Nice list but technically, you could have had 9 different production cars without even leaving the Mazda stable. While the argument could be made that the RX line was an evolution, most of Mazda's rotary cars were wholly their own vehicles, despite sharing an evolution of the Mazda engine design. 1. R100 2. RX-2 3.RX-3 4.RX-4 5.RX-5 6.RX-7 7.Cosmo 8.REPU 9.RX-8
Yup. The HB 929 / Cosmo was the only car ever too offer the choice betwin. Gasoline piston engine with and without turbo, Diesel piston engine, and rotary engine with and without turbo. The 12A Turbo equipped HB Cosmo was officially the fasted Japanese production car in 82.
You forgot the Mazda Roadpacer. This was an Australian made Holden Premier sedan, shipped to Japan without an engine, and fitted up with a rotary, sold between 1975-1979. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Roadpacer_AP
Lack of torque & consequentially very little engine-braking would have made these heavy cars sluggish to drive & hard to stop, so no wonder the Wikipedia page states that the majority crashed!
Miraak Dova They aren't unreliable. The only time I see a unreliable rotary is in the Rx8 and I seem ro see those almost everyday.And they drink alot of oil tho.
Yeah! a newbe! Hahah! Oh boy; you are young, so it can be forgiven you this stupid question. :D Maybe you really can learn about something about cars, or their history. Ha ha ! The rotary-engines had much mor power. They made not much noise, but they needed more gas, because a automatic shifter was allowed. 11000 are too much for a small engine with 65 hp, (2 engines had much more).But the construction was not good enough, to built in an old Fiat.... :D :D The NSU RO 80 had the best machine. The power was incredible. The Mazda RX-series all had rotary-engines, and the have it till today. Beautyfull cars..... Strange people till today.......
The Japanese seem to have gotten the Wankel sorted so much better than anybody else. They even sound better. Kudos to Citroen though for making the Ami Rotary sound just like the two-cylinder standard version.
I tried to find a 4132 or 415 engine to put in a samara/2108. Unfortunately they are very rare and expensive today, but it's a project I'd love to start one day
As far i know, these ladas with rotary engines were only available for the russian police and soviet agents, and now find one for sale is quite rare, even for russians lol
My 1310cc Cooper S powered Mini Clubman had 1-1/2" SUs, extractors/headers & straight-thru muffler, & its lumpy rally-cam made it sound very much like a rotary at idle (but not when I stepped on the accelerator tho)! Was even once asked whether there I'd put a V8 in it!
Shing pop pop. brap brap. The older stock Gma's car Ga lulu lu lu. My favorite is in an under ground parking garage. Rev it up, then kill the power. Get ready for the Kaboom!!! Although it was risky to any muffler you had.
Normal situation, Rotary-egines have the most power, maybe 3-times more... Naturally the sound is like a Turbine, but hey, we grow up with the future.. ;)
General Motors purchased rights from Mazda to build a rotary sedan, and in there somewhere American Motors planned to use the GM version of the rotary in a new car they were designing called the Pacer. After American Motors had the Pacer ready to go, GM backed out on building the rotary, and American Motors had to redesign the Pacer because, using their original in line six, they had to lengthen the Pacer body, resulting in doors that were way too long and heavy. So then the Pacer became an oddity that most laughed at., but in it's own funky way, the Pacer looked pretty cute, good actually. I remember when AM introduced the Pacer on TV. They had a high school band group standing on the two sides of a ramp as the Pacer came down the ramp, the announder is saying INTRODUCING THE NEW WIDE PACER, and all of a sudden the band had to JUMP OFF both sides. of the ramp to keep from getting knocked off, and someone yelled.."Wow, We didn't know it was THAT wide." I guess that was a selling point in their eyes. A new short little car that was way wide almost like an egg. But cute it was, with lots of glass for visibility and that big in line six they had to use instead of the rotary was a good, reliable engine, if old fashioned.
In 1998 they developed a version of their 415 engine with fuel injection with produced 206hp@7500rpm from 1308cc. Unfortunately they stopped the development of rotaries in the early 2000s.
The party fucked their own car industry over. Think of Lada like BMW and AZLK like Mercedes. AZLK were a class over Lada and had some very interesting concepts, but they never got any help from the government. Quite the opposite actually, the car industry ministry cancelled a project of theirs of a RWD hatchback-like family car with independent rear suspension and DOHC engine. In 1976! They were *FORCED* to copy Simca 1308. While the AZLK S-3 was already tested against Porsches and BMWs of the era and was ready for production.
My Lada Samara produces only 320h.p )))) No rotor, only turbo! But my friend had Lada Samara with Weber carburetors rotor engine VAZ-415, 265 h.p./7900 rpm ))) That’s great sound!
I feel like they didn't give the rotary engine a good enough of a chance It's sad to see that the rotary engine has just been reduced to something for enthusiasts to appreciate
Lada supposedly made lots of rotary cars but unfortunately it’s extremely difficult to find any proof the of the many scrapped prototype vehicles which are rumored to have three and even four rotors
I think that the simplicity of the motor appealed to the powers that be at Lada , they just couldn’t pinch the Mazda plans and read the German ones ....
Thank you for this. I knew about some but not all these models. I once owned a 1977 Rotary pickup, and, the only year produced, it had a larger cab than the earlier two years More room and the same great 13B driveline. Mine had a Racing Beat intake with Holly 4 barrel and Racing Beat exhaust. Never ported it, but I think I had more race challenges driving that truck than any other, and I always won. Only trouble with that truck, it came with steel 6 bolt 16 inch wheels, and I could not mount any wider good looking wheels, which usually came in five bolt 15 inch. My two sons, between them, still own rotaries that came from me. 71 R100 with a larger 70 cube 12A (12B in Japan) engine, ported, and with only 1900 some pounds it hauls. Also we have a 73 RX2, again with a ported 12A, and about 2100 with 210 HP. Also in the family is a cherry original 84 RX7 GSL-SE, which came with a 13B, 4 wheel discs, and limited slip. We love our rotaries though it is very hard to keep the older rotaries on the road. Not because of the drivelines, they are solid. But we have trouble with rubber, brake cylinders, etc. Have had to order way off to Australia for some parts. Might have to tear out the Mazda front ends and put in a Ford suspension and brakes or something to keep them going.
It is like putting together a list of the greatest Ferrari V-12s and leaving out the Colombo. The RX-7 probably outsold every other rotary model. Combined.
Markle2k if you all are so smart, then why don't you make your own videos the way you want to and maybe you will appreciate what other creators are doing for their viewers. Jeez, dude, stop complaining.
he included it as the RX line of cars therefore no thats like complaining somebody didn't include a separate entry for every generation of a car as the number at the end is just a definer for large scale generations
Markle2k no that isn't similar at all it's more like making a list of the best pony cars and only having one entry for the camaro they're just different generations and evolutions
It was said NSU Ro80 owners carried a spare engine in the boot (trunk) to cope with the frequent seal failures. The engine was light in weight and compact, and could be changed by the roadside by a competent mechanic.
Missed one: the short lived, but available to the Japanese public, Mazda Roadpacer, twin rotor rotary installed into a Holden HX Kingswood. Problem was typical for a rotary installation in a heavy car: plenty of power by mid 1970's standards, not enough torque. It was definitely not an RX model.
The interesting thing about rotary engines and LADA is that a lot of Mazda RX owners in Russia swap stock engines with 1.6 16V (98hp) ones with additional custom turbo to raise the power. The reason is simple - proper restoration of rotary costs almost the same, as to swap the engine.
Well I think I have a new car to acquire as soon as possible. Rotary Lada. I mean seriously???? I did not know that even though I see Ladas every day and I drove one for a while too.
Not a Japanese car fan at all, but a buddy of mine had one of those Mazda trucks in high school, and what I remember most about that truck is the weird baby blue paint job, and that the motor reved forever...the rpm's seemed to be like the energizer bunny, they kept going and going and going....it had a neat sound to it...
A high school friend had an RX-4 - I always dug the sweet howl of that 13B rotary. Hope to get an RX-7 one of these days. This is a great TH-cam channel - thanks
My first vehicle was a 1974 Mazda Rotary Engined Pickup, and it was great -- much more powerful than other Japanese pickups of the day. I remember coming across a friend in his muscle car on a country road when I was driving it. He tried to lose me, but I stay right up with him, then passed him. He was amazed. I used to drive up long uphill grades at a hundred miles an hour, amazing people all around (yes, I know, unsafe -- sorry, I was a teenager). It didn't get very good mileage, though. Fun days.
A few years back I had a drive of a Mazda RX-7 on a motorway in Britain... damn, once out of the corners that thing was lightning fast. Not sure exactly what model engine was in it, but it was a rotary... completely awesome !
It might be worth a mention that the AMC Pacer almost got a rotary. GM was going to provide the engines. GM pulled the plug and AMC had to use their already existing 232 and 258 straight 6. Probably worked out for the better though, cause rotary engines don't like weight. They work great in really light vehicles though.
My younger brother took a bi-rotor motor from a wrecked Mazda RX-4 and adapted it to fit into a 1964 Alfa Romeo Spyder , the result was both incredible speedy and scary to drive. You could hear the car scream a mile ahead of you on the freeway and very few cars could catch up and over-take it . It made a noise that sounded like a cross between a jet and an air raid siren,almost deafening as it roared by.
Wait, so you included separate entries for cars that were never actually in production, but then grouped econoboxes like R100, RX-3, with sports cars like three generations of RX-7 selling over 800k units and the RX-8 sport sedan selling 200k units? At least the Cosmo generations - although totally unrelated in market segment and body style - shared the same name. It was interesting to see the non-Mazda rotary cars.
Doc. Volt Mazda has some surprises for us in the future, and there is nothing wrong in burning oil, 2-stroke bikes burn oil and no one says that are destroying the planet fuck off.
A little addition on the Lada cars: there were 50 copies of 21018 sold but the engine proved to be so unreliable that 49 out of them were retrofitted with the usual engine instead of the rotary. I guess there's a small possibility that somewhere in Eastern Europe someone still owns an original 21018, the only one left in the world :D
Wait, you lumped the RX2, RX3, RX4, RX7, and RX8 all in one limited entry? Missed the R130 Luce, The R100 ,The Roadpace, Multiple concept cars like the RX500, the RX01, since you included the C110. Also the 787B The first Javanese car to win LeMans. Shit I just more than doubled your list.
Just gona say with that Mazda repu the blue one was actually a Datsun 1200 Ute with a rotary swap not to hate though great vids I thought it was just funny 😅😅
Does anyone know of any engines that can can be built to replicate the sound and high rev nature of Formula 1 V10 and V8s? I’m looking for potential future motor swaps and am not coming up with much in my own research. Edit: If I could, I’d go with the 1LR-GUE from an LFA or a 26b Rotary. I’m not sure how feasible those two are tho lol
26B doesn't exist "in nature", you have to build one for yourself , check Hartley H1 or Synergy v8. You can also upgrade Toyota 1UZ or destroke Nissan VK56 and upgrade valvetrain to rev up to +9k rpm. Bimmer v10 (s85b50) might be cheaper alternative for Toyota/Lexus 1LR.
Didn't know about the Lada rotaries, but that Lada with the birotor sounded good, and 110hp makes fun in it because people expect you to be slow, and then they get a surprise. Personaly I would prefer the Repu or RX4 to own, those are nice looking and sounding cars.
You forgot a car most people don't know about. Rolls Royce actually made a rotary a long time ago and I believe it was diesel too. It was really strange and I can't even remember what it was in but you should look it up
Dash of awesome video* on the rotary. He talked about this engine. Over engineered engine. German this german that 12000000 hp usa shitty interior all the way. Im high as fuck right now.
the eunos cosmo should have had its own spot on this list for beeing the most powerful production rotary, for all the tech that it got and for having the first and only 3 rotor production engine on the planet. just a bad ass car thats gonna be a future collectors car.
Have driven both a Mazda R 1, and a Mazda pick up, very powerful. The R 1 with manual trans would nearly pull a front wheel off the line. I would say one of the biggest early problems with Mazdas rotary engine was the deceleration valve, the spinning rotors were so heavy that on deceleration the engine wouldn't slow rotation quick enough, apex seals were finally corrected in the late 80's. Wish I could find a good older RX 4.
Not exactly. By the time mazda released the final version of the 12A used in the first generation RX-7, the apex seals had already been sorted out. Some say that the 12a seals are better than the newer 13B ones.
My first car was a 79 rx7 automatic. Got it for 600 bucks. Sold it for 2000 too some old dude after driving it all throughout high school. Miss that lil Car! After i sold it, i did some research and found out a automatic rx7 from 79, was more rare than a manual cause autos were a luxury back in the day.
Thanks for the video. I currently own a 2006 RX8GT and a 1991 Rx7 convertible. I love them both. I also had a 1993 Twin Turbo RX7. I miss that car and wish I had the engine rebuilt rather than selling it. If the 1991 or the 2006 ever needs a replacement engine I will gladly have that done.
You missed the Mazda Road Pacer from the mid 70's which was a HX Holden Premier that would be shipped to Japan minus engine and transmission and Mazda dropped the 13b and Jatco automatic transmission in and was for the luxury segment, and the Mazda Rotary bus.
The RO80 had a semi automatic transmission. The clutch was engaged by pushing the gear lever. Also it was a very modern design, ahead of it's time for sure. Even from the outside it looks more like a 80s car than a 60s car.
I found out about rotary Ladas like four years ago, since then i have been looking everywhere but i couldnt find any for sale, i guess its because it was KGB special and they didnt produce alot of them
Am I the only one to find wankel engines sounds particularly ridiculous, especially at idle? Reminds me of cheap french moped. And again, very well documented and informative video (always discovering new thing watching this channel), but it omits few details. NSU Ro80 and the Citroen GS share basically the same engine, COMOTOR being a joint venture between these two manufacturers. The M35 "prototype" (actually a mule, sold to "lucky" customers) also share the same engine but cut in half. These 3 cars shares the same roots. Also, Citroen didn't want to keep these commercial failures and technically expensive to maintain cars on the road. Most of the M35 and GS Birotor had being bought back from customer or exchanged for another, piston engined, car, and were all but few scrapped. Both are now considered historical treasures, running ones are even rarer. And also, most ridiculous trivia ever, the M35 was meant to be produced at 500 units. All being marked on the body with a numbered sticker. In fact, only half were ever sold, and to conceal this commercial failure, the stickers lied with some having a serial number exceeding the actual production run... Citroen's wankel adventure, associated with the oil crisis, and the very expensive acquisition of Maserati to build the even more expensive V6 coupé SM model, and also the even more obscure idea of the Wankel powered chopper, are all causes of this manufacturer demise.
The Repu was a cool looking mini truck they definitely should have put a decent alternate motor in rather than killing the entire pickup off I could see that with a decent v6 as a really popular pickup
Concerning the beautiful Ro80, NSU honoured every single warranty claim with new engines - and bled themselves dry. The build quality and design of these cars (1967) was on par with anything today.
There was one Right Hand Drive GS Birotor built. In Australia by talented Citroen enthusiast Greg Feinberg. He also converted an SM to RHD... Very complex job.
I was sad to see you lumped the Mazda RX series in as a single model. They were indeed a series of independent models only related in that they were Mazda, and featured Wankel / Rotary engines. So your count should really go up. There was the RX2, RX3, RX4, RX7, and RX8. I owned an RX2 and an RX3-SP, my brother owned an RX4. My RX3-SP got a 13B from an RX7 swapped in when I owned it. Awesome car, funny sounding but it would rev all day long...
![ILLSLICK - THE KING'S LANDING [Freestyle]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/feIJJnNkTfk/mqdefault.jpg)
oF CoURsE Citroën made a rotary! The two weird things in this world come together
Joshua D'Oliveiro Haha i couldn't help looking at their famous steering wheel !
The owner of Mehari has one of the remaining M35's. It's due to be restored soon, but was still running in Summer 2019.
Maybe its a little bit weird but activa suspension is the BEST suspension since xantia activa to nowadays
Citroen was good before it was bought by Peugeot. Except the 2cv, that thing was always trash.
The Mazda cosmo has such a classic look I love it
Daniel Valjin the early ones look like dwarf Ford Thunderbirds.
Interior so sexy
Nice list but technically, you could have had 9 different production cars without even leaving the Mazda stable. While the argument could be made that the RX line was an evolution, most of Mazda's rotary cars were wholly their own vehicles, despite sharing an evolution of the Mazda engine design.
1. R100
2. RX-2
3.RX-3
4.RX-4
5.RX-5
6.RX-7
7.Cosmo
8.REPU
9.RX-8
R130 luce
roadpacer
parkway bus
RX9 (greece only)
And 929
Yup. The HB 929 / Cosmo was the only car ever too offer the choice betwin. Gasoline piston engine with and without turbo, Diesel piston engine, and rotary engine with and without turbo. The 12A Turbo equipped HB Cosmo was officially the fasted Japanese production car in 82.
@@pederb82 929 was piston version of cosmo and rx4 I believe
But sadly, It's all Rare in a good, original condition.....God, Why???
You forgot the Mazda Roadpacer. This was an Australian made Holden Premier sedan, shipped to Japan without an engine, and fitted up with a rotary, sold between 1975-1979. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Roadpacer_AP
Wow...good catch. I'd forgotten all about the Prem Rotary. :-D
and the mazda luce in the 5 generations
Lack of torque & consequentially very little engine-braking would have made these heavy cars sluggish to drive & hard to stop, so no wonder the Wikipedia page states that the majority crashed!
He should have left the Merc out as it saw only 13 of them built, those number are too low to cinsider it a production car.
I was waiting for this one, but he forgot it
The coolest sounding compact engines ever.
BOXER! All of air cooled VW/Porsche and watter cooled Subaru and Alfa.
Pietrek L Boxers sound cool, but rotaries and two strokes raise my ears from a distance.
Both of them sounds too pitchy for me (2 stroke and rotary)
Pietrek L What do you like? Quiet electric cars or something?
lucas oetzel: yea, 2 stroke, like a detroit-diesel 8v71 ;-) th-cam.com/video/kJWptfyVK00/w-d-xo.html
Damn you just gotta love rotary engines
Miraak Dova Ooo there good engine but they just need a little more love then your general car.
Miraak Dova have you ever owned or driven one??
krezo not really. They are inherently inefficient and dirty. They are an interesting curiosity, but nothing more.
Miraak Dova They aren't unreliable. The only time I see a unreliable rotary is in the Rx8 and I seem ro see those almost everyday.And they drink alot of oil tho.
Miraak Dova From what I've heard
DORITOSSS POWERRRRR!!!!!!!!
Rotary Lada? Thats new for me, seems like i learn something new everyday haha
3:03 Sounds exactly like 13B too.
Yeah! a newbe! Hahah! Oh boy; you are young, so it can be forgiven you this stupid question. :D
Maybe you really can learn about something about cars, or their history. Ha ha !
The rotary-engines had much mor power. They made not much noise, but they needed more gas, because a automatic shifter was allowed. 11000 are too much for a small engine with
65 hp, (2 engines had much more).But the construction was not good enough, to built in an old Fiat.... :D :D
The NSU RO 80 had the best machine. The power was incredible.
The Mazda RX-series all had rotary-engines, and the have it till today. Beautyfull cars.....
Strange people till today.......
@@Norbert1819 are you stupid?
I always liked the Mazda rotary-engine pickup truck, with its lovely big round double taillights and bold ROTARY POWER wording on the tailgate :D
You have to see the lil blue repu do a skid from angel motorsport its nutty!
im actually working on my repu rn
The Japanese seem to have gotten the Wankel sorted so much better than anybody else. They even sound better. Kudos to Citroen though for making the Ami Rotary sound just like the two-cylinder standard version.
GM experimented with their version of the wankel that they tested that ran for over like 600,000 miles on all stock parts.
Omg now i will buy a lada rotary thanks man
if you can find one being sold hahaha
fidel catsro well i will try import from Rússia hahaha
I tried to find a 4132 or 415 engine to put in a samara/2108. Unfortunately they are very rare and expensive today, but it's a project I'd love to start one day
Nacho Bides yes i will try i love ladas but, if dont have much this cars, my second option is buy lada laika sw and buy rx8 engine with turbo 500hp~
As far i know, these ladas with rotary engines were only available for the russian police and soviet agents, and now find one for sale is quite rare, even for russians lol
That crazy mazda cosmo sounds more like a F1 than a modern F1
I am a little disappointed that he didn't talk about the legendary engine what the last sport version had of the cosmo.
It's also gorgeous
You get that with a peri port 20b.
BRAP BRAP BRAP BRRRAAAPP shututu....
My 1310cc Cooper S powered Mini Clubman had 1-1/2" SUs, extractors/headers & straight-thru muffler, & its lumpy rally-cam made it sound very much like a rotary at idle (but not when I stepped on the accelerator tho)!
Was even once asked whether there I'd put a V8 in it!
Rapidshot Games VRAAAAAAPTSTUTUTUTUTUTU
Shing pop pop. brap brap. The older stock Gma's car Ga lulu lu lu. My favorite is in an under ground parking garage. Rev it up, then kill the power. Get ready for the Kaboom!!! Although it was risky to any muffler you had.
Normal situation, Rotary-egines have the most power, maybe 3-times more... Naturally the sound is like a Turbine, but hey, we grow up with the future.. ;)
Best sound ever... Bridgeport 13b turbo 😍😍
You forgot about Mazda Rotary Parkway, the only rotary bus ever produced.
>cars
>buses
Yosimoro You won't get a list of rotary buses, so it was worth mentioning ;)
A rotary Bus??? must be drinking fuel like an ocean!
fidel catsro Even better, when packed full, it barely moved. Rotary torque FTL!
General Motors purchased rights from Mazda to build a rotary sedan, and in there somewhere
American Motors planned to use the GM version of the rotary in a new car they were designing
called the Pacer. After American Motors had the Pacer ready to go, GM backed out on building
the rotary, and American Motors had to redesign the Pacer because, using their original in line
six, they had to lengthen the Pacer body, resulting in doors that were way too long and heavy.
So then the Pacer became an oddity that most laughed at., but in it's own funky way, the
Pacer looked pretty cute, good actually.
I remember when AM introduced the Pacer on TV. They had a high school band group standing
on the two sides of a ramp as the Pacer came down the ramp, the announder is saying
INTRODUCING THE NEW WIDE PACER, and all of a sudden the band had to JUMP OFF both sides.
of the ramp to keep from getting knocked off, and someone yelled.."Wow, We didn't know it was
THAT wide." I guess that was a selling point in their eyes. A new short little car that was way wide
almost like an egg. But cute it was, with lots of glass for visibility and that big in line six they
had to use instead of the rotary was a good, reliable engine, if old fashioned.
I was driving an RX7 in a game when you uploaded
horizon 3?
ILLUMMINNATTII CONFIRMED
sam Nah
kaposvári bando NFS?
gázbojler?
That three rotor Cosmo sounds AMAZING!
Wait lada made a rotary? ..654cc with 115 hp ? Wowowow😱
veenoable i think the 1300cc one made 115hp
In 1998 they developed a version of their 415 engine with fuel injection with produced 206hp@7500rpm from 1308cc. Unfortunately they stopped the development of rotaries in the early 2000s.
The party fucked their own car industry over.
Think of Lada like BMW and AZLK like Mercedes.
AZLK were a class over Lada and had some very interesting concepts, but they never got any help from the government. Quite the opposite actually, the car industry ministry cancelled a project of theirs of a RWD hatchback-like family car with independent rear suspension and DOHC engine. In 1976!
They were *FORCED* to copy Simca 1308.
While the AZLK S-3 was already tested against Porsches and BMWs of the era and was ready for production.
Damn son, my honda jazz with vtec 1500cc only produce 125 hp
My Lada Samara produces only 320h.p )))) No rotor, only turbo! But my friend had Lada Samara with Weber carburetors rotor engine VAZ-415, 265 h.p./7900 rpm ))) That’s great sound!
I feel like they didn't give the rotary engine a good enough of a chance It's sad to see that the rotary engine has just been reduced to something for enthusiasts to appreciate
Too much consumption: no hope!
As cool as it Is its fundamentally flawed. It assumes near perfect lubrication and apex seals
The Mazdaratti looks good in red!
Love the vids man, you put so much work into this. Keep going man!
You should cover the subaru line man! I drive a 1993 legacy wagon:):):)
Lada supposedly made lots of rotary cars but unfortunately it’s extremely difficult to find any proof the of the many scrapped prototype vehicles which are rumored to have three and even four rotors
Blake Parker Yeah the made some really cool projects, but they stopped the development in the early 2000s.
Tom
Nah, they were available but the price was 10 times that of a normal 4-banger one.
I think that the simplicity of the motor appealed to the powers that be at Lada , they just couldn’t pinch the Mazda plans and read the German ones ....
Damn that 20b Cosmo is a gorgeous vehicle.
Thank you for this. I knew about some but not all these models. I once owned a 1977 Rotary pickup, and, the only year produced, it had a larger cab than the earlier two years More room and the same great 13B driveline. Mine had a Racing Beat intake with Holly 4 barrel and Racing Beat exhaust. Never ported it, but I think I had more race challenges driving that truck than any other, and I always won.
Only trouble with that truck, it came with steel 6 bolt 16 inch wheels, and I could not mount any wider good looking wheels, which usually came in five bolt 15 inch.
My two sons, between them, still own rotaries that came from me. 71 R100 with a larger 70 cube 12A (12B in Japan) engine, ported, and with only 1900 some pounds it hauls. Also we have a 73 RX2, again with a ported 12A, and about 2100 with 210 HP.
Also in the family is a cherry original 84 RX7 GSL-SE, which came with a 13B, 4 wheel discs, and limited slip. We love our rotaries though it is very hard to keep the older rotaries on the road. Not because of the drivelines, they are solid. But we have trouble with rubber, brake cylinders, etc. Have had to order way off to Australia for some parts. Might have to tear out the Mazda front ends and put in a Ford suspension and brakes or something to keep them going.
Ok the title is rotary CARS, not rotary ENGINES. Therefore the RX-4, RX-7, RX-8, etc should all be separate individual entries.
RationallySkeptical chill m8
It is like putting together a list of the greatest Ferrari V-12s and leaving out the Colombo. The RX-7 probably outsold every other rotary model. Combined.
Markle2k if you all are so smart, then why don't you make your own videos the way you want to and maybe you will appreciate what other creators are doing for their viewers.
Jeez, dude, stop complaining.
he included it as the RX line of cars therefore no thats like complaining somebody didn't include a separate entry for every generation of a car as the number at the end is just a definer for large scale generations
Markle2k no that isn't similar at all it's more like making a list of the best pony cars and only having one entry for the camaro they're just different generations and evolutions
I absolutely love the design of rotary engines, and wish that they would make more cars with them. Great video!
It was said NSU Ro80 owners carried a spare engine in the boot (trunk) to cope with the frequent seal failures. The engine was light in weight and compact, and could be changed by the roadside by a competent mechanic.
Missed one: the short lived, but available to the Japanese public, Mazda Roadpacer, twin rotor rotary installed into a Holden HX Kingswood. Problem was typical for a rotary installation in a heavy car: plenty of power by mid 1970's standards, not enough torque. It was definitely not an RX model.
There's also the Aerovette which never really left the prototype phase. It was basically a more aerodynamic mid-engine rotary Corvette
The interesting thing about rotary engines and LADA is that a lot of Mazda RX owners in Russia swap stock engines with 1.6 16V (98hp) ones with additional custom turbo to raise the power.
The reason is simple - proper restoration of rotary costs almost the same, as to swap the engine.
Total production of rotary Ladas (21018, 21019, 21059, 21079 and some fwd models) is about 1000 pcs.
You didn't cover the Mazda R100, which was not an "RX", or the Mazda Roadpacer, which was based on a Holden Kingswood.
Well I think I have a new car to acquire as soon as possible.
Rotary Lada. I mean seriously???? I did not know that even though I see Ladas every day and I drove one for a while too.
They was special design for KGB, there was also GAZ 24 with same engine.
Volga never featured rotary engine, the KGB version had the V8.
yes, there was also v8s, but rotart too
cp_www.tripod.com/rotary/pg07.htm
In the USSR Machines with powerful engines were available only to public services, such as the KGB, the police, the drivers of politicians.
kOSTb19999994
if you had the money you could buy one.
Problem is they were very expensive.
Not a Japanese car fan at all, but a buddy of mine had one of those Mazda trucks in high school, and what I remember most about that truck is the weird baby blue paint job, and that the motor reved forever...the rpm's seemed to be like the energizer bunny, they kept going and going and going....it had a neat sound to it...
Love the sound of that motor. Wish there were a way to make em more reliable. Wish I had one.
In 1989-90, my First Sgt in Monterey CA had a Mazda Rotary Pickup that had been customized, and it was gorgeous.
Ah, the video that I requested for maybe 2 years ago. Thanks, this video is added into my playlist now.
A high school friend had an RX-4 - I always dug the sweet howl of that 13B rotary. Hope to get an RX-7 one of these days.
This is a great TH-cam channel - thanks
5:39 you can see the joy in that mans face
I had no idea Lada made rotaries. Thanks for the video.
awesome video !
I'm so glad to see the Mazda Cosmo Eunos on this list. From my opinion it's a hidden gem of the car world with its twin turbo 3 rotor engine
P
My first vehicle was a 1974 Mazda Rotary Engined Pickup, and it was great -- much more powerful than other Japanese pickups of the day. I remember coming across a friend in his muscle car on a country road when I was driving it. He tried to lose me, but I stay right up with him, then passed him. He was amazed. I used to drive up long uphill grades at a hundred miles an hour, amazing people all around (yes, I know, unsafe -- sorry, I was a teenager). It didn't get very good mileage, though. Fun days.
The motor was a gaz guzzler
A few years back I had a drive of a Mazda RX-7 on a motorway in Britain... damn, once out of the corners that thing was lightning fast. Not sure exactly what model engine was in it, but it was a rotary... completely awesome !
I'm a simple man. VisioRacer uploads a video, I watch it.
brilliant videos mate, keep them coming
U missed out the Holden Road Pacer
Visio, the Holden motor company used a rotary in one of its cars also. The 1976 Mazda 'Roadpacer' was equipped with a 13b was also Holden HJ Premier
It might be worth a mention that the AMC Pacer almost got a rotary. GM was going to provide the engines. GM pulled the plug and AMC had to use their already existing 232 and 258 straight 6. Probably worked out for the better though, cause rotary engines don't like weight. They work great in really light vehicles though.
My younger brother took a bi-rotor motor from a wrecked Mazda RX-4 and adapted it to fit into a 1964 Alfa Romeo Spyder , the result was both incredible speedy and scary to drive. You could hear the car scream a mile ahead of you on the freeway and very few cars could catch up and over-take it . It made a noise that sounded like a cross between a jet and an air raid siren,almost deafening as it roared by.
Wait, so you included separate entries for cars that were never actually in production, but then grouped econoboxes like R100, RX-3, with sports cars like three generations of RX-7 selling over 800k units and the RX-8 sport sedan selling 200k units? At least the Cosmo generations - although totally unrelated in market segment and body style - shared the same name. It was interesting to see the non-Mazda rotary cars.
I hope the rotary comes back
MR MOUIAIO
We all do...
MR MOUIAIO basically impossible sadly.. Maybe as range extender but nothing more. Burn oil = pollution
Doc. Volt
Mazda has some surprises for us in the future, and there is nothing wrong in burning oil, 2-stroke bikes burn oil and no one says that are destroying the planet fuck off.
MR MOUIAIO 2 strokes are disappearing mate.. even weed whackers are made in 4 strokes now.. any new moped is 4 strokes here. No need to offend
In finland u are stupid if u buy 50cc 4 stroke cuz they are limited to 45/km/h but who rides stock moped 2stroke easier and cheaper to fix and yees
A little addition on the Lada cars: there were 50 copies of 21018 sold but the engine proved to be so unreliable that 49 out of them were retrofitted with the usual engine instead of the rotary. I guess there's a small possibility that somewhere in Eastern Europe someone still owns an original 21018, the only one left in the world :D
Thanks for the info
Really good video.
I didn’t know about all those weird European rotary cars.
Thank you!
It doesn't matter what car is, the sound of the Rotary Will transform it in a beast!!
They sound so good...
Wait, you lumped the RX2, RX3, RX4, RX7, and RX8 all in one limited entry? Missed the R130 Luce, The R100 ,The Roadpace, Multiple concept cars like the RX500, the RX01, since you included the C110. Also the 787B The first Javanese car to win LeMans. Shit I just more than doubled your list.
Interesting sounds
I know it isn't a car but the Suzuki RE5 bike was in production for 2 years, Norton also made an Aircooled twin rotor bike
Just gona say with that Mazda repu the blue one was actually a Datsun 1200 Ute with a rotary swap not to hate though great vids I thought it was just funny 😅😅
yeah i noticed that too, his vids are poorly researched. No mention of front wheel drive R130 13a , R100s, road pacer, parkway bus, nothing.
I actually own a Datsun 1200 Ute 😅
Dylans Garage
Datsun was just a sticker on Japanese Nissan models, the original models have other names!
the video tell sold In Canada???? never see one!
lucas rem the original motor is a a12?
Great Video, thanks for making!
Does anyone know of any engines that can can be built to replicate the sound and high rev nature of Formula 1 V10 and V8s? I’m looking for potential future motor swaps and am not coming up with much in my own research.
Edit: If I could, I’d go with the 1LR-GUE from an LFA or a 26b Rotary. I’m not sure how feasible those two are tho lol
the sound you can get by a volvo inline 5, a baby V10 and you can make them rev to the moon with some cash.
Look for a busted E60 V10 M5
4 rotor 26B wankel engine sounds like an old V8 F1 car IMO
Its 2018, and no, it wouldnt rev higher, be smaller or more reliable, the physics didnt change and they pushed the limits back then too.
26B doesn't exist "in nature", you have to build one for yourself , check Hartley H1 or Synergy v8. You can also upgrade Toyota 1UZ or destroke Nissan VK56 and upgrade valvetrain to rev up to +9k rpm.
Bimmer v10 (s85b50) might be cheaper alternative for Toyota/Lexus 1LR.
Mazda had a 10a, my friend, early R100 Familia I believe, keep the great vids up, If you ever go to New Zealand, I'll buy you a beer.
When you put subtitles on, the m35 sound is translated as "applause" :)
I always wanted a first gen RX7 with a post '86 turbo engine. Where I live they just aren't. I love the sound.
Didn't know about the Lada rotaries, but that Lada with the birotor sounded good, and 110hp makes fun in it because people expect you to be slow, and then they get a surprise.
Personaly I would prefer the Repu or RX4 to own, those are nice looking and sounding cars.
Awesome video!! Learned alot
You forgot a car most people don't know about. Rolls Royce actually made a rotary a long time ago and I believe it was diesel too. It was really strange and I can't even remember what it was in but you should look it up
Yea and if i am right it had a rotary as "turbo" to.
Dash of awesome both of you go check out engineering explained videos
Dash of awesome video* on the rotary. He talked about this engine. Over engineered engine. German this german that 12000000 hp usa shitty interior all the way. Im high as fuck right now.
th-cam.com/video/1pDjwaqU0dU/w-d-xo.html
I thought that was prototype?
Can't help but like the rotary engine concept, despite its failings.
the eunos cosmo should have had its own spot on this list for beeing the most powerful production rotary, for all the tech that it got and for having the first and only 3 rotor production engine on the planet. just a bad ass car thats gonna be a future collectors car.
You forgot Mazda 787B, that won 24 Hours of Le Mans once.
yeah but is that a mass produced car available to the public? no.
Have driven both a Mazda R 1, and a Mazda pick up, very powerful. The R 1 with manual trans would nearly pull a front wheel off the line. I would say one of the biggest early problems with Mazdas rotary engine was the deceleration valve, the spinning rotors were so heavy that on deceleration the engine wouldn't slow rotation quick enough, apex seals were finally corrected in the late 80's. Wish I could find a good older RX 4.
Not exactly. By the time mazda released the final version of the 12A used in the first generation RX-7, the apex seals had already been sorted out. Some say that the 12a seals are better than the newer 13B ones.
Holy shit, a rotary LADA!
My first car was a 79 rx7 automatic. Got it for 600 bucks. Sold it for 2000 too some old dude after driving it all throughout high school. Miss that lil Car! After i sold it, i did some research and found out a automatic rx7 from 79, was more rare than a manual cause autos were a luxury back in the day.
I love these euro-cars!
Thanks for the video. I currently own a 2006 RX8GT and a 1991 Rx7 convertible. I love them both. I also had a 1993 Twin Turbo RX7. I miss that car and wish I had the engine rebuilt rather than selling it. If the 1991 or the 2006 ever needs a replacement engine I will gladly have that done.
You missed the Mazda Road Pacer from the mid 70's which was a HX Holden Premier that would be shipped to Japan minus engine and transmission and Mazda dropped the 13b and Jatco automatic transmission in and was for the luxury segment, and the Mazda Rotary bus.
Yeah it didn't work all that well considering how heavy a HJ,X or Z Premier is with all the luxury adons
The RO80 had a semi automatic transmission. The clutch was engaged by pushing the gear lever. Also it was a very modern design, ahead of it's time for sure. Even from the outside it looks more like a 80s car than a 60s car.
I found out about rotary Ladas like four years ago, since then i have been looking everywhere but i couldnt find any for sale, i guess its because it was KGB special and they didnt produce alot of them
Am I the only one to find wankel engines sounds particularly ridiculous, especially at idle? Reminds me of cheap french moped.
And again, very well documented and informative video (always discovering new thing watching this channel), but it omits few details.
NSU Ro80 and the Citroen GS share basically the same engine, COMOTOR being a joint venture between these two manufacturers. The M35 "prototype" (actually a mule, sold to "lucky" customers) also share the same engine but cut in half. These 3 cars shares the same roots.
Also, Citroen didn't want to keep these commercial failures and technically expensive to maintain cars on the road. Most of the M35 and GS Birotor had being bought back from customer or exchanged for another, piston engined, car, and were all but few scrapped. Both are now considered historical treasures, running ones are even rarer.
And also, most ridiculous trivia ever, the M35 was meant to be produced at 500 units. All being marked on the body with a numbered sticker. In fact, only half were ever sold, and to conceal this commercial failure, the stickers lied with some having a serial number exceeding the actual production run...
Citroen's wankel adventure, associated with the oil crisis, and the very expensive acquisition of Maserati to build the even more expensive V6 coupé SM model, and also the even more obscure idea of the Wankel powered chopper, are all causes of this manufacturer demise.
Is that your subaru on the intro? I hadn't noticed it until now...
The Repu was a cool looking mini truck they definitely should have put a decent alternate motor in rather than killing the entire pickup off I could see that with a decent v6 as a really popular pickup
"The Brap Movie" starring Visio Racer!
lol, rotaries are such weird sounding engines. although that purple rx4 sounded pretty mean and 3 or 4 rotors sound amazing!
Thanks for sharing! Very informative. Subscribed 👍🏻
man you're intro is cool an amazing slide
lol at the Citroen having just one arm holding the whole circle. imagine how badly that bent in a crash
A Lada with a rotary engine? Wow, that must have shocked a few bystanders.
Great video, thanks !
Concerning the beautiful Ro80, NSU honoured every single warranty claim with new engines - and bled themselves dry. The build quality and design of these cars (1967) was on par with anything today.
There was one Right Hand Drive GS Birotor built. In Australia by talented Citroen enthusiast Greg Feinberg. He also converted an SM to RHD... Very complex job.
I was sad to see you lumped the Mazda RX series in as a single model. They were indeed a series of independent models only related in that they were Mazda, and featured Wankel / Rotary engines. So your count should really go up. There was the RX2, RX3, RX4, RX7, and RX8. I owned an RX2 and an RX3-SP, my brother owned an RX4. My RX3-SP got a 13B from an RX7 swapped in when I owned it. Awesome car, funny sounding but it would rev all day long...
A Rotary Lada? Lmao that's EPIC
Keep doing what you do bud
Those are not the only 9 vehicles with Rotary engines....Mazda 787B, Mazda Parkway bus, Mazda Furai, Nissan experimented with them and GM too.
The keyword is "sold"
Also Alfa Romeo
And the Sound...😍😍😍😍😍
Randomly opened my sub box and you uploaded lol
a rotary chainsaw would be dope AF
it was in previous video th-cam.com/video/VCk3DzOZS5Y/w-d-xo.html
They exist. As do airplane, snow mobile, go kart, RC, etc
Hopefully when Mazda gets the rotary in the Rx9 done they can put it in every car shipped to them.I wanna see a 4 Rotor Focus
Do the V7 Engines next
Some interesting Sachs rotary engines also in the Schweinfurt industrial museum.