Last of a Legend - Mazda RX7 (The History of)

[Music] it's one of the most iconic japanese sports cars ever made perhaps simply one of the most iconic sports cars in general but to understand what makes the mazda rx-7 so unique first you have to be a bit of a wanker 118 years ago in the german city of la just 40 kilometers south of strasbourg on the 13th of august a man by the name of felix wenkel was born at just 17 years of age mr wankel first conceived the basic idea for a new type of internal combustion engine five years later he established a small laboratory and began researching and developing the engine he had dreamed of an engine that would still perform the same four strokes as the already established piston engines only his design would do the suck squeeze bang blow all whilst continually rotating he first presented his designs to the german aeronautical research establishment during world war ii then in 1951 he approached a leading german motorcycle company nsu motterinwerk three years later in 1954 mr wankel completed his first designed rotary piston engine and in 1957 the very first rotary engine was tested his rather intelligent design meant that all four of the required strokes could be performed by a single rotating curved equilateral triangle meaning there was no need for any complex valves and cams and rods and chains and all that rubbish this no ankles engine had very few moving parts was light compact and this meant much fewer repairs once his engine was announced by nsu in 1959 that nearly a hundred different companies around the world rushed to make a deal that would see this engine inside their products two years later a japanese automaker sought the approval from the japanese government and signed a formal agreement this as you might have guessed was mazda in 1963 mazda formed a rotary engine research department and just one year later at the tokyo motor show they unveiled their very first rotary powered car the futuristic cosmo sport or as it was known abroad the 110s it marked the world's very first volume production sports car powered by a rotary engine and came as a total surprise to everyone in attendance i'd say volume production car to differentiate it from the wankel spider by nsu which was actually the very first production car to sport a rotary engine but that was a bit crap after some seven hundred thousand kilometers of endurance tests over a three year period the cosmo sport was finally launched to the public in 1967. it was fast its performance was exceptional and it was said to feel more like flying than driving its twin 491 cc rotors produced 110 horsepower hence the name did the quarter mile in 16.3 seconds and had a top speed of 185 kilometers an hour a year later mazda began installing the rotary engine into sedans and coupes like the r100 familia which came in both two and four-door variants as an interesting aside one of the largest rotary engines was a 3.9 litre rotary which american company curtis wright bolted into a mustang it produced 185 horsepower and was the only car ever produced with the us-made rotary engine chevrolet did unveil its corvette xp-897 gt with a massive 4.3 litre twin rotary in 1973 at a frankfurt motor show but that engine was actually made by italians and ultimately once the hangover wore off corvette made every effort to pretend that car never happened throughout the 1970s mazda's rotary powered cars continued to flourish despite the 1973 oil crisis it seems a shame to gloss over such brilliant cars like the rx2 the rx3 with all its racing successes and the rx4 but as good as these cars were in 1978 a legend was born maybe you missed the opportunity to own one of these extraordinary cars when it was new but now you have another chance the mazda rx-7 0-50 in 6.3 seconds superb handling because of its front mid engine design and two mods starting under 6 400 the car you've been waiting for is waiting for you the mazda rx-7 madison burro maeda first began working at mazda in 1962. a trained engineer he was a gentleman of austerity and discipline with the design philosophy prioritizing function over form he would later become the general manager of mazda's design department in 1980 but during the 70s he was placed at the head of the development team for mazda's latest rotary car this time around there wasn't going to be a four-door version or an inline-four engine option this car was to be a genuinely sporty nimble attractive car ready to compete with the other rival japanese manufacturers similar projects further to that the small displacement of the rotary engine gave them a substantial competitive edge over their rivals in japan as the low capacity meant customers were not liable to pay an annual road tax for driving cars over 1.5 litres but the car was still able to achieve the same performance as the larger piston engines their rivals were selling the end result came in 1978 with the release of the all-new rx-70 the car had a curb weight of just 1024 kilograms around 260 kilos lighter than the new nissan 280zx the 1146 cc 12a engine produced 105 horsepower which was 35 horsepower less than its nissan rival but due to its power to weight ratio the rx-7 managed to achieve 0 to 100 in just 9.5 seconds that was half a second faster than the 280. but it wasn't just the straight line acceleration that made the first generation of rx-7 so special it was the handling you see because the engine itself was so physically small it was able to be mounted behind the front axle meaning it was a near-perfect 50-50 weight distribution technically the rx-7 is a front-mounted mid-engined car but when you combine this with its 4 link rear suspension live axle and the low overall weight of the car when it came to handling it was regarded as one of the best the series 2 was even better shaving the weight down to just 990 kilograms the power was increased to 115 horsepower and this shaved a full second off at zero to 100 time 1984 brought about the series 3 and with it the north american market had a new engine available a fuel-injected 1.3 litre rotary better known as the 13mb which bumped the power up to 135 horsepower finally in 1985 mazda launched the last rx-7 a special edition for the australian market called the rx7 finale it even came with a plaque which read last of a legend of course history now shows the legend was only just beginning when the second generation rx-7 came in 1985 it brought some significant changes along with it even the core design philosophy had shifted a little bit the 80s saw a rising popularity of softer sports tourers and that's right about where the series 4 fc rx-7 landed at the time the porsche 924 and 944 were popular and it wouldn't be unfair to suggest these were heavy influences on the new rx-7 styling it had also gained a little bit of weight it varied based on which version you got but the lightest version was 1223 kilos and the heaviest was a rather porky 1584. don't be fooled into thinking the fc was just a big fat lazy poor man's porsche aimed at the american market you see mazda had been busy upgrading well just about everything the 12a was no longer an option and it's more powerful cousin the 13b was standard across the range naturally aspirated it produced a healthy 146 horsepower but the turbo version a whopping 182 the old recirculating ball steering had been replaced with rack and pinion the live rear axle was now independent suspension it also had what mazda referred to as their dynamic tracking suspension system which essentially added a limited degree of rear steering under cornering loads all of this meant that the extra weight the fc had gained wasn't simply useless fat but lean muscle it had certainly caught the eye of the media in an article written by a motor trend after they awarded at the import car of the year for 1986 they referred to the fc rx-7 rear suspension as surely the smartest collection of dumb linkages levers and bushings this side of the space shuttle mazda went on to further improve the fc when the series 5 came out visual improvements to the lights and bumpers were just the start mechanical upgrades meant that they found an extra thousand rpm before the redline and that meant more power the turbo version had now joined the 200 horsepower club in typical 80s fashion a snazzy convertible version was released plus a host of other models like the 10th anniversary rx-7 or the limited edition gtu rx-7 to commemorate the utter domination the sevens it had at the imsa championship but after more than a quarter of a million units have been produced the 80s had ended and it was time for something new [Music] in 1992 the third and ultimately final generation of rx-7 was born into the world the all-new series 6 design was nothing short of stunning where the fc model had suited the 80s with its straight lines sharp edges and softer ride by the 90s it was well a bit fat and boring mazda wanted to recapture the fun and excitement of their first rx-7 to put a bit of spice back into the recipe what they came up with was a sleek rounded design instead of sharp lines and boxiness it had voluptuous curves and a salacious rear end it was modern it was gorgeous and it was [Music] fast mazda's latest sports car remained with the third mb platform this one was the third mb raw the new variant which is now widely considered to be the best version of the twin rotary engine didn't come with a turbo no this time mazda had added two that resulted in a massive 25 power gain over its predecessor and before production finally ended one particular version of the car came factory with 357 newton meters of torque and 206 kilowatt that's 276 horsepower but it wasn't all about the numbers the twin turbo arrangement had the first one kick in at just 1800 rpm and then the second firing into action at 4000 rpm right through the redline this meant that you were always on boost and had power everywhere sounds very linear and smooth right what about the spice well the thing is the turbo changeover point happened at 4500 rpm and there was a short dip in boost during this before spiking back up to the target pressure meaning if you were halfway around the corner when the changeover happened is that enough spice for you so it had the looks it had the power but what about the handling well it still had the same rotary engine dimensions that it had always had it was still a front mounted mid-engine car it still had a near-perfect 50 50 weight distribution and a low centre of gravity so yes it handled sensationally in fact even to this day it's still regarded as being amongst the best handling and balanced cars ever created so far i've avoided talking about motorsport mainly because that's a whole other topic and it's large enough that i could do a follow-up video about the rx-7's history in motorsport however more than any prior model it's difficult to talk about the fd without discussing motorsport that's because in 1995 mazda produced a special model called the rx-7sp a high performance variant which was developed to achieve a mulligation in the australian gt production car series and the eastern creek now sydney motorsport park 12 hour production race the sp had around 25 horsepower and 35 newton meters of torque more than the base model a carbon fiber nose cone rear spoiler and fuel tank which was large enough to hold 120 liters plus a host of engine tweaks the rs managed to match their main rival the porsche carrera rs club spot and ultimately went on to win the 1995 eastern creek 12 hour as well as a podium in the international tarmac rally target tasmania in the same year later in 2001 a japan only edition of the series 8 called the bathurst r was released to celebrate this victory the series 6 was to be the most successful of the range with the series 7 lasting just 2 years and finally the series 8 only being available in japan would finally end production in 2002 so after more than 800 000 rx7s have been sold globally spanning over 24 years was this truly the end of a legend well as far as the bean counters at mazda are concerned yes but in a world where manufacturers are more concerned with miles per gallon cost effective production and meeting ever stricter emissions targets true engineering masterpieces like the rx-7 have become more and more popular petrol heads around the world have become infatuated with 90s jdm classics cars that were made to be fast and fun mazda's buzzing little sports car has gone on to feature in just about all popular racing games over the last 20 years featured in popular films like fast and furious franchise and are thriving in car scenes around the world production of the rx-7 ended nearly 20 years ago but it seems the legend very much lives on [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Charlie Rosco

Views: 10,155

Keywords: Racing, gran turismo sport, motorsport, project cars, rx7, mazda, rx2, rx3, rx4, rx8, rx5, r100, capella, 110s, JDM, MCM, mighty car mods, documentary, car, cars, racing, wankel, rotary engine, 12A, 13b, 20b, 26b, mad mike, red bull, classic, FB, SA, SA22C, FC, FD, RS, porsche, bathurst, australia, japan

Id: Pn1M29w5CGs

Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 24 2020