Mazda RX-7
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Mazda RX-7
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In the 1970s the influx of Japanese cars was well under way and the Japanese
cars offered here in the United States were known for being compact,
reliable, and fuel efficient. While the Japanese cars overseas were similar
in their traits, certain model lines also focused on performance and
power. These cars that stressed more than just economy were so popular
overseas that interest in them Stateside grew, and Japanese manufacturers
began designing cars that would be popular in the United States as well as
in their native countries. A few of the early Japanese performance cars
offered here in the United States were the Toyota Celica and the long fabled
Datsun 240Z. The Datsun Z cars, which remained popular throughout their
history, were among the very first Japanese performance cars shipped to the
United States, having arrived in 1969. Then in the early 1970s Toyota
released the Celica which would combat the 240Z, and by 1976 Motor Trend
magazine honored the Celica with the title of "Import Car of the Year".
In 1978 the first of the soon to be performance powerhouse Toyota Supras were
offered as a high line of the famed Celica, and while it would be a few
years before the Supra name was pinned on a body all its own, it was also in
1978 that the American market saw the introduction of a car that was powered
by an engine never before dealt with by American automobile enthusiasts.
This car was the 1979 Mazda RX-7, and while released in 1978, the car was
technically considered to be a 1979 model. The general styling of this car
was similar to that of the very popular 240Z and 280Z from Datsun, but
unlike Datsun, or anyone else for that matter, this new RX-7 came equipped
with a 1.2 liter rotary engine. This new engine type did not use a standard
crankshaft and piston setup, but instead had a triangular rotor which spins
on a center point, snug to the inner walls of the engine housing, moving
intake and exhaust gases, as well as fuel, through the four stations of the
internal combustion engine. Along with having no pistons or connection
rods, it does bare an output shaft, which is similar to a crankshaft, in
controlling the combustion process with its eccentric lobes.
The rotary engine also has no valves, as the intake and exhaust portions of the
combustion process are controlled completely by the rotor. While the rotary
engine was new to the American market, it had been in practice long enough
to work out the bugs that Japanese users encountered when first introduced
overseas. This relatively perfected engine was named the 12B, and was the
standard engine in the first generation of the RX-7.
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