Resale value says they are. Nice looking cars, very fast. I haven’t driven any of recent vintage but the original RX-7 was a blast, very linear, hummed right up to redline and felt as if it could have kept on going. No wild thrashing, almost turbine-like.
But, they use something like a quart of oil every 2,000 miles as a matter of course, it was in the owner’s manual. They also suck gas like a semi. I suspect all the autopilot American owners and drivers are being too casual about checking and changing the oil in the things, among other bad habits. The Wankel engine is not forgiving of that. Kaboom.
Had an 83 (?) GSL-SE......oh, that was a blast....when it ran.
“I haven’t driven any of recent vintage but the original RX-7 was a blast, very linear, hummed right up to redline and felt as if it could have kept on going. No wild thrashing, almost turbine-like.”
I had an RX-7 way back when. I only got it up to 130 when my legs started growing chicken feathers.
My friend and I took a trip from Chicago up to Northern Minnesota and then into Canada before going on to Disneyland in California.
We averaged a little over 100 MPG going through Montana with a high speed of 1200. Mt car could go faster but un fortunately, I hit a big Chicago pothole a couple of days before the trip and even though I replaced the tire and wheel, I didn't have a chance to get a full alignment so at speeds over 120 MPH I was starting to get some vibration from the wheels which were very small.
Despite the high speeds we were traveling at, we still averaged over 22 MPG fuel usage. The early Wankel was more efficient at higher speeds than at highway speeds because the intake and exhaust ports were too large and not properly placed for maximum economy.
My little wagon had an automatic transmission and one day on the Eisenhower, I ran it all the way up to 70 MPH in FIRST gear and it still had much more to give.
I later owned an RX7 which had much larger wheels and could handle the higher speeds a lot better. The newer engines were also more efficient due to the moving of the intake ports to restrict the amount of time they were open.
The Wankels dominated the racing scene for the first year they were allowed before being outlawed because they were so much better than the piston engines.
One could also add on a supercharger to increase their power output even more. The biggest problem with the Wankel was the low torque at low speed. They need to operate at the higher RPM to produce their maximum torque.
They operate very much like the turbine engines on the M1 Abrams battle tank in that they have to use lower gearing to make up for their poor low speed torque but once they were spinning fast, they really proved their value.
I would love to own one of the newer models which have finally got all the kinks ironed out. The biggest drawback is in getting insurance for them since they are such powerful cars capable of traveling so fast and so many drivers have crashed while pushing them trying to find reach max speed.
There was a time when Mazda itself was offering insurance on the cars when regular insurance became too costly.
There was one weak part on the engines which would wear out and break fairly quickly when abused but a company named ‘Racing Beat’ which specialized in the Wankels solved that problem.
NSU - Gritz Zu
First to the Wankel party with the 1968 RO80, company bought by VW and disappeared.