The engine of our new RX-7 capitalizes on the vast experience of our years of competing at Le Mans. The rotary engine for the new Rx-7 is the proven twin-rotor 13B unit (2x654cc), basically identical to the R26B which powered the 787B Le Mans racing car. The only major difference is in the number of rotors. The many lessons we learned at Le Mans could be directly applied to the development of the new RX-7's engine. The technological achievements, resulting from our 13 attempts to win this event over a period of 18 years, represents an evolution within the same generation. Our goals were substantially increased horsepower and exceptional response, to be accomplished while maintaining maximum reliability. We achieved our aims by drawing heavily on the technology that supported the 700bhp 787B for 24 hours at Le Mans. The surfaces of the thin-walled, cast-iron rotors are precisely machined to completely realize the compression ratio for each chamber. The grooves of the apex seals on the rotors received a special hardening process to improve wear resistance. The coolant passages extend right up to the spark plug housings to maximize the cooling of areas subjected to intense heat and the main metal bearings are machined to a perfect cylindrical shape to improve lubrication. An electronically controlled oil injector is used to improve lubrication over the previous-generation engine. In the new engine, oil is only squirted onto the rotor housing near the apex seals instead of oil being supplied separately to the swept area from the intake port and rotor housing, resulting in a considerable reduction in oil consumption. The twin oil coolers received air from the two small intakes located on either side of the front bumper. To bypass this heated air from the oil coolers around the front brakes, an additional air duct has been installed on the inside of each wheel arch, and the heated air comes out of an outlet behind the wheel opening. Many new technologies have been employed to improve the rotary engine and close attention was also paid to weight reduction. 13B-REW engine Engine-mounted ignition coils, much shortened high-tension leads, and a newly adopted, compact, crank-angle sensor results in a more than 2.3kg weight reduction. The radiator, which is slanted as in the 787B race car, is fully ducted and two, three-stage electric fans provide maximum cooling efficiency, resulting in a weight reduction of 1.2kg compared to the previous model. The smaller water pump contributes a weight saving of 0.5kg, and the flywheel and clutch assembly is 1.9kg lighter. The net result is a new powerplant, including engine ancillaries, exhaust system and final drive, that is much more powerful, yet at approximately 320kg, weights no more than the previous engine. 13B rotor(left), 787B rotor(right) 787B Le Mans