Mazda RX-8

The Mazda RX-8 was a sports car manufactured by Mazda Motor Corporation. It first appeared in 2001 at the North American International Auto Show. It is the successor to the RX-7 and, like its predecessors in the RX range, it is powered by a Wankel engine. The RX-8 began North American sales in the 2004 model year.

Mazda announced on August 23, 2011, that RX-8 will be discontinued from production citing the 2011 model as the last line of production. The RX-8 was removed from the European market in 2010 after the car failed to meet emissions standards.

Without the volume sales from Europe coupled with rising Yen prices, Mazda could not justify the continued sale of the RX-8 in other markets.

The RX-8 has been campaigned and used in various racing series by privateers. It has seen a considerable amount of success, the most prominent of which being the 2008 and 2010 24 Hours of Daytona GT-class wins campaigned by SpeedSource Race Engineering. This victory also marks the 23rd endurance race win at Daytona by a Mazda rotary-powered race car. While the cars are powered by the 20B rotary engines, the car is in fact built on a tube frame chassis and not on the production car.

Ryan Eversley won both races of the 2010 SCCA World Challenge Mid-Ohio Grand Prix in the touring car class.

Other racing series include the KONI Challenge Series in the Street Tuner class. In the UK, the RX8 featured in the Mazda sponsored "Formula Women" series, which involved all women drivers with slightly modified RX8s, and the RX8 was also run successfully in Britcar series endurance races In Belgium, Mazda are currently sponsoring an RX8 silhouette racer in the GT series.

The next generation rotary engine, dubbed 16x, is currently under development. Rumours suggest that the RX-8 may be replaced by a new smaller, lighter, simpler sports car set to compete with the likes of the Toyota 86. Mazda’s new 16x rotary engine is rumored to be at the heart of the RX-8 successor. Rumors suggest the RX-8 successor will include the introduction of direct injection technology, as well as aluminium side housings with 1600 cc capacity instead of 1308 cc capacity. Rumors also suggest that the new engine dimensions of the 16x will have increased stroke and reduced rotor width for improved thermal efficiency and more torque. Japanese reports and Autocar both claim that the next generation RX-8 will have around 290 horsepower. They also claim the car should weigh in at around 2,700 lb, making it a true light-weight sports car.

Rumors suggest that development work on the next generation rotary engine have been given a lower priority and will proceed at a slower pace, due to limited engineering resources and tightening emission regulations, making development of a high performance rotary engine a lower priority compared to the next generation MX-5. However, in a press release on February 2012 Mazda stressed that development of rotary engines will continue, but stopped short of revealing any further commitments. Takashi Yamanouchi, Mazda's Representative Director, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO "...Although RX-8 production is ending, the rotary engine will always represent the spirit of Mazda and Mazda remains committed to its ongoing development."

The sales of the RX-8 ended in 2010 in Europe after failing to meet increasingly demanding emission standards.

The production of the RX-8 ended in April 2012 in Japan. Mazda had produced 192,094 RX-8s since 2003.

The production of the last rotary engine ended in June 21, 2012, followed by the end of RX-8 assembly on June 22, 2012 at Mazda's Ujina, Hiroshima plant.

As of October 2006 the RX-8 has won at least 37 international motoring awards including 2003 International Engine of the Year, the 2003 Japanese Car of the Year, Australia's Wheels magazine's Car of the Year for 2003, the 2004 Singapore Car of the Year, the 2004 U.S. Best Sports Car, and several UK Best Car Awards. It was named on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 2004, 2005, and 2006. It also took home 1st place on Car and Driver's "Four of a Kind" comparison test. 2010 RX-8 placed 3rd out of 7 on Car and Driver's The Best-Handling Car in America for Less Than $100,000.

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