Word from Autocar in the UK says the Mazda RX-7 is on its way back and it will be on sale before the end of 2016.
It’s only 18 months or so since the world lost the rotary engine for good. Or so we thought. While Mazda officials are officially saying there are “no concrete plans” to revive the RX-7, unofficially they’re reportedly saying plans are well underway.
Adding to the nostalgia is the suggestion that Ikuo Maeda is the chief designer for the project. His old man was Mazda’s design chief back in the 1970s when the RX-7 was helping Mazda forge its name in the motoring world.
Maeda says he’s not sure what the 21st century RX-7 will look like, but does add: “I want it built before I retire!”
It’s predicted the new RX-7 engine will feature a twin-rotor arrangement of around 600cc per-rotor. Expected to be normally aspirated, peak power should be around 185kW (250hp).
Meanwhile, Mazda’s global marketing boss, Masahiro Moro, remains cautious, saying: “I just don’t see the right numbers in the equation yet.”
4 replies on “Is the Mazda RX-7 coming back?”
Fingers crossed!
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/mazda-rx-7-return-2016 [sketchy sketch included]
That sketch looks great!!!!!
I hope with this the will get rid of all the talk about rotory being unreliable. Unsure why they haven’t gone with turbo though…
As a former rotary owner, I have a degree of nostalgia. However, I think there are just too many numptys among the Mazda exec leadership. The rotary’s biggest weakness is fuel consumption, and there’s not much that can be done in relation to this, because of the inherent rotary design. Don’t go there!
Mazda has pretty much the perfect chassis, in the guise of either the MX-5, or the RX-8; why they haven’t simply stuffed one of their 2L turbo 4 cyl motors in the latter, and refined the engine as the Euros have done, totally baffles me. They already have all the components for an 86/BR-Z killer.
Timbo, it will be the price point that they haven’t identified… If it’s 10k more then the 86? I don’t it will be a killer to them?…
5k yeah I can see it killing them. (if it makes enough power)