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Comment by jdblair | Hacker News Reader

Lighter and mechanically simpler were the selling points. Poor fuel efficiency and trouble with the seals were the downsides.

My uncle had an RX-7 back in the 80s when I was a kid. I remember when it was idling I could see the exhaust puffing, in pulses. It only had a single combustion chamber after all.

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I've had three RX-7s. A first generation and two second generations. I drove the first until the wheels literally fell off (I was a young, stupid kid that ignored the crunching sounds of the rear wheel bearings falling apart. The rear wheel(s) seized while I was driving down a bridge causing the axel to snap in half. That was an interesting "drive" down the rest of the bridge). The second was a base model second gen that I gave up when I suddenly had two cars because of getting married, then divorced. The third was my favorite. A late model second gen fully loaded. That one eventually caught on fire due to negligence at a tire place. I loved that car.

The third generation never got cheap enough for me to consider one, but oh, I wanted one badly. The RX-8 never really caught me. Plus they had some early issues. That Iconic concept definitely has my attention, though.

>It only had a single combustion chamber after all

Just to be clear: At had two combustion chambers. Both the 12A and 13B engines had two rotors (1.2 and 1.3L "displacement" respectively), each one has a combustion chamber. I had an '84 GSL-SE (13B), I don't remember it particularly "puffing", not saying it didn't just don't remember it.

The engine in this article they say is an "8C", which I assume means 0.8L displacement.

It's mechanically simpler until the apex seals blow out. Then you are fucked

rx-7 had two combustion chambers.

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