What happened to rx-7?

The Wankel rotary engine design is total crap if you live in a cold weather climate, not so bad if you live in CA. The Wankel rotary engine is a classic example of an engine originally designed for aircraft due to it's small size and high HP to weight ratio. During aircraft certification testing, it was found to be far too unreliable for aircraft use at altitude cold temperatures and it also requires a reduction gear for the propeller drive, so it was shelved for many years. The design washes way too much raw fuel into the oil past the rotor compression seals into the crank gear, don't consider purchasing one unless you live in a warm climate and understand the longevity pitfalls of the rotary engine design.

Later RX-7s had most of the problems cured. The 13B engine had good midrange torque and power. Mine gave 30MPG. I had done some tuning tricks I learned from RX-7 club members. I ran it 100K and I never added oil between changes. I guess it was hard to meet emission standards, and most people didn't seem to get good fuel mileage. It was a wonderful machine. I guess it's time had passed.

It was replaced by the RX-8

The RX-7 had the twin rotor Wankel engine. This was one of the truly great engines of all time but it had one terrible flaw. Being based on a rotor rather than pistons it could spin up to high revolutions very quickly, BUT the seals between the rotor and the block were always a problem and needed replacing regularly. This required a major rebuild of the engine.

The engine also fell behind increasingly stringent emmissions stadards and has been discontinued.

The RX8 happened and then because of it's terrible engine it didn't last long. People only ever buy one and then sells is asap once they realise how bad they are.

Sales dropped off.