How Mazda's engineers doubled down on rotary power when everyone else gave up, creating a 30-year legend in the process.

In theory, Wankel-style rotary internal combustion engines have many advantages: they ditch the cumbersome crankcase and piston design, replacing it with a simple, single-chamber design and a thick, ...

Mazda will not give up on the rotary engine. The appeal of the spinning triangles must have hypnotized the entire engineering department more than 50 years ago, and so they keep trying to make fetch ...

Different sports cars, different powertrains, same enthusiastic spirit—and we can't wait. At Mazda, the desire for a Mazda RX-7 successor is there. The Iconic SP concept is the blueprint, too, and a ...

The rotary was the most radical rethink of the combustion engine in over a hundred years — and it paid the price for being different. Mazda introduced the innovative Wankel rotary engine in the 1967 ...

The rotary engine has been a Mazda staple since 1967. It powered one of the most famous and eccentric Japanese sports car line-ups, the RX-series, until 2012 when Mazda discontinued pure ...

After years of rumors and experimentation behind closed doors, the Mazda rotary engine is officially back. The Vision X-Coupe, a plug-in hybrid concept showcased at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, has ...

Mazda says the Iconic SP concept was designed to be turned into a production car. The two-door sports car is powered by an extended-range powertrain. A two-rotor Wankel gas engine acts as a generator ...

Mazda's Wankel rotary powerplant boasts a proud and storied endurance racing career that began and ended in truly spectacular fashion. The rotary first took to a European circuit in anger in 1968, ...

In the early '90s, Mazda's rotary-powered RX-7 was the quintessential Japanese two-seat sports car. But then the Miata ...

Mazda continues to hint strongly at a production version of the Iconic SP concept The Iconic SP debuted at the 2023 Tokyo auto show Power comes from electric drive system with rotary engine serving as ...

The Mazda RX-8 has always had a cult following, but the rotary engine can scare off buyers who want something simpler to live with. That’s exactly why swaps like this exist. A V6-swapped RX-8 ...