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From the Archive: 1993 Mazda RX-7 Goes Pure Sports Car
From the December 1991 issue of Car and Driver.
At first glance, the upcoming RX-7 looks to be a winner.
But that's all we've had so far—a brief, limited glance. Mazda, in its zeal to receive coverage of this new car early on, didn't come up with honest-to-god production examples at preview time. So our examination of the third-generation rotary rocket was limited to short, constrained drives in two cars, both unfinished prototypes.
We don't relish this sort of situation because it requires us to qualify our assessment. (Other magazines should too but probably won't.) We think the car is going to be a winner, but how much of a winner? And in what ways? We all have to wait until production cars become available.
That, of course, guarantees another round of magazine stories this spring to help fill the order books. Is that manipulation? Are we being exploited? Well, sure. It's a hazard of the job. Particularly in the case of a hot new property.
And the new Mazda RX-7 looks to be a hot property indeed.
Compared with the current edition, the new car (to be tagged a 1993 model) is lighter, lower, shorter, and wider. It looks terrific, lays down a big footprint, seems to handle sweetly, and makes great, edgy shock waves of power: its 255-hp rating represents a huge leap from the former maximum of 200 hp.
Clark Vitulli, Mazda's chief operating officer on these shores, said the new RX-7 was to be an "absolutely pure, two-seat sports car." The second-generation car of 1985 had moved the nameplate upmarket but also shifted its focus toward touring and away from sport. The new car moves still farther up the price-and-prestige pecking order (it will probably be positioned between the normally aspirated and turbocharged 300ZXs, in the low-$30,000 range) but lands squarely on the "sports car" bull's-eye. And that's appropriate. Citing its total volume of RX-7 and Miata two-seaters—an annual rate of more than 100,000 cars—Mazda now lays a defensible claim to being the world's principal maker of sports cars.
Despite early rumors that the next RX-7 might use a three-rotor Wankel engine—Mazda has built plenty of them for racing and won Le Mans this year with a four-rotor design—the new car stays with a development of the two-rotor, 1308cc 13B engine. But it is some development. A twin-sequential-turbocharger installation gives good thrust, starting from about 3000 rpm, with another bubble about 6000 kicking off a mad rush right past the 7500-rpm redline. (The over-rev buzzer Mazda has wisely provided comes on, a lot.)
For now, this 255-hp boosted engine is the only powerplant offered in an RX-7. Mazda anticipates a 0-to-60-mph acceleration time of 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 156 mph—claims we will scrutinize at the first opportunity.
A thoroughly rethought body and chassis package accompanies the twin-turbo powerplant and does even more to redefine the car as a no-fooling sports/performance automobile. There's some very serious stuff here: sticky 225/50-16 tires and eight-inch-wide wheels; big ventilated disc brakes with standard anti-lock control; cast- and forged-aluminum suspension control arms; a stiff and compact welded-steel structure.
The cars we drove displayed benign, friendly handling manners, even when making impressive time. The power rack-and-pinion steering felt more direct and positive than that of the current model, and the toe-control kinematics, which use controlled bushing deflection to provide a measure of rear steer, kept the drama quotient very low. We could lean on the fat tires and flirt with the adhesion limits with great confidence; applying heavy throttle very early in a comer let us come storming out of the exit with a minimum of opposite-lock heroics. And when photographer Dewhurst wanted some exaggerated power oversteer just for dramatic effect, that was no problem either.
(Caveat time: final spring rates were still to be determined when we drove the cars, and a pair of rocker-panel stiffening members had not been installed. The RX-7 will be a very good handler, we feel sure, but we'll have to see about the details of balance and ride quality later.)
Size and weight had to come down if the RX-7 was to recast itself as a pure sports car. And both did, even though power, cornering, and braking loads went up—a credit to the engineering team's efforts to save a gram here and a millimeter there. The '93 car squeezes down in length (almost an inch and a half overall, two-tenths in wheelbase) and in height (also nearly an inch and a half). But the bigger tires and wider track dimensions—plus the need to keep the cabin habitable—pushed overall width out by nearly two and a half inches. Mazda forecasts an all-up curb weight right around 2800 pounds, which is 100 pounds lighter than a '91 RX-7 Turbo. Weight distribution is allegedly right on the magic 50/50, and the car's center of gravity has been lowered by one inch.
The car looks smaller from any angle, and seems particularly low at the beltline. Yet it does not appear diminutive or toylike. Its aggressive stance and voluptuous shape give it a serious-business look that should play well in the market.
Mazda chose a long-hood/short-deck profile for the new RX-7. Such proportions run counter to the latest cab-forward fashion, but they emphasize the car's front-engine-with-lots-of-setback architecture. The raked but tallish windshield leads into
a curious double-bubble roof, where the effect is so subtle it usually reads as just a ripply roof panel. The large, fastback glass hatch leads to a ducktail drawn out and back in an impertinent little flip. (Mazda says there are no plans for a convertible, but one seems inevitable, eventually.)
We can bicker about certain details—such as the black panel that joins the taillights and a bit of fussiness in the grille mouth's lower "jaw"—but why diddle around? The car looks great.
And it feels great, too. The snug interior is beautifully formed into a pair of comfy cockpit areas. The seats are straightforward—minimally adjustable but deeply bucketed. The instruments, undeniably legible, have one controversial, retro touch: thin chrome bezels around their white-on-black faces. Some drivers will pleasantly recall their first Triumphs or Alfas, others will find the sun constantly dazzling in the rings.
More controversy might arise from Mazda's plan to offer the RX-7 in two equipment arrays, no substitutions please. Package A, the performance version, will have Z-rated tires instead of Vs, a second small engine-oil cooler, front and rear spoilers, and slightly stiffer anti-roll bars and shock valving. Package B, the luxury car, will offer leather seat faces, cruise control, a sunroof, and a Bose Acoustic Wave sound system.
Customers will have to choose between the two packages, neither of which may be precisely what they want. For example, our own preference would probably be to have the suspension from the sport version but not its rather overdone aero-aids; and we'd like to have cruise control and maybe the sunroof from the luxury model, but might pass on the fancy Bose stereo because its convoluted speaker ducting eats up a fair bit of luggage space.
Maybe the plan will be to cut a deal with an eager salesmen and have the sport bars and dampers retrofitted to a luxury model.
If that ends up being our most serious reservation about the 1993 RX-7, we will have to judge the car a rollicking success. And especially with Mazda putting almost as much skill and effort into orchestrating the debut as it did in developing the car, the buying public will likely wind up doing the same.
The First RX-7
Mazda made just one mistake with the original RX-7—priced it too low. In May of 1978, when the “rotary rocket” first scorched our skies, base sticker was supposed to be $6995.
One fellow we know in fact paid that, by hopping in upright Idaho, or some such place. Then he drove back to L.A. and did what all the big-city dealers were doing: found a buyer he could gouge for a hefty surcharge. Made several grand. (And dated the new owner so he could keep on driving it, but that's another story.)
At the core of all this cupidity was an undeniably desirable little coupe. Just as it would with its Miata a decade later, Mazda had identified, targeted, and smart-bombed a lucrative market bunker no other automaker apparently even suspected was there. But the pert little hummer turned out to be, as this magazine put it, "exactly what enthusiasts want in a sports car." Mazda had a "smash hit," we went on, a "sure winner." We did like the RX-7.
Why? We conceded that it was neither the fastest nor the technically finest sports machine of its day. Apart from its smooth, rev-happy, twin-rotor Wankel engine, already familiar in otherwise unspectacular Mazda sedans and pickup trucks, the front-engine, rear-drive two-seater broke no new ground mechanically. Its monocoque bodyshell came in coupe form only. Its chassis used struts in front and a well-located live-axle in the rear, a combination of vented front discs and rear drums for stopping, and recirculating/-ball steering. With just 100 horsepower pushing a curb weight of 2390 pounds, early RX- 7 performance was bright but not brilliant, as we noted in our first road test. The 0-60 sprint took 8.5 seconds, the standing quarter-mile 16.9 seconds at 84 mph. It went 124 mph, and fuel economy was in the low twenties.
Yet the car struck most people as a pleasing shape and a perfect size. Techies approved the coil springs on all four corners, the anti-roll bars on both ends, and the four trailing rods plus Watt linkage locating the rear axle with precision. The "tiny beer keg of a motor," scarcely a foot in any dimension, nestled well behind the front wheels for a near-equal front/rear weight distribution and near-neutral handling. In fact, Mazda had deliberately tuned the chassis for tossability. At times the rear end could be tossed a bit too far, but that was part of the fun. Light, lithe and lively, and long-lasting too, the RX-7 was a joy on wheels.
Remarkably, Mazda managed to keep it that way. Though the company quickly realized what was happening in the showrooms, and soon came up with higher trim levels to raise prices to what the market would bear, success did not spoil the RX-7. The equipment added pounds, and the performance suffered a bit, but the additional refinement was appreciated. A face lift in 1981 reduced the drag coefficient from 0.36 to 0.34 and removed 85 pounds from the basic car as well. At the same time, engine developments contributed to a healthy 24-percent improvement in EPA mileage. All chassis at that point also received a smaller rear bar and stiffer front shocks to cut the oversteer a little and tauter steering to catch what remained; the high-end GSL ($10,495) got rear discs.
In 1984, the 1146cc 12A engine was joined by the 13B, which had 10mm-wider rotors producing 1308cc. Available only in a model called the GSL-SE ($15,095!), it also had fuel injection and a three-phase, "six-port" induction system; it made 35 percent more power—to 135 horsepower. Brakes were bigger, so were wheels, and the rear-axle linkage was revised to further tame the tail. At 2590 pounds, the SE scaled 110 more than the last 12A-powered GSL we'd tested, but it ran 0 to 60 in 7.8 seconds, 2.6 quicker. The quarter-mile numbers were 15.9 seconds at 86 mph, with top speed up to 125 from 118. Yet only 1 mpg was lost. Best of all, with improved low-end grunt, linear power delivery, and predictable handling, the gussied-up RX-7 was still "a ball to drive hard." On wet city streets, one of us discovered, "entire blocks can be covered sideways.”
During a production run of seven and a half years through 1985, some 372,000 examples of the beloved first-generation RX-7 came to the U.S., and worldwide sales topped half a million. —Pete Lyons
The Second Generation
"Still a winner," we pronounced on the debut in late 1985 of the second-generation RX-7. It was a pronouncement made, frankly, with some relief—too often we'd watched once-sinewy sportsters turn lardy as they matured. But Mazda had "kept the faith."
Though virtually all-new, and far more sophisticated (initial prices ranged over $18,000), the car maintained the old sports-car spirit. The wheelbase, at 95.7 inches, had grown by only 0.4 inch, and overall length was shorter by 1.2 inches. Curb weight had gone up by about 100 pounds, and the interior was noticeably roomier, but drag was down to 0.29 with an optional aero package. Rack-and-pinion steering was a welcome feature at the front, available with optional road-speed-variable power assist, which we found to work extremely well. The rear suspension had gone independent—interestingly independent, with a very elaborate system of links and bushings that eliminated the normal faults of the semi-trailing arm while adding a measure of passive rear steer. We found the new RX-7 did indeed turn in more sharply, "without the old car's rear side-step," and yet cornered with more stability. We agreed with Mazda's ace racer Rod Millen that "anyone can drive faster more easily." We thought the new car rode better, too, thanks to its available two-stage manual/automatic adjustable gas shocks, and we also noticed that the whole body structure felt more rigid. All brakes were discs, of course, and optional ABS was on the horizon for '87. Plus-two seating, formerly not available in the U.S., was now offered.
Most important, the rotary engine we'd come to love was even better. Available only in its 1.3-liter form now, it had been further refined—electronic management, repositioned dual plugs, lighter rotors, etc.—for a seven-percent power boost to 146 hp. It also felt more responsive and got better mileage. At a curb weight of about 2700 pounds, the car ran 0-60 in 7.7 seconds, the quarter in 16.0 at 86 mph, and 128 mph flat out.
Not bad, but there was also an intercooled turbocharged version! Coming out not long after the base atmo, the turbo sent "rotary rocket" performance into high orbit. Making 182 horsepower, the blown engine shot our '86 2830-pound test car to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, through the quarter in 14.9 at 94, and to a velocity apogee of 145 mph. Mileage was diminished a little, to 17/23 on the city/highway tours. Initial price was about $19,500.
Mazda's turbo installation was clever. To fatten the low end of the power curve and reduce throttle lag, there was a variable-geometry blower. Two separate scrolls, or passageways, fed gases into the outside of the exhaust turbine. One operated at all times, blowing onto the central part of the turbine wheel, while above 2500 rpm a vane opened to let gases impinge on the outer portion. This two-stage operation meant there was no need for the third intake ports or multi-chamber exhaust liners that earlier had been developed for the normally aspirated engine.
More cleverness appeared in '88, when the new convertible RX-7 introduced a nifty little folding barrier behind the seats to cut annoying backdraft.
But for some reason, all this began to pale with the public. RX-7 sales through 1986 were strong—best-ever, in fact, at 56,243—but then they began to decline sharply. The tally for 1990 plummeted to a scant 9743. That brought the total of RX-7s of both generations sold by the end of last year in the U.S. to 520,673. Clearly the time had come for a third generation. —PL
Rotaries in Racing
Mazda's inspiring—and startling—victory at Le Mans last June capped the company's 31 years of faith in the rotary engine. Mazda became intrigued in 1960 by German engineer Felix Wankel's small, smooth-running powerplant, entered a licensing agreement, and embarked on a resolute quest to realize its performance promise.
The resulting twin-rotor design first established itself with enthusiasts when Mazda introduced its RX-2 and RX-3 sedans, racetrack terrors that won numerous races and series championships. The engine did have problems in everyday service with fuel consumption and chamber seals, however, and the cars never outgrew an offbeat image.
Then came the RX-7 of 1978. The pert and peppy little coupe was irresistible, and its reliability gradually proved that Mazda had finally exorcised all the mechanical demons. The RX-7 and its engine proved to have enormous development potential, and they've racked up an impressive competition record all over the world.
In American professional racing alone, during the eleven seasons from 1980 through 1990, the RX-7 scored ten IMSA GTU manufacturer's championships and made champions of its drivers ten times as well. An RX-7 driver also became GTO champion in 1984. The redesigned, four-rotor 1990-91 GTO entries have been strong contenders both years and were leading the '91 series at this writing. At that point, the RX-7 had won a total of 106 GT races, according to Mazda, which further claims that the model "is far and away the most successful car ever" in IMSA history.
The two-rotor engine scored a further four titles of each type in IMSA's International Sedan series; installed in a GT-Light racing chassis, it captured a further two manufacturer's and three driver's championships.
In SCCA racing, there have been no Mazda pro victories, though RX-7 and RX-2/3 drivers have won more than 100 amateur events and several national championships—the latest in 1990. But in pro rallying, RX-7s have tallied a pair each of SCCA driver's and manufacturer's titles.
Meanwhile, C/D staffer Don Sherman ran a stock-bodied RX-7 to 184 mph for a Bonneville speed record in 1978. He returned in 1986 with a turbocharged second-generation car and set another record, at 238.4 mph.
Development emphasis has recently concentrated on the four-rotor racing powerplant. As recently campaigned in IMSA's GTO class, it's called the 26B (for its nominal displacement of 2616- cc). Essentially a pair of two-chamber 13Bs grafted end-to-end, it measures 28.8 inches long overall, but scarcely a foot in basic diameter. This power-pipe only weighs about 400 pounds, yet it pours out as much as 610 hp at 8700 rpm.
Of course, the 26B embodies all the rotary performance tricks developed over the years, such as the peripheral porting that makes better top-end power than the street version's sideports—and which allows the four chambers to be sandwiched together. It's a very expensive sandwich: it features exotic materials and ceramic internal coatings to resist the fierce heat developed by the two-stroke operating cycle, and it costs some $98,000.
An inherent performance problem of any rotary is its slack bottom end. The 26B's 390 pound-feet is about two-thirds that of its pistoned rivals and peaks at 7500 rpm, giving only a narrow working rpm band. The rotary doesn't like traffic. But if the driver can keep momentum up, the Mazda GTO can run level with its 800-hp V-8 competitors.
Not even IMSA's mid-season imposition of 100 pounds additional ballast seemed to much handicap the RX-super-7s in 1991. -PL
Specifications
Specifications
1993 Mazda RX-7
Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 3-door coupe
PRICE (EST)
Base: $30,000
ENGINE
twin-turbocharged and intercooled 2-rotor Wankel, aluminum rotor housings, cast-iron end plates, port fuel injection
Displacement: 80 in3, 1308 cm3
Power: 255 hp @ 6500 rpm
Torque: 217 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm
TRANSMISSION
5-speed manual
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 95.5 in
Length: 168.5 in
Width: 68.9 in
Height: 48.4 in
Curb Weight: 2800 lb
MANUFACTURER’S PERFORMANCE RATINGS
60 mph: 4.9 sec
1/4-Mile: 13.5 sec
Top Speed: 156 mph
PROJECTED FUEL ECONOMY
City/Highway: 17/25 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED