Is Mazda plotting a new RX-8?

Is Mazda about to pull a massive about-face and revive its iconic rotary-engined coupé line?

The rotary appeared dead and gone when Mazda pulled the plug on the last-generation RX-8 in 2012. The iconic twin-chamber rotary engine couldn’t be made to meet incoming emissions standards, and some owners complained of the car’s continuing high consumption of both oil and petrol.

Mazda has never quite given up on rotary power though, having put one of the first-ever rotary-engined cars into production in 1962 in the form of the Cosmo 110 Coupé.

Alternating

The fact that this very car will be on display in Tokyo alongside Mazda’s mysterious new coupé has heightened the possibility that the company will revive its rotary engine technology.

The company has been somewhat schizophrenic about rotary in recent years, alternating between officially announcing that such engines can never be made to meet current emissions standards, and then turning around and nodding and winking about still working on such engines.

Certainly, Mazda was known to have a rotary-engine skunkworks within the company, from which came the hydrogen-fuelled rotaries that have been used as test beds in Norway and elsewhere. No production engine ever emerged from these though.

While it’s unlikely that Mazda has managed to overcome the weaknesses of rotary engines in its latest concept coupé, it is possible that the new model could be a rotary hybrid, powered by batteries with a small and very light rotary keeping them topped up as the car drives.

Unnamed

Mazda says that the design of the still-unnamed concept coupé is supposed to “condense the company’s sports car history to as great a degree as possible”.

Mazda will also be showcasing a part-autonomous new safety system which “aims to enhance peace of mind and driving fun by helping drivers recognise potential hazards and exercise good judgment when operating the vehicle”.