Mitsuo Hitomi

With the RX-8 sports car expected to be discontinued after the current model year, Mazda, the last bastion of the Wankel rotary engine, will be without a car in its lineup featuring the free-spinning engine. Why the predicament? Because Mazda just can’t seem to engineer the rotary to meet its own internal fuel economy and emissions standards. The rotary engine is a love-it or hate-it piece of engineering. Marvelously simple and compact yet viciously inefficient, variants of the spinning triangle have seen use in Mazda's cars for over 40 years. But that robust classic tech won't do the...