Mazda RX-2
Mazda
Mazda RX-2: The Rotary Sedan That Embarrassed V8s
The Mazda RX-2 is an early 1970s rotary-powered coupe and sedan, sold as a Capella with a piston engine elsewhere, that used the 12A Wankel to run with cars twice its size.
Mazda introduced the RX-2 in 1970 as the rotary version of the Capella. Under the hood sat the 12A twin-rotor Wankel, displacing 1,146 cc by rotary measure and producing roughly 120 horsepower in US trim, in a car weighing about 2,200 pounds. The rotary revved past 7,000 rpm and made its power high in the range, which gave the RX-2 a character nothing else in its price class had.
The performance numbers surprised people. Period road tests recorded quarter-mile runs in the mid-16-second range and 0 to 60 mph times around nine seconds, which put a compact Japanese sedan on equal footing with much larger American cars. Mazda leaned into it in advertising, and the RX-2 built a reputation on drag strips and in showroom-stock road racing.
The RX-2 also carries a footnote in the rotary story. Its high fuel consumption became a liability when the 1973 oil crisis hit, and rotary sales fell sharply. Mazda kept developing the engine anyway, a line that runs forward through the RX-3, the RX-4, and eventually the RX-7. Surviving RX-2s are scarce today, since rust and apex-seal wear claimed most of them.