Mazda is developing a new rotary-engined sports car to succeed the RX-7 and RX-8, according to sources. It will be bigger and more powerful than the Mazda MX-5 and will be launched in 2017 to correlate with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Cosmo Sport, the first Mazda powered by a Wankel rotary engine.
Mazda Engineers are working to address the Wankel engine’s natural flaws high fuel and oil consumption and meagre torque.
The answers are being sought through Mazda’s ‘SkyActiv’ engineering philosophy, which focuses on shedding weight and using high engine compression ratios to boost power and efficiency from revvy, naturally aspirated engines. It’s a technique already used to great effect in the current Mazda 3 and 6.
Mazda is targeting a 300bhp output for the reborn rotary engine, up from 238bhp in the most powerful RX-8. The RX-8, discontinued in 2010, weighed in at around 1,310kg, 120kg more than a modern Toyota GT 86. Mazda’s new flagship will stick to rear-wheel drive. It will be mated to six-speed manual or five-speed auto gearboxes. Mazda has a rich history of rotary-powered cars, starting with the Cosmo Sport of the late 60s, which developed up to 129bhp and could hit 120mph.
More famously, Mazda had the RX-7 that was sold in the UK through the 90s and the RX-8 that went on to replace it. The only time a Japanese manufacturer has won the Le Mans 24hours was in 1991 with the rotary-powered Mazda 787B engine.
