a bit awkward, especially for the Chinese market.
For example, the steamed engine that was blown to the point of being blown around was once considered the hope of saving Mazda, but the result after the listing was still unknown.
Although from a technical point of view, the balance between the power and fuel consumption of a self-priming engine can be made into a compression combustion, Mazda is really powerful.
But in the face of many small-displacement turbocharged engines that consume less fuel than you, are priced cheaper than you, and even are not less powerful than you, the emergence of Mazda pressure combustion seems to be more like a feeling for self-priming engines.
So when it comes to using the rotor engine as a range extender, I have a premonition that it will be similar to the compression combustion technology.
As a "technical house", Mazda's technology has nothing to say. But I think many times it is used in the wrong place, after all, feelings cannot be eaten as rice.
Of course, I am still looking forward to the release of the MX-30 in March next year, maybe Mazda can bring us other different surprises.