December 22, 2002 | Manntis
The Early Years Dr. Wankel, "the father of the rotary engine”, was born August 13, 1902 in Lahr, Germany. He was the only child of Rudolf Wankel (1867-1914), a senior forestry official who was killed by shrapnel in World War I as an Oberleutnant. Although his family's poverty (due in part to his mother's status as a widow) meant he had to go to work and could not apprentice or follow further full-time stu...
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May 18, 2010 | Manntis
Veteran Mazda engineer Hiroyuki Matsumoto is the new head of the carmaker's European research and development center. Matsumotois, 47, succeeds Norihiro Tomita, who has led the unit since May 2007 and now returns to Mazda's headquarters in Japan to take up a management post in the company's vehicle development center. Matsumoto, an engineering graduate of Kyoto University in Japan, joined Mazda's product develo...
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February 22, 2010 | Manntis
The conflicts between Carroll Shelby and various kit car makers are well known and sometimes seem never-ending. Massachusetts-based Factory Five Racing has been at the forefront of the lawsuits with Shelby, and the two have been in battling it out in the courtroom for a decade. The initial lawsuit, filed in the year 2000, resulted in a settlement that barred Factory Five from using the terms "Cobra, 427 S/C, She...
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January 25, 2010 | Manntis
The 2010 Mazda RX-8 carries forward its recent makeover, keeping the 2nd generation RENESIS rotary engine, world-renown handling and four-door flexibility. Updates over the 1st gen RX-8 include dual outlet exhaust, LED taillamps, widened fenders and large alloy wheels wearing performance rubber. As before, the body cleverly hides a secondary set of doors that access the rear portion of the cabin. Xenon projector high...
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January 7, 2010 | Manntis
Problems with the development of Mazda’s next generation of rotary engines are delaying the launch of the new RX-7 sports car, according to sources close to the company. The fourth-generation RX-7 was originally scheduled to be unveiled at last year’s Tokyo show and go on sale this year, but issues facing the new 16X engine forced the company to scrap that schedule. The car’s release date is now unknown....
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HIROSHIMA, Japan — Early reports have indicated that the next-generation Mazda RX-7 might appear as early as 2011 as a 2012 model, and it has been expected to feature styling based on the Furai concept racecar, offer a 300-horsepower rotary engine and carry a $35,000 price tag. But thos...
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Want to know what your RX-7s or RX-8s original paint colour was? It's actually pretty simple! We've created some approximations as a guide. 2 digit paint codes are for RX-7s, 3 digit ones for RX-8s. (note: these colours may vary slightly depending on your monitor settings. The chart is intended f...
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The purpose of this is to help reduce the extreme over steer inherent in the stock suspension during cornering. One of the biggest factors is the poor geometry, mainly the uppers. Also the watts link design doesn’t help, but short of going to a panhard bar (which is not recommended for the street)...
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The Cobb AccessPORT is claimed to be the most user friendly reprogramming device for the complex MazdaSpeed3 ECU. According to the manufacturer, the provided mapping will optimize the air/fuel ratio and ignition timing, remove the speed limiter, and other features for "performance results you can in...
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The GSL-SE is supposed to idle steadily at 800 rpm, and it will do so as long as everything is working perfectly. As soon as something wears, starts to leak, or gets dirty, it will affect idle speed. Figuring out what is wrong and how to fix it can be a challenge. The first place most people turn is...
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All Mazda Wankel "rotary" engines are essentially a single family - they all derive from the first Wankel experiments in the early 1960s. Over the years, displacement has been increased (somewhat), and turbocharging has been added to great effect. This is the engine family that made Mazda famous...
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I decided to install HID (High Intensity Discharge) lighting in my winter beater, a 1985 Chrysler Daytona. While it looks like a POS, it handles well in the snow - but it had weak old sealed beam headlamps... I ordered a set of replacement 4656 quad lamps from SpitzKraft.com: They arri...
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HIROSHIMA, Japan — Mazda is readying a 'hot hatch' version of the Mazda3 — and I'm talking jalapeño! The 3 MPS (Mazda Performance Series) uses the same 2.3-liter engine as the bigger 6 MPS, and this could make the car the hottest hatch on the market. The 6 MPS puts out 256 horsepower — way...
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Originally written by Bobrx7; I just posted it here. ~ Manntis Get Connected to the Ground Again The following entry is in draft form. All of the procedures have been done at least twice and are believed to be correct. I will be verifying a couple of details in the next week or so (late March)...
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Cars make us irrational. We call them our babies and lovingly wax them every Saturday -- or we turn up the radio to drown out the sound of a dragging muffler. Either mindset will cost you money, sometimes a lot of it. Walking the line between obsession and neglect means you never spend a nickel w...
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