I have not had the chance to check out the NY Auto Show, but I have heard that they have the Hydro 8 there. I hope to go this week and have pics up maybe even the brochure and scan of it if available.

 

Hydro is pretty cool stuff. I am on the hybrid electric vehicle team here at school and we have built a series hybrid explorer witha 4 cylinder gas hydrogen engine......its pretty neat

 

I was there on Saturday - there are some pics I took at the bottom of this page:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...5&pagenumber=2

 

The best part is that you would be able to switch from gas to hydrogen at the flick of a switch. I think the 8 only makes like 120-150 hp on hydrogen so It would pretty much feel like a civic around town. I have also heard rumors that they might try to add some kind of electric motor assist (kinda like a prius) to the rotary beacause it would help increase torque and gas mileage.

 

I can't believe that it would only make 120-150hp....they had a display of the hydrogen rotary with a nice size turbo on it. Could it make so little horsepower, even with a turbo?

 

"The Renesis hydrogen engine features 210 horsepower when running on gasoline and 110 horsepower on less energy-dense gaseous hydrogen. Power is transferred to pavement through a five-speed manual transmission. Performance is enhanced with 225/45R18 tires over 18x8JJ alloys and double wishbone multi-link suspension front and rear, with stopping power supplied by four-wheel ventilated disc brakes."

from http://www.greencar.com/mazda_articl...?page_number=3

I guess I was wrong, It only makes 110 hp. Much more hydrogen has to be injected than gasoline because it is less dense. The beauty of driving the car with 110 hp is that only water comes out of your tailpipe.

 

Then I guess we're talking about 2 different things - this can't be the same engine as the one I saw at the auto show:

 

Yeah, I am almost certain the car I am referring to does not have a turbo. I've never seen the turbo hydro motor before. It is interesting that they rate the "hydrogen renesis" at 210 hp when running on gasoline. Kind of makes me wonder if all the renesis engines make 210 hp because that sounds about right to me. Definately sounds more right than 250 or 238 or 220 or whatever mazda feels like making up right now.

 

Well, I think the car has to be slightly different, since it says that in comes with a 5 speed, which is different from both the 6 speed manual and the 4 speed auto that currently exists. I would assume that the engine and tranny would need to somehow be adjusted for the hydrogen power.

 

There is a 5-speed version of the RX-8 which has the low power engine (probably the same that is in the US 4-speed auto version).
The 5-speed is sold in Europe and likely everywhere else except for the US.

 

On the plus side, I don't think you'd have any flooding issues at all with a hydrogen-powered rotary :D

 

Does anyone know when this is supposed to actually be on the road?

 

That engine is definatly the hydrogen car one. It IS a turbo, because thats the only way you'd get acceptable power from hydrogen.

There are other pictures of that turbo engine with hydrogen labels everywhere.