This one comes from a named source, Martin Benders, the boss of Mazda Australia:

Mazda RX-7 is a step closer to reality: Car News- CarsGuide

 

^ I love that the president used the term "halo car" in that article. The 4th gen could very well be something special.


Edit: Can't wait to see what the new Miata will look like next month.

 

WORD! Considering heading up to Laguna Seca but not excited about watching a bunch of miatas put put along the track lol

 

450 HP rotary powered car? Now we're talking.... Lets see if it comes to fruition. And it if does, hopefully Mazda will be able to keep the weight down to FRS levels.

 

Stumbled upon some interesting news. Not 1, but 2 rotary vehicles?
They blowing smoke up our ***, or should we all start saving now?

Mazda To Launch New RX-7 And RX-9 By 2020: Report
http://www.motoring.com.au/news/mazd...for-2020-45519

 

Start saving as things have been looking up for Mazda. I see Mazda rebadging the Cosmo as an Rx9 luxury 3 rotor sport sedan monster. If they build both, I will buy both.

 

I read that mazda themselves have said no new rx7 was being made and it was just rumors. Of course im sure theyve said that in the past as well.

 

In other news, Mazda recently revealed it has developed anti-gravity generators and plans for its next line of cars to not be cars at all, but rather PERSONAL FLYING CONVEYANCES (PFC) that, as
marketing chief Yasuhiro Aoyama said in an exclusive interview, will usher in a new era of personal transportation.
"Imagine...no more highways, no more costly bridge or other infrastructure repairs, because with Mazda PFCs leading the way, there will be no need for any sort of highways!"

When pressed about the report that the PFC would also self-fold into a briefcase-sized satchel, Aoyama coyly said, "Not yet...but wait for 2025!"

 

Hahahahahaha you forgot to mention the hooverboard from back the future. Which in fact will be made by mazda. It will contain a 20b quad turbo engine for a whopping 100,000 bwh and include all vinyl stickers that add a staggering 50 hp each. There is the optional self lacing nike shoes for a amall fee of 10k usd.

 

lol, yep.

I realize hope must spring eternal for some, but there will never be another mass-produced rotary engine vehicle...it is just far too inefficient. And Mazda is way to small to invest in anything like another 'halo sports car', the president of the company has gone on record many, many times saying very bluntly, "ANY car we make has to sell a minimum of 100,000 units annually, or we will not even consider bringing it to market." Mazda is a very tiny company with next to no budget, it is FINALLY having some success with its new lineup of cars, but its profits and revenue are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to its competitors.

 

in reverse order; the Suitcase car was 1991, its one of my favorites, its cool! Mazda Suitcase Car as usual Mazda is 23 years ahead...

second the flying car is apparently being brought back, Is 'The Jetsons' flying car finally here? - CNN.com although they already have them, they are called planes.

and it'll never work, you know how traffic is in 2d, imagine it in 3d!

 

does the Miata sell 100k anually? has it ever?

 

Mazda RX-9 for 2020? - motoring.com.au

im reading that our "electric turbocharger" is a polite hint for an electric turbine waste energy recovery system
( whilst still possibly still being electric boosted turbo compressor )

and the "hybrid technology" is mating this, a battery, and an electrically boosted flywheel motor / alternator
to form what is a TQ assistance package, with sky active stop start technology , and exhaust energy recovery system all in one

( both electric turbo and the flywheel motor being capable of working as energy recovery and as electric motors )

in combined cycle,, with current tech engine.. it can beat stringent euro pollution laws because the engine does not have to run at all at inefficient rpms
( relying on the electric flywheel motor to get off the line )

if you look more closely,, it is an integration of current skyactive and hybrid tech
that solves the issues found in the early 50's with mechanical drive VSD turbo compound waste recovery
( that pushed aircraft piston engines to the highest level of efficiency )

and also cures the rotary efficiency Achilles heal
// all that lovely heat energy whizzing mostly unused, out the exhaust

Turbo-compound engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

to quote the end of the wiki link on turbo compounding -

 

while Ford isn't the complete trouble with Mazda, they certainly were a bigger chunk than i think we would have guessed.

i also agree, with hindsight, that Ford insisted that the Rx8 be 4 doors, which took it from 2400lbs/238hp to 3000lbs/238hp, which is probably took it from "life changing" to "ok". the committee styling doesn't help either. i was looking at pics of the 79 Rx7 vs the Rx8, and the Rx7 is so clean, and well proportioned, that it makes the Rx8 dash look like a mess.

the thing with Mazda is that, being Japanese, keeping a new car secret is very easy, they are far away, and there is a big language barrier.

however i've been hearing rumors for quite a while about the new car, as far back as 2011-2012, so they have been working on SOMETHING for quite a while. the only part where the car is mentioned is weight, which is "half a GTR".

also in Mazdas favor is that there are a lot of important dates coming up, which translate to marketing opportunity if they have something to sell... the 50th anniversary of the rotary is 2017, the 25th anniversary of the lemans win is 2017, the tokyo olympics AND Mazda's 100th are 2020...

that all being said, they need to make it pass emissions, and 19mpg highway probably isn't good enough, and these are huge hurdles, especially when it needs to make 400hp also, and have a warranty....

 

Gordon,

I'm sure you're aware that now in Mazda's favor is the dramatically weaker yen since the government over there started printing money a couple years ago. This has lifted all the Japanese automakers. Any major sports car is typically built at a home factory (Hiroshima in Mazda's case) rather than localized, like the Mazda 6 being built in Mexico or the Altima being built in Tennessee. That makes the economics of producing these cars much more favorable.

I don't have any inside knowledge but I am becoming more and more confident that Mazda is working on a rotary that will go to production. I actually met a guy from MIT who is working on a study for Mazda to reduce internal oil consumption in rotary engines, the leader author for this paper Visualization of the Rotary Engine Oil Transport Mechanisms . His presentation and paper are fascinating. Mazda is studying redesigned housings and oil control rings to prevent the equivalent of a leaky 3rd piston ring effect that piston engines solved years ago.

The rotary engine has been stuck in the 20th century too long. So much of the designs and tooling carried over from the brilliant early years of development, where everything was done with drafting paper and slide rules. Now it's time to modernize it using the new engineering methods and applying technologies that are already working well for piston engines. If anybody can do it, it's Mazda.

 

"Rotary-engine sports car: Work continues on the next generation of Mazda's rotary engine. If all goes well, the vehicle to house it is being imagined as a successor to the two-seat RX-7, not the four-seat RX-8. But it's still unclear when, if ever, such a car would hit the road."

Automotive News Aug 25

 

Fixed.

The Miata has even less than that, yet it sells. Same for the toyobaru.

The 370z sells despite having less than that 450hp figure that was mentioned, and so does the STI.
Heck, even the V8 Mustang, a car whose only purpose is to have lots of power, has less than 450hp. Yet it sells.

And even if Mazda decided to go after the GTR, they could do it with less than 450hp.

Andrea.

 

I think a LOT depends on whether Mazda intends to stay committed long-term to the rotary engine, or just pump out something to check the box for the 50th Anniversary of the rotary engine.

 

So one thing I didn't see in the thread is that, Audi still owns the patents to the rotary, right? That being said, I heard BMW was helping Toyota with the Supra by sharing the chassis of the M6 in exchange for Toyota Hybrid tech. So then would Audi lend some help to Mazda just to be in the game/to spite Bimmer? I mean last I heard Audi was working on laser ignition which would increase MPGs on a rotary because there is no longer a gaping hole for fuel and air to escape from for the spark plug. On top of that, AWD option? I do know that Mazda has said they prefer RWD for the rotary but its a possibility, right? If this is old news my bad . Thoughts?

 

The Wankel technology was owned by NSU back in the day. NSU merged with auto union and became what we consider Audi around 1970. Audi continued to sell the NSU Ro80 and even developed a rotary more similar to what Mazda was doing for the Audi 100.

Then Audi canned the project and never made another production rotary. Maybe Audi owns some patents but they probably expired or are so far off from modern technology that they are useless.

Now a few years ago Audi released an eTron concept that had a rotary range extender. That engine was developed primarily by the Austrian engineering consulting from AVL. I have met one of the guys from AVL who worked on some really cool combustion stuff on it. That engine never went to production though, as VW/Audi decided it was easier to just use a small piston engine.

 

I had heard about NSU and the auto union but I swear I read somewhere that when Mazda wanted to produce a new rotary they had to go to Audi for their consent. That may be completely wrong though. I wouldn't be too surprised either, after all its one of those "But the internet told me situations" haha.

 

Patents only last for some 17 years. A number of companies including GM and Mazda purchased licenses from NSU, predecessor of Audi but only Mazda continued it's development and holds the existing patents on things they did the make the NSU engine work.

 

Patent US8220435 - Rotary piston engine and method for designing the same - Google Patents

 

Speedway

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