RE: New Mazda RX-7 Mooted
Wednesday 21st October 2009
Rumours and speculation about Mazda's plan to revive the RX-7 have been given a boost with the news that official sketches have been completed under the direction of new Mazda design chief Ikua Maeda.
New Mazda RX-7 Mooted
Mazda's chief designer says new sports model is on the drawing board
According to a report in Autocar, Maeda is lobbying hard within Mazda to get the new sports model built around the next generation Renesis 16X rotary engine.
With an (equivalent) displacement of 1.6 litres, the new engine will feature a longer stroke, and direct injection and is expected to make anything up to 300bhp in turbocharged form.
Maeda's vision is for a car that moves further upmarket than its predecessors, and Autocar suggests a new concept version of the RX-7 could be revealed as early as next year.
Otherwise, details remain extremely sketchy, although it's (probably!) safe to assume any future RX-7 will feature a two-seat configuration and be more overtly sporty than the somewhat quirky four seat RX-8.
With nothing else to go on, we offer you some pictures of the Mazda Taiki concept revealed in 2007. This car also featured the 16X Renesis engine, and helped fire up the 'new RX-7' speculation back then.
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Discussion
It still has a crankshaft, and the stroke measurement is the measurement of the deflection of the crank. The rotary triangle bit doesn't rotate in a perfect circle, it moves more like a kids Spirograph.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/rotary-engine2.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/rotary-engine2.htm
Please don't let it look anything like that prototype.
Now, if it looked a bit like the Furai concept, then we're in business.
RX-9 would be a different car, just as the RX-8 is a different car. This is a evolution of the two seater rotary sportscar format, so it will just be the 4th generation RX-7.
Now, if it looked a bit like the Furai concept, then we're in business.
RX-9 would be a different car, just as the RX-8 is a different car. This is a evolution of the two seater rotary sportscar format, so it will just be the 4th generation RX-7.
About bloody time. But can Mazda really move upmarket? They tried that with the FD-RX7 going up against the 944 and failed, having to make the rather embarrassing move of drastically reducing the price after launch. £30-40k maybe, but Mazda lack the judos, no matter how good the car is, to go above that, especially with a rotary and all the, generally ill-informed, myths about reliability.
Ali_T said:
About bloody time. But can Mazda really move upmarket? They tried that with the FD-RX7 going up against the 944 and failed, having to make the rather embarrassing move of drastically reducing the price after launch. £30-40k maybe, but Mazda lack the judos, no matter how good the car is, to go above that, especially with a rotary and all the, generally ill-informed, myths about reliability.
He's right you know, they couldn't progress past yellow belt.
k is that disabled back end?!?
TheEnd said:
I wonder why this would return to RX-7 rather than RX-9?
The RX models were originally part of a whole range, kinda of like how Audi have an A3, A4, A5 and so on.The original Rotary was the Cosmo, it was originally a small, light coupé, which later morphed into a large luxury coupé along the lines of a Mercedes S class coupé or BMW 8 series.
The R100 was the next rotary model, just the Familia/1200 body style with a rotary engine, it actually did pretty well in racing.
The RX2 was a mid-size car, similar to a Ford Cortina, it was also offered with piston engines as the Mazda Capella/616, it was basically meant as the replacement for the R100 even though it was a lot bigger.
The RX3 was a smaller Escort sized car, also offered with piston engines as the Mazda Familia/808, was very successful in racing and probably one of the most successful in sales until the RX7 appeared.
The RX4 was a larger Granada sized car, also offered with piston engines as the Mazda Luce/929.
The RX5 was a large luxury coupe, based off the RX4 but with more luxurious appointments and generally aimed a bit further upmarket, it was also available with a piston engine as the Mazda 121.
There was no RX6 as it was apparently decided that name didn't sound good.
The RX7 was the two seat sports car, it was the only RX model that was exclusively rotary powered and it was also the only one that was a real sales success (actually the RX3 was pretty popular but it was basically dropped so the RX7 could take over), the others were a bit of a flop sales wise (reliability trouble and poor fuel consumption during the fuel crisis years gave them a bad rep) and so Mazda eventually dumped all rotary models except the RX7 and the Cosmo (even then the Cosmo was JDM only from the 80s).
The RX8 designation was applied to that car as it's a whole different model line again, not because it follows on from the RX7.
With Toyota on the resurgence in making sporty RWD cars and the likes of Hyundai getting in on the act with it's Genesis coupe it's no wonder Mazda are thinking about bringing back the RX7, but topping the previous model will be very difficult for them as it was almost perfect.
Ali_T said:
About bloody time. But can Mazda really move upmarket? They tried that with the FD-RX7 going up against the 944 and failed, having to make the rather embarrassing move of drastically reducing the price after launch. £30-40k maybe, but Mazda lack the judos, no matter how good the car is, to go above that, especially with a rotary and all the, generally ill-informed, myths about reliability.
Quite! Who would buy a car from a manufacturer who used this engine technology to win the Le Mans 24 Hours when they could have a carbon fibred bodied Celica from a manufaturer who... errrr... make cheap Mercedes saloons ... for JUST £336,000!Edited by marcosgt on Wednesday 21st October 14:14
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO......
THAT LOOKS STUPID...
Someone should have been slapped with a wet trout for coming up with that design!
The old one looked fantastic just stick with that shape!
THAT LOOKS STUPID...
Someone should have been slapped with a wet trout for coming up with that design!
The old one looked fantastic just stick with that shape!
....hmmm i want one alreadyGassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff