MAZDA MAGIC
IT’S LIKE MARRYING SCARLET JOHANNSEN BECAUSE SHE WHIPS UP A MEAN SPAG-BOL
So, word on the street is that Mazda is bringing back the rotary engine for 2022. But don’t get too carried away, because the rotary will only form a range-extender engine to recharge the MX-30 hybrid’s batteries. I can hear you turning the page already, but stay with me.
Mind you, there’s more bad news: That means that, crucially, the chook-cooker will not power the vehicle’s wheels. Equally inevitably, the vehicle itself will be yet another cross-over/SUV. Yawn.
Resorting to a rotary engine for what amounts to a stationary engine is like marrying Scarlet Johannsen because she whips up a mean spag-bol. It’s an utter waste of far greater talents.
I dunno about you, but I’ve always dug rotaries. I like the way they sound, the way they feel to drive, their willingness to be tuned and, of course, the way they rev till forever and make big mobs of horsepower while they’re at it.
As a kid living in a country town (that I won’t, for reasons of self-incrimination, name) we used to have a pretty regular Saturday night between-the
“I BEGAN TO STUDY ENGINE SWAPS 101”
traffic-lights derby going on. It was, to be fair, a pretty quiet town. At first, I was running my RA23 Celica with a warmed over, SOHC two-litre. At that point, there were two regulars I couldn’t get past. The first was a two-litre Escort and the second was an RX-4. And I remember that damn Mazda like it was yesterday; red with a tan vinyl roof and a set of disco-looking alloys. And it had those four square tail-lights…and I should know, I spent plenty of time looking at them.
Eventually, thanks to a policy of winding it up till it snapped and then backing it off half a turn, my brother and I managed to tune the old Celica engine to a standstill. Boom. Up she went one fateful arvo, miles from the nearest town, leaving a trail of con-rod confetti and 10W40 down the road. Booted a rod clean out the side of the block and even managed to smash what was left of the piston into the cylinder head. I managed to salvage the manifolds and the camshaft. No kidding.
I began to study Engine Swaps 101 and bought an imported, Japanese-spec 18RG twin-cam from a mob down in the big smoke. It arrived on a pallet and my brother and I managed to jiggle it into the engine bay, ripped off the pollution gear, cobbled up a throttle cable, sleeved the old exhaust on to the new headers and pretended it was all legal.
Next Saturday and who should turn up but that two-litre Escort. Which was despatched well before the braking marker for the next red light. Poor bastard didn’t know what hit him. One down, one to go. Finally, the Mazda turns up and we find ourselves P1 and P2 at the