Mazda has pretty much given up on the idea of the Wankel rotary engine, but it lives on in our hearts and in the garages of some pretty crazy people. We mean that totally respectfully as we turn your attention to the Mazda you've never seen before, the RX-4, and its fantastic 6-rotor engine from hell.
First of all, the RX-4 is also referred to as the Luce Rotary in Japan and this 70s classic is a carbon copy of a musclecar. Back in its glory days, this unibody creature was available as a sedan, coupe and wagon and came with a 130 hp engine that had only two rotors displacing a total of 1146cc.
That was until some crazy New Zealanders started making a 6-rotor monster. Even though it has no turbocharger and runs on standard pump gas, over 800 horsepower are now being dumped out of the RX-4. Just imagine what would happen if you also stuck a couple of turbos onto this thing and let it fly!
And for the record, the RX-4 was also sold in the United States market, from 1974 through 1978, when the RX-7 debuted. This Beetle-sized musclecar only cost $4,295 back in the day and the 3-speed automatic transmission option was $270.
All this is the work of Pulse Performance Engineering, who have also built some killer RX-7 and RX-8 drift cars over the years. And you can tell this RX-4 has been designed to smoke some rubber.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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