Having always been a Mazda rotary engine fan and enthusiast, I was pleased to see a story on the 13G 3-rotor powered LMP2 car in Racecar Engineering. Or I should say previously 13G powered. Mazda switched over to the AER 2.0L piston turbo engine earlier this year in an attempt to be more competitive. I’m not sure how a 2.0L inline 4 turbo can be competitive with a highly strung normally aspirated 3.5L V-8 (a la IRL), but whatever floats their boat right? The AER engine is supposed to be a derivative of the Mazda DISI 2.0L engine found in the Mazdaspeed series of turbo cars. The key word here is SUPPOSED to be.
Anyhow, I’m glad that Mazda at least tried the rotary. The car was heavily handicapped because of the X-trac transmission they had to run with the heavier LMP1 subframe. You really should read the story for details as it’s a good story. They also say that Mazda hasn’t given up on the rotary so expect a rotary engined race car in the future. I will always love the rotary engine so I’m glad to hear that. I’ve owned an R100, RX-3, 1g SA RX-7, two 2g FC RX-7s, and two 3g FD RX-7s. I have not owned an RX-8 though as I never thought it was all that great. A good daily driver maybe, but definitely not a sports car. I’ve heard a new RX-7 should be arriving sometime in the near future. It should be sweet….
