The two-door Mazda RX-8 coupe holds a special place in the history of the small Japanese company.
The small rear-wheel drive sports car was sold in Australia from 2003 to 2011, and is to date the last rotary-engined car ever made by Mazda. Powered by a 1.3-litre Wankel rotary engine, the RX-8 was available as a six-speed manual and four-speed automatic The RX-8 can trace its lineage directly back to 1978 with the RX-7, while the rotary was first used in the Cosmo in 1967. The single-cylinder rotary engine will make a return to the Mazda range, as a range extender for a forthcoming electric vehicle.
No, the Mazda RX-8 sold in Australia only came with an updated version of the 13B rotary engine.
From what I can gather, the only production car to use the three-rotor 20B rotary engine was the Mazda Eunos Cosmo, built between 1990 and 1995 and sold exclusively in Japan. But many race cars have used 20B or triple-rotor engines, and they remain a bit of a holy grail engine for Mazda rotary enthusiasts.
For the record, the first Japanese car to win the Le Mans 24-Hour race was a Mazda 787B in 1991, using a four-rotor rotary engine of 2.6 litres. It was also the first (and only) time a vehicle without a reciprocating piston engine had won Le Mans.
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The short answer is: nobody knows.
Recent rumours suggest that a hybrid-powered piston-engined coupe with a small rotary range-extender engine might be under consideration, or even a non-rotary-powered piston-hybrid sports car bearing the 'RX-9' badge may be in the pipeline. With Mazda developing inline six-cylinder petrol engines, the latter might be more on the money.
But a low-volume expensive coupe is probably not on Mazda's priorities list, sadly.
Thank you.
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Turn the gear knob anti-clockwise, the pop the centre console out using trim removal tools. Remove two Phillips head screws holding the base of the radio trim and ashtray to the centre console support structure. Pull the ashtray and cigarette lighter assembly out. Remove the plastic trim from under the steering column, then remove the two Phillips head screws under the radio trim panel in the centre console, and one bolt tucked up the side of the radio unit which is accessed from the passenger side. The radio then pops out of its clips when lifted from the bottom of the unit..
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