Hiroshima, May 19, 2010 -- Mazda Motor Corporation is pleased to announce that on May 18, 2010 it received the IAHE Sir William Grove Award from the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) at a presentation ceremony in Essen, Germany.

The IAHE is an international organization that promotes academic and technological advancements in the field of hydrogen energy. Every two years, the IAHE presents five awards to researchers or organizations that have made significant contributions in areas related to hydrogen energy. The awards are presented during the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC), the world's largest international conference on hydrogen energy, which the IAHE hosts.

Attention ALL Rotary Fanatics and Enthusiasts!

The SoCalRX Club is announcing that SevenStockXIII is officially a go and will be held on Saturday, September 18, 2010! This year we celebrate the future of the Rotary Engine!

The SoCalRX Club, along with Mazda USA will again host the BIGGEST ROTARY SHOW in the World! Come on out and join the legions of Rotary Enthusiasts on this special day of Rotary celebration on the grounds of Mazda Corporate Headquarters in Irvine, CA. Vendors and RE enthusiast from around the globe, including Japan, Australia, and Europe attend our little BBQ every year, and this year will be no exception.

April 29, 2010 - Round 4 of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 took place in the beautiful track-resort at Virginia International Raceway. The SpeedSource team rolled into the facility determined to continue their recent success despite the recent competition adjustments thrown at them by GRAND-AM. Regardless, the driver duo of Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal captured the fourth straight SpeedSource podium of the season finishing 2nd in the #69 FXDD Mazda RX-8.

RotaryNews.com has confirmed the MY-2011 (Model Year 2011) RX-8 will be the last. What this means is there will be another gap when Mazda will have no Rotary Powered car in the US market.

There will be no Tokyo Autoshow this year for passenger cars, as 2010 is a commercial vehicle show., nor have we heard of a project car for the LA or Detroit autoshow. What this means is at the earliest, the RX-7 concept could be shown at the 2011 Tokyo Autoshow, in October 2011. Mazda still has to sort out issues with the 16x, so it could 2012-2013 at the earliest before the next Rotary Sports Car hits the streets.

The silver lining in the end of the RX-8 could mean a special edition, if the end of the RX-7 series, and different Mazda models are any guide. At the end of the 2nd generation RX-7, Mazda produced the Infini model with upgraded suspension, increased horsepower, special edition BBS wheels, a bumper kit, and a lightened body. With the end of the 3rd generation, Mazda produced the immortal "Spirit-R." At the end of other model lines, Mazda produced the Mazdaspeed MX-5 Miata at the end of the NB second generation Miata line. The end of the Protegé line, Mazda produced the Protegé MP3 and Mazdaspeed Protege with a turbocharged engine, Racing Beat suspension, and improvements all around. With all this history, we at RotaryNews hope and are pushing for a Mazdaspeed RX-8 to be released by Mazda, with a Factory Forced Induction RENESIS minimum, special body kit, and special lightened parts.

Tell us what you want to see from Mazda in the last RX-8 and beyond.

Motor Trend reports that Mazda will stop North America sales of the RX-8 after 2011. Mazda has yet to comment on the subject, Motor Trend's "well placed source" has confirmed it. RotaryNews.com is getting information from our own "well placed sources" on the subject, so stay tuned.

It was a bittersweet day for team Mazda Motorsport on leg three of Targa Tasmania with the RX-8 SP of Steve Glenney forced out of the event after colliding with a competitor who had unexpectedly stopped on the fifth stage of the day, Mt Roland.

The Nissan GT-R of Tasmanian David Ayers had stopped to offer assistance to fellow local Simon Froude whose Porsche had left the road due to an oil spill. The RX-8 SP of Glenney was travelling at a race-leading pace when faced with the stopped GT-R.

SOURCE: http://blog.caranddriver.com/

Audi is looking at the rotary engine, fitting a Wankel powerplant to the A1 e-tron concept shown in Geneva in March. The one-disc rotary engine was co-developed with Austrian engineering house AVL. Car&Driver experienced its operation, and it’s smooth and quiet and avoids the shuddering on restart of a piston engine. Who wants to be disturbed as they’re humming and singing and smiling while depleting their electric-vehicle’s batteries? Not the Car&Driver folks. It’s certainly nice, but C&D next question was whether we could see a powerful rotary-engined Audi without all the electric-motor wizardry. Not a chance, says Ingolstadt. Pity.

April 14th, 2010 - Mazda Australia will use ethanol blend fuel to power its turbo rotary Mazda RX-8 SP at the upcoming Targa Tasmania rally.

With event regulations now encouraging competitors to go green and consider alternate fuels, Mazda Motorsport has opted to run its turbo rotary rally car on the low-emitting E85 blend fuel.

Already used in V8 Supercars, Targa Tasmania is the second major motorsport event in Australia to introduce this renewable fuel with event organisers committed to delivering zero nett emissions by the 20th Anniversary event next year.

The SpeedSource team maintained their recent success by winning the third race of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 schedule at Barber Motorsports Park. The pair of Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal earned their second win of the season in the #69 FXDD Mazda RX-8; now having won four of the last seven races. Grabbing the third podium spot, further adding to the team’s success, were Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito in the #70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8. Finishing out the Top 5 in GT was the third SpeedSource team car with Mazda ladder drivers Adam Christodoulou and John Edwards in the #68 MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Mazda RX-8.