Cosmo to Furai: a history of rotary-engined Mazdas

So, the rotary-powered Mazda is back. The unveiling of the RX-Vision concept at the 2015 Tokyo motor show marks a return to Mazdas running undersized engines which overdeliver on power, a design of rotary better known as the Wankel. You can stop sniggering at the back, thanks.

Wankels have been scattered through Mazda history since the 1960s, so with a new one on the way, it seems like high time for a whistle-stop tour. Scroll through the images above to catch up on the rotary revolution…

The first rotary-engined Mazda may also be the prettiest. The Cosmo launched in 1967, its space race-inspired name designed to go hand-in-hand with its forward thinking engine.

That engine was a mere 982cc in size – making it smaller than anything you’ll find in a Kia Picanto – yet it produced 108bhp, which was plentiful for a late 60s sports car weighing less than a tonne. A 9.3sec 0-60mph time wasn’t too shabby at all.

Has Mazda made anything as lovely to look at since?

Smitten by the Cosmo Sport, but hamstrung by kids to cart around? In 1968, Mazda took its slinky coupe’s drivetrain and slid it under the boxy shape of the Familia, an ancestor of the current Mazda 3.

Its styling isn’t hugely distinguishable from Fords and Renaults of its time, but with rear-wheel drive and a sports car engine to shift just 825kg, we suspect the Familia was probably a giggle to drive.

Yep, the silly names continue in force. The Luce was a big old luxury saloon produced in the 1960s and 70s, the R130 a rotary-powered two-door version.

And with styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro (then working for Bertone), it had a somewhat Italian look, resembling an elongated Lancia Fulvia to our eyes. There are far worse things to resemble.

It utilised a new, bigger rotary engine; 1.3 litres in size, it produced 126bhp, though unlike its forebears, this was sent to the front wheels. It was replaced by the significantly more seventies-looking RX-4, and is now rarer than the waste produce of a rocking horse.

Before the RX-4 though, came a couple of others. Known as Capella in its Japanese home market, the RX-2 is a Wankel-powered ancestor of the Mazda 6 saloon we have now.

There were coupe and saloon versions, with a 1.2-litre rotary powerplant producing 130bhp and enabling a 12sec 0-60mph time.

But contemporary road tests concluded that even without its esoteric engine choice, this was a fine car. Fine enough to really launch Japanese cars into American car culture.

Over to a 1972 edition of Motor Trend: “If the RX-2 is any indication of things to come, someday maybe we'll be referring to Mercedes-Benz as ‘Germany's Mazda.’”

If Mazda was an equivalent of Mercedes, then this is its C111 supercar. It’s also rotary engines at their madcap best. It may look like a gullwing-doored rival to Italian supercars, but the RX-500 used a mid-mounted 491cc engine. Weeny Kei cars have bigger engines.

What they don’t do, though, is rev to 14,000rpm, or produce a slightly mind-bending 247bhp. That means a specific output figure of 503bhp per litre – four times that of a Bugatti Veyron.

Such a bonkers engine would never be production viable, sadly, and the RX-500 was, and remained, a concept car. But not one to show off power and performance: just to up the bonkers ante a little further, this was a safety concept.

Its rack of rear lights displayed coasting and accelerating as well as braking, with green lights alerting other road users to your acceleration. Though the din of 14,000 revs would probably do just as good a job…

The RX-3 – known as the Savanna in Japan – came in coupe, saloon and estate forms, but it’s the former that’s best known thanks to a fairly successful motorsport career.

It won on its 1971 debut at the Fuji 500, battled – and beat – Nissan Skylines in touring car racing, and did rather well in the Bathurst 1000 in Australia. Many are still used in club events today.

Roadgoing versions used the same 110bhp, 982cc rotary engine as the earlier Cosmo Sport, which helped the even lighter RX-3 to a 10.8sec 0-60mph time.

Remember how pretty that Cosmo coupe was a few slides ago? This RX-5 is its ungainly 1970s successor. Just look at that curious rear window arrangement.

Dubbed the ‘Cosmo Anti Pollution’ – who says cars need glamour to sell – its 133bhp, 1.3-litre Wankel engine had passed stringent mid-70s American efficiency tests.

Despite being the chubbiest rotary-powered Mazda yet, and the most luxuriously minded, its 0-60mph time dipped below the ten-second mark.

At least if you saw one, it wouldn’t stick around for long…

From the stocky to the slinky, and the first RX-7. It arrived in 1978, and nearly half a million of these first-generation cars sold in its seven year life. A handful of different rotary engines ranged from 105 to 163bhp, the most powerful units utilising a turbo.

It was another rotary Mazda with a fine motorsport record: one example won the 1981 24 Hours of Spa, while there were also Group B rally-spec RX-7s, with their Wankel engine tuned past 300bhp.

The RX-7 was a success, then, so its replacement stuck to a similar mould.

The styling evolved into something a little more straighter-edged to mark its arrival in the 1980s, while a range of engines – some turbo, some naturally aspirated – produced between 148 and 212bhp, making it comfortably Mazda’s most powerful rotary-engined road car yet in top-spec form.

There was a convertible version for the first time, too, while there was a GTO racer in America, its four rotors collectively producing a quite frankly ridiculous 600bhp.

The final generation of RX-7 is the one you ought to know best, thanks in no small part to its prowess on Gran Turismo.

All models were twin-turbocharged, with power ranging from 252 to 276bhp. It was highly regarded in its day, too, battling the Alpine A610, Porsche 968 and Lotus Esprit with some properly leftfield charm.

‘Leftfield’ is the right word, though: official UK sales are said to have been little over 200 cars, with interest ramping up properly post-Fast and the Furious, a decade after its arrival. Unofficial grey imports and unsympathetically modified cars now appear more common than regular, unmolested RX-7s, which are rare but worth searching out.

The high point in Mazda rotary history is surely this: the time it took Le Mans 24 Hour victory. The 787B isn’t just Mazda’s greatest ever racer, but one of the most iconic ever. And not just for its unmistakable orange and green livery…

It wasn’t the first Wankel-propelled prototype racecar, and followed the 757 and 767. But such a famous victory – the only rotary car to win the twice-round-the-clock race – and one of motorsport’s finest ever soundtracks have ensured the 787B is the one everyone still talks about.

Its four-rotor powertrain produced a total of 700bhp at 9,000rpm during the famous race, but Mazda claims the engine could top 930bhp and rev past 10,000rpm. Lord only knows what that would sound like.

From the sublime, to the quite ridiculous. This is the HR-X, proof not only that Mazda can do mad, but also that hydrogen-fuelled cars like the Toyota Mirai are not a new thing.

Far from it. This was a hydrogen-powered rotary concept, see, shown at the Tokyo motor show all of 24 years ago. And if you thought the Mirai gave your eyes a lot of work to do, the HR-X is something else entirely.

Like a supercar, its engine is mid-mounted and its doors upward opening. Unlike a supercar, it’s designed entirely with cleanliness in mind. Its fuel tank is a mere six inches thick, yet can bank enough hydrogen to send the little bubble-shaped concept 125 miles.

It also has a 137mph quoted top speed. Those two figures are probably mutually exclusive…

Two years after the first HR-X, Mazda updated its hydrogen-rotary concept for the 1993 Tokyo motor show. The end result is something more conventional in shape, but still equally weird to look at. We suspect the Fiat Multipla’s engineers might be fans of the front end, in particular…

Its range was upgraded to 142 miles and the interior looked like it was painted with tie-dye. But sadly, with 22 years of hindsight, we know it came no closer to production.

Proof that Mazda’s rotary cars have never yielded to convention comes in the form of the RX-7’s replacement. The RX-8 binned the two-door coupe layout for a 2+2 with rear-hinged back doors.

It was therefore surprisingly practical, and its mix of proper space with 228bhp pace can’t have failed to seduced buyers previously marooned in family car purgatory.

What they mightn't have bargained for, though, were the downsides of rotary power. The RX-8 may have spun sports car performance from a little 1.3-litre engine, but 20mpg was a mere pipe dream for most owners and oil consumption was equally hair-raising.

Its sharp chassis – yielded by 50:50 weight distribution – helped justify its running costs, though, and the RX-8 lived a long life. It only left the UK after nearly eight years and around 26,000 sales, and only when emissions rules got the better of its engine. Its shape was unorthodox, but this was rotary going mainstream.

Given the RX-8’s one and only weakness was its environmental-unfriendliness, you can see Mazda’s logic behind revisiting its forays into hydrogen-rotary power.

The RE could be powered by petrol, too, thus sidestepping the lack of filling stations stocking hydrogen. Though while this RX-8 would produce 192bhp filled with petrol, this nearly halved to 107bhp with hydrogen as its chief fuel, owing to its lower energy release.

It needed two different fuel tanks, too, and the hydrogen storage took up the whole boot, while serving up a mere 60-mile range.

A tiny handful went to Japanese customers, and the RX-8 Hydrogen RE didn’t go onto commercial success. We doubt your jaw has dropped.

Not just the loopiest rotary-powered car we can name, but one of our favourite ever concept cars. Which makes it all the more galling to remind you, dear reader, that we killed it.

But rather than reflect on its death, let’s celebrate its life: the Furai was, in essence, an LMP2 prototype racer, its carbon body housing a mid-mounted, 460bhp three-rotor engine that ran on ethanol.

All of its lovely, swoopy bodywork served an aerodynamic purpose, too. The greatest rotary Mazda of them all?