Knew that'd get your attention...they're more like renderings, found in the 14th edition of the "Japanes RX7 Magazine." Since the format is quite large, I've broken it down into three images. If anyone can read Japanese, perhaps a bit of translation would help? Got 13& 14 in the mail today courtesey of the publisher for my contributions (photographic) of the Auto Exe LeMans entry. The Florida club, and yours truly, is also featured in this issue. Without further wait...

 

2 of 3....

 

Last one.
Michel

 

looks like a tibureon

 

Interesting pop-up headlights.

 

Hot damn Michel, that's pretty sweet! I wish it wasn't in black, but what can you do? It almost looks to have a new Mitsubishi Eclipse/FTO look to it, but I like it. I just ordered a few magazines through canman6969, so mine should be coming in the not to far future. Cant wait! I want to see myself in it.

 

someone needs to translate that asap

 

I would buy it, that looks sweet. It looks like a natural progression of the FD. Now what a real one would look like compared to a rendition, is another story.

 

Zach no like

 

And I guess you get 4 Enkei spare tire wheels instead of just one

 

So is that the 4th gen?

 

My mental jury is still out on those renderings. I think the front looks great but the back reminds me too much of the RX-8 somehow. Maybe I'm just on drugs.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

The design needs work, and I'm sure it'll get as the RX-8 did. I HATE the tail-lights. Way too "Japanese" for my taste. That's one good thing about the RX-7, it was usually able to escape the usual busy styling cues you see on so many Japanese cars. (The Miata doesn't look Japanese either. In fact, the original is a pretty close copy of the Lotus Elan.)

The side profile and the roof seems to retain a fair amount from the current car. Keep in mind though, this is just a drawing. It may be one of many proposals. It may not have even gotten to the clay model stage. When they did the FD they had several competing designs. I'd love to see if they've turned out anything in Irvine. My guess is that would more to the liking of American tastes. Are you reading this Irvine? Leak us a sketch.

 

did that have a trunk instead of a hatch?? I look forward the the more defined model.

 

Looks alright, needs a little work. But if it had a turbo rotary and outperformed the 3rd gen, would it really matter what it looked like?

 

i agree that the back looks too much like the rx8. i dont know what to think, although out of all the renderings ive seen so far of the future rx7, this is the best one so far imo

 

it has a body of a tiburon and lights of a TVR
that =

 

I currently have someone working on the translation

 

The REAL question is...will WE EVER get another Rx-7 here in the states?

 

I have a cover page for a Japanese mag but it's too large to upload. The front end looks like the RX-8, the rear like the RX-7 except for twin exausts, which is what they would use becaue of the pollution laws they have to meet in 2003. The Renesis engine is low polution. Oh and the sides pop out the RE Amemiya wide body kit. I have no idea what the cover says but I beleive that is more likely to be the 4th gen' would look like. There is supposedly going to be a turbo Miata and Protoge but a turbo rotary depends on whether it can pass the new polution laws.

 

There's already a turbo Protoge that goes on sale later this year. Callaway did the turbo system and it has the Mazdaspeed logo in the name (Mazdaspeed Protoge or something). Anyhoo, it's 170hp.

As for those renderings not being the NEW 4th gen, yes, I'm sure they're very early design studies. It should be noted that there have been test mules for the fourth gen running around in Japan (powertrain only) for about a year. Chances are 50/50 according to the editor of "RX7 Magazine" in Japan. To me, it hints of some of the Jaguar prototypes with the b-pillar reminiscant of a C5 coupe/Z06. That's a trunk back there too. I have the entire page scanned high res if that'll help with translating. I also have a few friends who are Japanese, but I won't be seeing them for a few days unfortunately. These pics appeared as a sidebar in a section on the last iteneration of the RX7, the Spirit R Type A,B, and C. Much of the text, more than likely, revolves around that car. I'll try and scan in a few more images of the RX8 with tuner front ends as well. The two look nothing alike, IMO. I'm just happy to see that it looks like a small, powerful sportscar and not "Ford-ized" and thus compromised. Also, RE-Amemiya and a few others have been working on turbo renesis engines for a while as well. With the EVO VII and the WRX now on our shores, turbo engines are not out of the question.

Ryan, hey, you look good in there as does the car. They spelled Holly's name wrong. She's now Hully. I got a decent spread of about 5 pics, most small. They used a number of my photos of the Auto Exe car in the 12 hrs. It was very cool to see everyone's pic in the magazine!
Michel

 

I doubt Mazda had anything to do with those renderings, at least I would hope so! Those are pretty poor quality, and all it looks like is an existing third gen crossed with a Tiburon and some very ugly lights. Just look at how the exhaust pipes are rendered, awful quality. I would hope that Mazda would have enough sense to hire an artist with skill to do design studies.

Matt

 

Or they could be based on actual sitings. Who knows. Pretty pointless to speculate until someone translates.
Michel

 

Possible 4th Gen'pic

 

Uhhhh...looks like a 3rd gen with a body kit.