The Last 13B and Rotary Engine rolls out of the factory Today :(

A very sad day for all Rotary enthusiasts around the world. Today, after 40 years of production, the last 13B and Rotary Engine rolls out of the factory. Mazda is holding a ceremony on the 13B line today to commemorate the end of an era.

Our thanks and appreciation to all of those engineers, craftsman, executives at Mazda who made the Rotary Engine of such a great joy to us for so many decades! Our hope is that Rotary Engine makes a swift come back and our joy is returned. NEVER STOP CHALLENGING MAZDA!

--------------------------------

Mazda announced the last day for the production of rotary engine, RX-8 as June 22nd. RE vehicle, first built in 1967, and sold just shy of 2,000,000 cars will disappear for once.

RX-8 Sports car is built at Ujina 1st Factory (Hiroshima City, Minami Area). Currently they are building their last Special Edition, Spirits R, about 20 vehicles a day, and the night shift of June 22nd will be the last day.

RE Vehicle began with Cosmo Sports in 1967, and expand the sales with Sports car, RX-7. as of April 2012, total RE vehicle produced is 1,996,511. This will make the total production of RE to about 1,997,000 with the last date set for June 22nd.

THere is no plan of RX-8 successor at this point, due to its poor fuel consumption. Mazda said they are working on Next Generation RE with better performance. Also they will start Leasing of Electric vehicle using Hydrogen RE as its Range Extender.

(I translated the original article written in Japanese below. sorry for the poor translation...)

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Tn201206200036.html

--------------------------------

From Hayato Kato himself. Uploaded on facebook.

"I'm attending 13B final line off ceremony today. I wear a formal dress. This is formal dress for me.
今日はセレモニーに参加するため、正装。これ私の正装。"



-----------------------------------------------------

RotaryNews has started the #SaveTheRotary campaign. Based off the old Save The Seven campaign, started in 1999, which was partly responsible for bringing the RX-8 to the US, the #SaveTheRotary campaign aims at reminding Mazda about their grassroots support. If you have a face book account, please use the #SaveTheRotary hash tag, and link to the #Save The Rotary site at the shortened URL: http://re-ne.ws/?str

 

Surely is a sad day for us Rotary enthusiast. its hard enough to get parts and irons for them. this will make it even harder. or at least we can see what new engine they make and see if it fits in my FC!!

 

16X lol?

 

Agreed, but very interested to see what Mazda happens to make next!

 

I guess the next step would be a hydrogen rotary engine. http://www.mazda.com/mazdaspirit/rotary/hre/about/