which is why i am saying its gotten too chubby.. 2900 pounds isnt a heavyweight but its about 500 pounds more then it needs to be easily. if you took out the fancy rear doors, useless (or unwanted) rear seats, now make the whole car a lil shorter, without the back seats go back to the B pillar with a glass hatch style that is signature rx7, that alone has got to be worth 4 or 5 hundred pounds, which would improve mileage, make better use of the torque and power, and in the end improve performance.

 

Which is one reason why the FD was shortlived. Sometimes the bean counters have a point. If the car ain't making money why produce it?

The RX8 was very successful in sales during the early years. For a sports car, it's sales numbers were quite good and part of the reason is because it's more versatile than a 2 door pure sports car. How many people would have bought the 8 if it didn't have back seats? If it was so low that you couldn't drive it in snow? If it didn't have cup holders? The RX8 is 5 years old now. It's outdated and neeeds to be redone.

I'm all for a new RX7 but I doubt Mazda will be able to produce one at an affordable price. If they are building an all new RX7 specific chassis, it's not going to be cheap.

 

Get rid of the relatively usable interior and suicide doors, shrink the chassis, and you might save 400+ lbs. And you'd have a Miata with a roof. Which as HVNSNT pointed out, might have prevented many who did buy from considering it - and would put Mazda in competition mainly with themselves in the market, not profitable strategy generally. 2900 lbs is already in line with what FC turbo's weighed, yet with modern safety eqipment and standards - an already impressive accomplishment. To compare it with the Mustang GT again, it has a far more usable interior (and better styled and finished), in a more compact, much better handling overall package - while weighing in 600+lb less. Again, impressive, albeit at a higher initial cost. It has a lot going for it really, at least amongst those who appreciate finesse and handling over raw acceleration (and raw fit and finish and interior quality). But more acceleration, and less thirst would certainly broaden it's appeal.

Even compared to it's more price-and-handling equivalent competition, the 350Z (now 370Z), it weighs 400+ pounds less, and offers a usable rear seat and trunk (both missing in the Z, although the new 370Z does improve both the interior and storage). But the Z outsells it - presumably based largely on it's superior thrust while also delivering much better mileage. Styling on the 350Z and RX8 has always been a mixed bag, with a lot of detractors for both, whereas the '05+ Mustang seems to have been much more crowd pleasing.

So I still think the big area the RX8, and any successor, needs to address is torque and fuel economy - hopefully 16x delivers; I am sold on the rotary as a cool motor, but it's not unconditional. Even with the world price of oil plumbing new depths (relative to just months ago), gas price hasn't fallen nearly as much, and is in fact rising again. I think it's just hard for potential RX8 drivers to swallow lousy mileage coupled with acceleration that in daily cut and thrust driving leaves them dicing more with Corolla XRS's than a many v6 sedans or most v6 and v8 coupes.

edit: As far as the glass hatch, love it, both in terms of practicality and style. On FC's and FD's though, it adds quite a bit of weight (not as much on the FB, with its smaller, simpler hatch), which is probably the main reason it has gone away, combined with the fact Americans continue to turn up their noses at hatchbacks generally.

 

just browsing the internet and stumbled on this picture .... maybe the new? It was a link from another forum member saying this is being released on March 21, 2009 ... what ever it is ... looks good to me

 

Found the link its from :

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....rticle_id=6757

Still not sure where that guy got that date from though

 

Those photos have been out for a while. Personally I prefer the other rendering that was in the post from Jim. I just think it has smoother, more refined lines. It doesn't have the Mazda concept car look with the long sweeping curves that they seem to love for some reason. Personally, not my style.