Nope, "In 1991, Mazda became the first Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. The car was a 4-rotor prototype class car, the 787B. The FIA outlawed rotary engines shortly after this win. To this day the rotary powered Mazda is the only Japanese manufacturer to have ever won the prestigious 24 hour Le Mans race outright."Originally Posted by Graystroke
RXs had also place 14th and 24th in Le Mans previously.
"Mazda began racing RX-7s in the IMSA GTU series in 1979. That first year, RX-7s placed first and second at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and claimed the GTU series championship. The car continued winning, claiming the GTU championship seven years in a row. The RX-7 took the GTO championship ten years in a row from 1982. The RX-7 has won more IMSA races than any other car model."
"The RX-7 also fared well at the Spa 24 Hours race. Three Savanna/RX-7s were entered in 1981 by Tom Walkinshaw Racing. After hours of battling with several BMW 530i and Ford Capri, the RX-7 driven by Pierre Dieudonné and Tom Walkinshaw won the event. Mazda had turned the tables on BMW, who had beaten Mazda's Familia Rotary to the podium eleven years earlier at the same event. TWR's prepared RX-7s also won the British Touring Car Championship in 1980 and 1981, driven by Win Percy."
RX-7s have even managed to win in WRC in the 80's.
"in 2006, RE Amemiya Racing Asparadrink FD3S won the GT300 class championship."
If you ask me that is a pretty nice racing history.
Now just think, its the late 70s and automobile companys have been fine tuning and engineering there traditional motors since the early 1900's. How many of them are going to jump on a new motor and start engineering something new and drop the last 70 years of work? The amount of engineering the rotary has seen is a fraction of what other cars have. If they had the same input over the last 100 years I am sure they would be just as reliable.
Now think, the reason the motor never took off is that no one knew how to work on it. I can walk into a Mazda dealership, and start talking to the "rotary tech" and he won't know what the hell I'm talking about in a matter of minutes. You can't expect all of the mechanics to be on the ball when it represents such a small percentage of business. The maintenance is much more than the average car, and that is its down fall. Most people don't want to or don't know how to up keep it. The second they start having problems that could be easily fixed they have it towed to the local Joe's auto repair. He dosent even know what he is looking at... so it never gets fixed... and than bam! the motor is gone. Its a twisted web.
That being said there are several known RX-7s (mostly the N/As) with up to 260k miles on the original motor... Not bad for an 80's car...
I think its all in the knowledge of the owner.
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(I had to think for a minute to try to believe that it's really been that long ago. Damn, I'm old.)
