Mazda’s New Sports Car Concept Looking More Like New RX-9
Remember when Mazda released that single teasing image of a new sports car concept vehicle, to be revealed at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show, and we (and pretty much everyone else, it seems) immediately said, “Yeah, that looks like it’s going to be a new RX model”?
Well, according to Motoring.com.au, that is almost certainly what it is. According to their anonymous “source close to the Hiroshima car-maker,” the unveiled concept vehicle will be the long-awaited replacement for the Mazda’s last rotary-engine coupe, the RX-8, which was kicked to the curb in 2012.
Motoring’s unnamed source apparently told them, about the concept’s significance, to “look to the Cosmo Sport.”
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The Mazda Cosmo was a coupe first produced by Mazda in 1967, known in exported models as the 110S. It was also the first Mazda vehicle to feature the famous Wankel engine—the brand’s trademark rotary powerplant.
The 1967 Cosmo was by no means a high-selling car—Mazda only built 343, with that number only rising to 1,176 through 1972, when the car was redesigned for the second generation (known internationally as the Mazda RX-5).
Since then, the Cosmo has gained a reputation as an extremely rare piece of car history.
The new concept vehicle will be appearing ahead of the Cosmo’s 50th birthday in 2017, and is rumored to fix the RX-8’s problems of high fuel and oil consumption using a new hybrid turbo rotary engine known as the “16X,” which, according to Motoring.com.au’s sources, will feature dual rotors coupled with a capacitor-powered electric turbocharger.
Of course, these are rumors only, but if we, Motoring.com.au, and others are right, the world could soon be seeing the return of the RX.
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News Sources: Motoring.com.au, Motor Trend
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