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The Mazda RX-7: A Forgotten Sports Car

© Zach French

High performance and relatively inexpensive Japanese sports cars used to be a sizable part of the American automotive market. All of the major Japanese automakers, from Nissan, to Toyota, along with Mazda and Mitsubishi, offered serious sports car entries in America during the early to mid 1990s. All were fitted with the latest high-tech wizardry, were aggressively styled, offered powerful, turbocharged engines, and started at a reasonable price. Sounds like a recipe for success, right? However, like the dinosaurs, these Japanese sports cars are now extinct. Over a short period of time, the price of these cars raised dramatically, their popularity decreased, and these once ubiquitous cars quietly died out.

By far the most tragic member of this now-extinct breed was the Mazda RX-7. The RX-7 was first introduced in the late '70s, and existed through three generations up until 1995. It is the third generation model ('93-'95) that became a major player in the Japanese sports car wars and is the focus of this article. Financial success aside, the third gen. RX-7 was a phenomenal performance success. The RX-7 was the only true race car of the Japanese sports cars, offering unparalleled performance both on and off the track. The RX-7 was, and still is, a favorite of weekend racers for many reasons. The third gen. 7 had the ingredients for an awesome sports car, from its extremely well engineered suspension, to its lean 2,800 lbs. weight. Compared to other Japanese sports cars of the time, the RX-7 was a pure throwback to the sports cars of old. It was not fitted with the complicated electronic features, such as all-wheel-drive, and four-wheel steering, or the luxury items that only added weight to and dulled down its competitors. The RX-7 often weighed around 700 lbs. less then its opponents from Japan, and its strong rear-wheel-drive chassis, tight A-arm suspension and communicative steering made this car a proverbial "diamond in the ruff."

However, Mazda had thrown another interesting trick up the RX-7's sleeve. It was in the form of a 1.3L twin-turbo rotary engine. The rotary engine is without a doubt the coolest automotive engine design formulated in the last 50 years. It works without pistons or a valvetrain, such as cams, a cylinder head, valves or any other corresponding parts. Rather, it works with a triangular-shaped rotor, which spins around in the rotor housing, which has ports in its sidewalls. The space between the rotor and the housing wall acts as a combustion chamber, and intake and exhaust gases enter and escape through the ports in the aforementioned rotor housing. This compact design was very unique, and set the RX-7 apart from its piston-laden competitors. This engine made 255hp, which was more than enough to push its lightweight body around with authority. However, the same rotary engine that added to the appeal of the 7 also helped facilitate its downfall. Just trying to take your third gen. RX-7 to the local "lube-and-go" for a spark plug change (or any other work) would simply lead to frustration. Very few mechanics (even ones at Mazda dealers!) know anything at all about the rotary engine. Few owners could cope with the 7's special needs because many did not understand these needs themselves.

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