{"id":7120,"date":"2014-12-01T10:50:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T18:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corksport.com\/blog\/?p=7120"},"modified":"2014-12-01T10:50:38","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T18:50:38","slug":"love-for-the-rotary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corksport.com\/blog\/love-for-the-rotary\/","title":{"rendered":"Love for the Rotary"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all of the talk of doom and gloom for the next rotary I wanted to share the experience I had with the help of Mazda during Sevenstock 17 on Nov 22nd<\/sup>.\u00a0 I hate to say it but while I was at Sevenstock helping out with\u00a0the Diesel Mazda 6<\/a> I experienced\u00a0the awesome side benefit of being next to three 4 rotor cars in the same garage.<\/p>\n

The recent\u00a0message given from Mazda about\u00a0the rotary engine being\u00a0important but not in the cards for a current car has been\u00a0a heart breaker for the rotor heads out there, myself included as I daily drive an 87 Turbo FC. \u00a0I can definitely\u00a0say that from the top down the rotary engine is important to Mazda despite it not being considered for a new car right now. Take a look at this 787 which Robert Davis (senior vice president U.S. operations aka he runs the show in US) personally drives.<\/p>\n

\"Mazda-787-4-rotor\"<\/p>\n

There is a genuine love for the rotary with him, I watched him wipe down the car after going out onto the track for one session. In conversations, the restoration of other rotary race cars was brought up many times and\u00a0when Robert isn\u2019t driving the 787 above he rolls in an Rx8<\/a> in NASA PT racing, when time affords it.<\/p>\n

See the first car in the line below? \u00a0It is one of the Rx-792P IMSA GTP prototypes.<\/p>\n

\"full-rotary-line-up\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I watched Weldon Munsey (Manager of Dealer Affairs) hop out \u00a0after just one session with a big smile on his face.\u00a0 You\u00a0could tell he just loves driving that car.<\/p>\n

This next car is one of my favorite Rotary race cars (as I had the opportunity to see it raced at Portland Intl Raceway in the early 90s).\u00a0 The 4 rotor GTO kept the basic shape of the FC rx7<\/a> (which included the stock roof panel, windshield, and tail lights) and the rest of the car was pure business with a\u00a04 rotor engine.<\/p>\n

\"Rx7-GTO-4-rotor\"<\/p>\n

Not a big surprise another Mazda executive drives it, Jeremy Barnes (Director of public relations).\u00a0 I am sure the re-occurring theme is not lost here, these guys love rotaries and if the opportunity presents they will be pulling to get another car released for all us\u00a0rotards out there.\u00a0 In the meantime enjoy the video below from Sevenstock 17 with a few drive byes of the 787 and the 792p wide open on the throttle at Autoclub Speedway.<\/p>\n\n\t

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