Maybe... Just Maybe...
 

Oh wow. That looks official. :)

This looks promising. I like the shape. My hunch is it isn't rotary powered but there has been some evidence that it could be.

mazda won't make another rotary, accept it.

My wife showed that to me this morning, at least it's not coming from some Australian car blog! :rofl:

It's got some interesting lines, that's for sure.
So far they've been bringing all their concepts to life lately. Only time will tell if this is the FD successor.
Here's hoping!

They need a halo car, and this looks like the attempt. I also doubt it will be rotary-powered. With VW's issues being the target buzz these days, anything that isn't electric or very emissions-friendly will be targeted for chastizing. We all know our beloved rotary is not these things, even on it's best days.
That said, it would be nice to see what this winds up being. I'm thinking a bigger, faster, prettier cope-ier, more luxiourious Miata. Being designed by Mazda, I'm betting the driving characteristics will be excellent.

"The design of the sports car concept to be unveiled in Tokyo is modern but maintains a sense of lineage and authenticity, appearing almost to condense Mazda's entire history of sports car development into a single model."

These two lines are really messing with me...I don't want to get my hopes up, but when I read this I can only assume they're talking about a rotary...:ponder:

Unless they are talking exclusively about the design/looks...then...meh

coupe fixed roof mx-5...

My guess is Mazda 6 coupe.

I would agree with you if they didn't mention lineage and the sports car history aspect of it. Mazda's entire sports car history is primarily the rotary engine so it will be interesting to see what a unveil. Maybe an RX-? with optional rotary engine or turbo charged Mazdaspeed 3 engine?...Modern and old school in one.


"The design of the sports car concept to be unveiled in Tokyo is modern but maintains a sense of lineage and authenticity, appearing almost to condense Mazda's entire history of sports car development into a single model."

maybe it will be a 4 rotor, direct injection 2.0L naturally aspirated, ceramic seal long stroke engine.

or maybe it will be a 4 cylinder skyactiv turbo. because that seems a more realistic assumption.

unless they really can make a rotary engine run on magic it has been losing ground with technological advances. current economy cars can make 50+mpg and current sports cars can get 30mpg+. what was the last rotary putting out? at best 20mpg with nearly half the power of the current sports cars on the market.

what do you think would happen with the inefficiencies of the rotary engine if they tried to make one meet emissions and make 400+ hp and keep it reliable? sad truth is that is a pipe dream with the rotary engine.

well the rx8 got 16/23 mpg with around 200hp and somehow passed emissions. I don't think it's completely farfetched if they made an advance in Rotary tech that would grant them slightly better emissions/mpg with a rotary.

I have heard others say 3 rotor...what if they made a Hybrid of sorts NA renesis 3 rotor?

Mazda is working on the 16X, its a 2 rotor.

16/23 is what they were advertised as getting, most 8's couldn't even manage to get that kind of fuel mileage which is quite sad for a 200 horsepower naturally aspirated car built after 2000.

i was actually referring to the FD since it managed to generally match or beat the RX8s consumption numbers and had 50 more horses. emissions were arguably better with the RX8.

A rotary option would be great, but I don't think Mazda has the money to offer a car in two completely different configurations. Literally everything would have to be different, and that costs a lot.

Entirely untrue, while a rotary and piston configuration would be widely different in terms of size and spacing, but think about it logically. Inline 4 options vs. V6 options, or even V6 options vs V8 options. All varying footprints/sizes.

Mazda specific engine options
Mazda 3 vs. Mazdaspeed 3
New MX-5 ND 1.5L (J-spec/Int'l Spec) vs 2.0L (US)
RX-8 4 port 5 speed vs. 6 port 6 speed.
They used to do it all the time.
Rx-2 vs. 616
Rx-3 vs. 808
Rx-4 vs. 929
Rx-5 vs. 121
Now that they are partnering more and more with other manufacturers, I don't see it being difficult at all. Fiat 124 anyone?

Since the only Mazda factory that makes rotary engines are in Mazda's Hiroshima plant, does that mean the Rotary option would only be available in J-spec configuration?
Highly doubt it since Mazda's scale is not large enough and imports a vast majority of their vehicles straight from Japan. Look at MX-5 ND deliveries/build locations.

i just don't think there is much room for a sub 30mpg car anymore, even sports cars and smaller trucks are getting over that range.

gas prices may be low right now but we all know a year from now they could be 2-3 times the current cost, so people are choosing more wisely now. personally i would love to see mazda put together a small 3-4 rotor naturally aspirated engine, people who own sports cars want one thing, they want to go fast and they want a car that sounds equally as fast. the RX8 was an abortion in my opinion, it has the wrong engine in the wrong car and with a 13 gallon tank.... i could barely drive across the country without having extra gas cans in the trunk, you had maybe a 300 mile range if you car was running perfectly(most are not), my insight has a range of 700 miles with 9 gallons, granted it's slow as shit. lol, just makes me appreciate driving the 7 more.

how about a Cosmo?

You're understating hp and fuel economy on the 8. How old were your plugs/coils that you couldn't manage at least the EPA avg?
Which sportscars get over 30 mpg? The Vette, when cruising like an old person with cruise set on 60?
The series I 8 has a 15.9 gallon tank, series II has 16.9. So much misinformation in your post; and the bad thing is the sheep believe this b.s.

And gas prices are going to double or triple in a year? I just filled up tonight for 3.01 (93 grade), so you're saying it might very well be 6 or 9(!) bucks sometime soon?

the 6 port renesis puts out just shy of 200(192ish) to the wheels, so maybe 215-220 at the crank? not really understating anything. 245 at the crank advertised by mazda was a flat out advertising ploy.

a vette gets 30mpg driving it like a grandma, an 8 gets 20-23 driving it like a grandma. the vette has twice the available power as the 8, though.

the series 1 holds roughly 13 gallons before the light trips, i should know, i've filled the tank a hundred times. light on to "i dunno if i'll make it to the next gas station 2 miles away" is about 30 miles, so sure if you wanna run it til you're pushing the car like they do in the ghetto we can call it a 15 gallon tank.

gas is $2 a gallon here, it was $4 a gallon not too long ago, i remember when it was almost $5 a gallon(these figures are for cheapo unleaded 87 btw) in california a DECADE AND A HALF ago! anything can happen at any time, to any extreme. is $6+ per gallon out of the realm of possibility? not really, in europe a liter is what? $5? sure they tax the living shit out of it but so may the US if they get a hair up their ass, and if you haven't heard... we're broke.

i'm not sure why you hate reading facts and calling them lies. if you don't like them you don't have to listen to them, here's another for you: the rotary engine will always be inefficient and prone to longevity failures. why do people like them? because they are unique but don't sugar coat shit, because it's still shit just with sugar on it. why do you think 2 strokes are phasing out also? inefficiency and dirty emissions. what engine closely resembles a 2 stroke? you guessed it.

so you're unique, just don't try to fool yourself into thinking anything else. i build these engines because they are unique, but i don't go to sleep trying to conjure up reasons why the engine is better any longer, because it's just not with 1 exception which is endurance which is a rarely used exception.

There's a thread over on 8 club with owners over 100K on their original motor. Also, lots of people over the years have reported mileage in the mid 20s, my guess is most of them with the autotragic. If your mileage (and reliability) is as abysmal as you make it then there's something definitely amiss with your engine.

BTW, S2000s and 350Zs reported mileages aren't that much better than the 8's.

my friend has a 2004 civic SI, and that only got 26mpg on the freeway (2-3 more than the Rx8), and the Rx8 is WAY better every other way

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