Dan Luke wrote:

What's so bad about Mazda rotaries? AFAIK, homebuilders are still
successfully using them in a variety of designs; apparently there are
plenty available.

Nothing if they are built correctly using the correct materials.

The problem was the original engines had both material and manufacturing
problems. As I recall (remember, this was about 30 years ago) the material
problem was in the rotor tips and the manufacturing problem was something
to do with parallelism.

It was common to see piles of engine crates for warrenty replacement at
the local Mazda dealer.

By the time they got the problems sorted out, the bad mouth was out and
the market dried up.

I only have experience with one Mazda, a little coupe I owned back in
the 70's. It ran great for three years until my ex drove it into a
flooded underpass in Houston. Smooth and fast as hell (the car, not my
ex) but a little rough on gas mileage, it had a 4-barrel carb on it the
size of a dinner plate.

The engine, when working, has a great power to weight ratio but lousy
mileage.

The early problems and the "gas crises" of the mid 70's pretty much doomed
the Mazda rotary.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
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Jim Pennino

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