The only three and four-rotor Wankel engines ever created by Mazda were hustled into race cars. Period. Every street car, from the lowly front-wheel-drive Luce to the FD RX-7 made do with two rotors doing the dirty work. We’ve seen engines like the 13B make some sincerely serious power with turbocharging, but at some point, there is no replacement for displacement, even for cars powered by tortilla chips instead of pistons. And that’s what this beautiful green RX3 Savanna packs underneath it’s hood: a 26B four-rotor design straight from Mazda’s LeMans efforts of the early 1990s, a 2.6L screamer that has the kind of exhaust note that Ferrari could only dream about while having cold sweats. How good is this engine? Solely because of the 26B, Mazda holds two distinctions: the only Japanese car to ever win overall (1991, Mazda 787B) and the only non-reciprocating engine to ever win outright. Where piston driven engines are at their ragged edge at 9,000 RPM and boost, this baby is just getting started. Click the video below and prepare to go deaf!
I got to hear the Mazda when it ran in IMSA GTP. If you were to turn up your speakers to 11 for the video, it still isn’t the same as the real thing. Literally make your eyeballs vibrate, headsplitting, loud.
Sorry, I have to say it……………….you’re wrong, the triple rotor 20B was available in the early ’90s Mazda Eunos Cosmo. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Cosmo#Series_JC_.28Eunos_Cosmo.2C_1990.E2.80.931996.29 )
For pure rotary insanity you should check out Mad Mike’s MX-5 (Miata to you American types) with a Mazda based PPRE built twin turbo quad rotor “26B” putting out 1000+ Hp, it’s built for drifting, but hey, no ones perfect.
Here it is on the dyno, probably the most pissed-off sounding engine you’ll hear in a while……………..
https://youtu.be/wPBMM2kCd2k?t=38
Or you could look up the PPRE 6, yes 6 rotor, road going RX4…………….
………. and just for shits and giggles here’s Mad Mike in his 4 rotor RX-7 at the Goodwood festival of speed.
https://youtu.be/mY3tX7L_TfM
Sounds like a 1/8th scale r/c nitro car – on steroids.
Yup, as Legion said, the 20B was available in production Eunos Cosmos, although they were all saddled with slushboxes. Still, a damn cool car that we never got here.
Chookcooker. Thats not an exhaust note, just ugly noise,
As Mazda rotaries can be simply bolted together, the 4-rotor can be made quite easily. But for the ultimate motor check out the 2 bank 8 rotor that was shown running on these hallowed pages last year!
V12 Mazda rotary, anyone…..