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Mazda goes on engineer hiring binge as recovery picks up speed

Japan's larger automakers - companies like Toyota, Honda and Nissan - have tremendous engineering talent at their disposal. That's largely because, selling as many cars as they do, they've got more revenues to tap into. Logic might dictate, then, that smaller automakers like Mazda, which no longer has the deep pockets afforded to it by its former partnership with Ford, might have less of a budget and workforce for engineering. But Mazda has been raking in record profits, and it plans on cashing those revenues in by hiring a substantial new pool of engineers.
According to Automotive News, Mazda is preparing to hire as many as 185 new engineers over the next two years - almost four times as many as the 50 engineers it previously targeted. Many of those engineers will be put to work developing the second-generation, Skyactiv 2 technologies that are on the drawing board while the first round of Skyactiv features are still being rolled out.
The boost in recruitment is enabled by a positive fiscal year that ended last March, marking the first profits Mazda had logged in four years. Sources anticipate that the fiscal year culminating at the end of this month will mark the company's most profitable yet, netting over a billion dollars to eclipse the fiscal year that ended in 2008 when it recorded $872.5 million in profits.

Watch what happens inside a rotary engine

Since it looks like Mazda may very well revive the Wankel rotary engine as a range extender for electric cars, there's no better time to become reacquainted with the quirky internal-combustion engine. And there's hardly a better way to become reacquainted than by peering into a running rotary engine, which you can do with the video above. The video comes to us from the YouTube channel Warped Perception. The channel has already shown what happens inside a conventional internal-combustion piston engine by putting a clear cylinder head on top of a flathead engine. This new video shows off the rotary engine by adding a clear side to a tiny model-airplane engine, something that we weren't aware existed and are glad to know about now. Despite the tiny size, the engine is functionally almost exactly like the bigger versions you'll find in Mazdas from about 1967 to 2012. It has intake and exhaust ports on the edges of the rotor housing, and the triangular rotor swings about in a peanut-shaped housing. For maximum effect, jump to right around the 7:40 timestamp. This is the point at which a bit of acetylene is added to the air-fuel mix for a brighter flame. It's at this point that you can really see when the mixture combusts and how the pressure of the flame pushes the rotor to produce rotational motion. Each stage of the video does slow things down to make everything as clear as possible. Even if you already knew how rotary engines worked, it's still fascinating to watch, first because it's something you don't get to see usually, and also because of the engine's elegant simplicity. Related Video: Image Credit: YouTube / Warped Perception Weird Car News Mazda Technology Videos rotary rotary engine

Mazda rumored to bring rotary-powered RX-9 concept to Tokyo

Stop us if you've heard this one before: Mazda will bring a rotary-powered sports car to the next big auto show. Okay, so we stopped for a second, but the show must go on. Following an official teaser image (shown above) late last month, Motoring.com.au has what it claims are renderings of the curvy, two-door coupe – called the RX-9 – that Mazda will bring to the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. The images show a far softer styling than Mazda's current crop of Kodo-inspired vehicles, while the overall look screams of a modern-day Cosmo Sport, the Japanese brand's first rotary-powered vehicle. And though that connection alone might be enough to justify whisperings of a successor to the RX-7 and RX-8, Motoring claims there will be an even more overt sign of this concept's power source. "Look to the Cosmo Sport," an inside source told the Aussie website, signaling that the Mazda stand would feature the vintage two-door. "The Cosmo has no earthly reason for being there unless..." The rotary rumor, if it comes true, won't exactly be what we're use to. While Motoring brings up the previously reported 16X – a 1.6-liter two-rotor – it builds on our 2013 report. According to the Aussies, the new engine could feature a two-stage electric turbocharger, be paired with a hybrid powertrain, offer up to 450 horsepower, and we're guessing, be hilariously complicated. Joking aside, it sounds like Mazda's goals here are admirable. A rotary-equipped sports car that could counter the 1.3-liter RX-8 engine's appetite for fuel and improve on its mediocre low and mid-range torque would be interesting indeed. As for those renderings, Motoring has front and rear three-quarter images. Comparing the rear with our original teaser leaves the look open to interpretation, but after seriously upping the exposure on the teaser (thanks Photoshop), the taillights and overall profile shape look to be a spot-on match. In front, the long hood shares some Kodo elements, like the headlights and grille, but its undeniable coupe shape – a long hood and very short deck – are far more organic and, dare we say, calm, than Mazda's other vehicles. You can take a closer look at the renderings over at Motoring's website. Do that, and then head back and let us know what you think of these RX-9 rumors. Is Mazda finally going to be bringing a rotary back to market?