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Many sports cars have recently appeared on the market, and people's interest in and requirements for the cars are continuing to grow. The RX-7 was developed to be a first-class sports car that Mazda can be proud of worldwide as a trend leader for sports cars in the '90s. Among many innovations, its engine is the fruit of all the efforts Mazda has done to realize a “pure RE sports car” that takes every advantage of the rotary engine. This paper describes the aim of the development, main specifications, performance characteristics and major new technologies of the engine.

Mazda has been pursuing the research of side exhaust porting for its rotary engine in an effort to improve the engine's fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions characteristics. The side exhaust porting configuration provides greater flexibility in setting port timing and shape, as compared to the peripheral exhaust porting configuration, which is in use in the current-generation rotary engines; the side exhaust porting configuration enables the selection of a port timing more favorable to reduced fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. The side exhaust port rotary engine used in this research has its exhaust port closure timing around the top dead center (TDC) and has no intake-exhaust timing overlap. As a result, burnt gasses entering the next cycle of combustion are reduced, thus enhancing combustion stability; also, the air-fuel ratio can be set leaner for improved fuel consumption.