A milestone in the technology of car propulsion has just been passed with the 40th birthday of the modern car rotary engine.

Mazda took up the challenge of rotary powered vehicles with it’s first vehicle, the Cosmo Sport. Though the original Wankel engines were underpowered fuel guzzlers even by that era’s standards, Mazda considered the engine a solid concept and continued with research and development.

Mazda’s modern turbo rotaries� have a firm and successful place in the import culture in the guise of the RX-7 (and to some extent, RX-2, RX-4 and RX-4) with Series� 1 to� 8 being a common sight on Australian roads, boosted to incredible powers, as well as occupying strong positions in motorsport around the world.

Mazda’s non-turbo RENESIS engine collected� the International Engine of the Year award for it’s debut in the then brand new RX-8, perhaps finally being recognised as a world class engine in it’s own right.

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According to Gamespot, it looks like Microsoft has decided to entice carlovers the country over with a new XBox360 bundle, with Forza Motorsport 2 included and ready to go. Come June 14, the bundle will be available with a price reduction on the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel from AU$199.95 to AU$149.95, with the bundle itself slated to be priced at $699.95.

Unfortunately, the Racing Wheel’s price reverts back to $149.95� after July 31, so there’s not much time to take advantage of that.

The game contains a plethora of cars from fast exotics to Japanese� production cars and some 45 impressive driving arenas, as well as apparently realistic physics. Definitely worth a look for any car fan.

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There’s something going on in the world of car modification. It’s a new alluring, dangerous idea, and now carmakers seem to be embracing it. I call it gaudy but the street word for it (perhaps wrongly) is “Rice” (a derrogatory term really) - the act of big gaudy paint jobs and fibreglass attachments.

Check out Ferrari’s new attempt to fit in with the gaudy crowd with their new orange tinted matt black (arguable) abomination of the F 430.

Am I being too harsh? Perhaps. But this is an expensive, world reknowned sports exotic, not a 17 year olds 92 Civic!

Come on…Orange wheels!

Related:

Carsales.com.au article

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