Almost a month after confirming plans to launch a rotary-powered sports car based on its Iconic SP sports car, Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro has offered more insight into what it expects to bring to market – and it means the eventual vehicle might be both smaller and more powerful than originally expected, especially for the U.S. market.
The Mazda RX-8 was the last model to use a Wankel rotary to directly drive the wheels.
A dozen years after killing off its last rotary-powered model, the RX-8, Mazda has given the go to the Iconic SP Sports Car which will bring back the Wankel engine back into production for worldwide applications, President Katsuhiro Mogo and other officials revealed last month.
The rotary engine is being used in limited form already, a tiny 830-cc version showing up in a range-extended version of the Mazda MX-30 dubbed the e-Skyactiv R-EV that was launched in 2023. But the version going into the production Iconic SP will take things a big step further.
Actually, the engine will likely be bigger, the sports car itself potentially quite a bit smaller than the Iconic SP concept.
Rebirth of the rotary
The Mazda MX 30 e-Skyactiv R-EV uses a Wankel rotary as a backup generator to keep the battery pack charged.
As Headlight.News reported last year, the Iconic SP concept is a low-slung two-seat sports car that picks up on the automaker’s latest design language. But it originally was designed to go all-electric.
As with the MX-30, Mazda faces the challenge of delivering enough range from a battery pack small enough to fit into the sports car and it now plans to follow the same approach as the R-EV version, using a range extending internal combustion engine that would function solely as a generator, never directly providing torque to the wheels.
It’s not a unique approach. We’ll see Ram launch the range-extending REV version of its electric 1500 pickup, with similar applications for several Jeep models. The problem is that the Mazda Iconic boasts an extraordinarily low front end that could only squeeze in an internal combustion engine the size of a rotary, according to Mazda officials. Wankel engines deliver gobs of power from packages substantially smaller than comparable piston engines.
Bigger engine, smaller car
The Mazda Iconic SP concept could be downsized to something closer to the current Miata, said Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro.
The 830-cc single-rotor Wankel engine used in the MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV is appropriate for that vehicle’s limited applications – and for the handful of markets where it is currently offered, according to Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro. But it’s unlikely to meet expectations for a high-performance sports car, especially in the U.S. which could become one of the most important markets for a production Iconic SP.
As a result, he said during an interview with Automotive News, the target is to go into production with a bigger, twin-rotor Wankel engine – which, again – would serve solely as a generator, kicking out more electrons, whether to keep the Iconic’s battery pack charged or to boost performance of the sports car’s electric motor drivetrain.
“We have tested with the single rotor. The next phase will be moving to two,” Moro said in the interview. “The rotors spin separately in different chambers with one shaft. We need to generate more electricity. Two rotors will generate more power, which is more suitable to US market characteristics.”
But while the Wankel engine will get bigger, Moro said, the sports car itself could get smaller. In concept form, the Iconic SP measures 164.6 inches in length and 72.8 inches in width – with a wheelbase of 102 inches. That puts it close to the dimensions of the old Mazda RX-8 which used a twin-rotor Wankel to directly power the wheels. In production form, however, Moro revealed that the Iconic SP could come in at a size much closer to that of the current – gas-powered – Mazda MX-5 Miata.
More Mazda News
- Return of the Rotary: Mazda Greenlights Production Version of Iconic SP Concept`
- First Look: Mazda Iconic SP Sports Car Concept
- Toyota, Mazda, Subaru Enter Alliance to Accelerate Development of IC Engines
Challenges ahead
The low front end of the Mazda Iconic concept was specifically designed for using a small rotary engine as a range-extender.
It’s all well and good to talk about the Wankel engine’s future but Moro – like other Maza officials – acknowledged it faces a “significant challenge” getting it to market. As the automaker found out in decades past, the rotary engine may make plenty of power but it is inherently dirty and relatively inefficient.
It should be more fuel-efficient when operating at a relatively constant speed, the benefit of serving as a generator, rather than directly powering the wheels, Mazda has realized. But getting emissions down low enough to meet government regulations – especially in American markets like California – remains a challenge. That’s all the more so with a larger, two-rotor package.
After years of being sidelined, Moro approved the creation of a team of 36 engineers directly tasked with developing a modern version of the Wankel The goal is to make it possible to power “attractive cars that excite customers.”
The good news is that the new Wankel should be able to deliver. In the Iconic SP concept the combined gas-electric drivetrain was rated at 365 horsepower. In a sports car of the prototype’s size, weighing in around 3,200 pounds, that could yield one thrilling ride – all the more so recalling that electric motors deliver tremendous instant torque. Downsize the production model to the size of a Miata and it could take those thrills to an entirely new level.
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