Nerds drive Mazdas.

GreatTeacherMacRoss

'Nuff said.

Apreche

We sure do.

tuttle88

I drive a Mazda too. In fact a Mazda 2.

Jekkio

That's awesome XD!

Churba

*Nods* A Mazda was among my cars until recently, but I'm looking to purchase another one.

Apreche

I drive a Mazda too. In fact a Mazda 2.
So you know, the Mazda 2 is a car that is not available in the US.

Corbin

I wonder who's car this is. Hmmm >.> Perhaps a nerd.

Kiey

I'm going to say they've been watching too much Initial D.

WallyBman

I've been looking at building a mini-truck, and I ran across an early 90's B-series Mazda truck with an RX-7 tri-rotor twin turbo motor in it. I would SO buy it if I had the money. Dr. Wankle, FTW!!! Rotaries always seemed like the super nerdy performance power plant.

Apreche

Rotaries always seemed like the super nerdy performance power plant.
They are indeed. The primary reason for that is only geeks and nerds even realize there is rotary going on in the first place.

WallyBman

Were you aware that Kawasaki put a rotary engine into a motorcycle back in the 70's(I believe it was the 70's)? Forget GeekBacks, get a GeekBike!

Also, were you aware that there is a debate on the method of determining the displacement of a rotary engine? On a standard engine, displacement is measured by bore multiplied by stroke multiplied by the numbers of cylinders. Since a rotary engine doesn't used bore, or stroke, or cylinders, its displacement is measured by the size of the displacement of a firing surface(rotot face) mated to a combustion chamber in the rotor housing multiplied by the number of rotors. The problem there is the fact that on each revolution, a rotor has two faces(of the three) firing. So some people are saying that since the combustion chamber is used twice per revolution, the functional displacement of the engine should be twice the measurement currently given per rotor. Using the current method, rotary engines make insane specific power (power-to-displacement ratio), but using the proposed method makes the displacement twice what it is stated currently, and makes the specific power pretty damn weak.

But no matter what, they are still cool, and give me a headache thinking about how they work.

tuttle88

I drive a Mazda too. In fact a Mazda 2.

So you know, the Mazda 2 is a car that is not available in the US.

SERIOUSLY! I love my Mazda2! I can't believe its not sold there.

Starfox

Do rotaries have any advantages over plain old piston-driven engines?

Cramit

Smooth power delivery, high maximum rpm. The design is more efficient as far as in a piston engine the pistons have to stop at the top and bottom of each cycle and a rotary continues round in a circle.

See the Wikipedia Entry for more info.

Churba

Do rotaries have any advantages over plain old piston-driven engines?

The only disadvantage is that many of them, I've found, are a bit thirstier than piston engines.

WallyBman

They are a "total-loss" engine design. what that means is that they don't require oil changes, you just add oil to them. Also, the weakest points in the engine are the apex seals, which sit that the three apexes of each rotor. The factory seals on the earlier (fc/fd style motors) ones are only 2mm, and they wear out and have to be replaced every 60,000 miles or so, which requires a complete engine tear down. HOWEVER, most aftermarket apex seals are 3mm thick, and will last damn near the life of the engine. Most rotary powered cars that you find for sale already have the new style seals installed, and the rotary engine found in the rx-8 comes with them from the factory. Another disadvantage of a rotary engine s that precious few people know how to work on them, much less tune them to their full street-able potential. Mainly because you can't just adjust the cam timing on the engine, seeing as how they don't have cams. You have to actually enlarge and reshape the intake and exhaust ports on the rotor housings.