Mazda itself largely denied that it was planning a new rotary sports vehicle until recently, when it began dropping a few interesting hints. For now, we only have a shadowy teaser image to whet our appetites (shown above) – it reveals little more than a sleek roofline and coupe-like body, though we know it’s also a two-door, two-seater.
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Speaking to Autocar, Fujiwara said: “People think rotary cannot meet modern Eco demands. It’s an essential part of the DNA of our brand and it must be passed on to the future engineers”. It’s synonymous with the brand. “The SkyActiv engineers worked on rotary and have … cutting-edge tech”.
Details or specifications for the rotary engine, or whether it will be coupled to an electric drive or other assistant technologies are yet to be confirmed, however Fujiwara promised that “some day in not to distant future, the rotary engine will return and it will be called SkyActiv R”.
New announcements from Mazda suggest a rotary engined sports auto is due for arrival in 2017.
While the rotary is making a comeback, Mazda refrains from putting an actual date on the return.
ALSO SEE: Is This the Mazda RX-9 Sports auto We’ve Been Dreaming Of? “We haven’t talked about market reach but this would be in that segment”.
Although Mazda was long rumored to be in the works with a successor to the old Mazda RX-8, skepticism arose given the last RX-8 was criticized greatly for its rather quirky Renesis Wankel rotary, which was known to have oil consumption issues, poor fuel economy and reliability problems.
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There’s still a lot up in the air, but at least for now, it’s time to celebrate because rotary engines are back. However, Mazda bosses don’t want to stress out their engineers and have them pulling a Dieselgate.
