The boss of Mazda’s European Research and Development Centre has hinted that the newly returned rotary engine could still be used for a future sports car, and the news has got us very excited indeed.
“The rotary engine is our symbol, as you know,” Kota Matsue told TopGear.com at the unveil of the new MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV, which uses an all-new 830cc single-rotor engine as a generator to create a plug-in hybrid powertrain where only the electric motor drives the wheels.
But it does sound as though Mazda is looking into the possibility of said rotary engine sending its power straight to the wheels of a future sports car. “The dream of the engineers is that someday we will have a sports car with the rotary engine,” said Matsue. “But I would say that now is not the right time to think about that.” Shame.
Wakako Uefuji, Mazda’s boss of the whole MX-30 project, also spoke about the possibility of a successor to the RX-8: “We have to complete the electrification of our models to meet this era. This is the first thing that we’re trying to do right now, but maybe in the future.”
So, what do we think Internet? Mazda has clearly been working hard on the rotary concept for its application in the MX-30. It’s apparently 15 per cent lighter than the engine used in the old RX-8 and there’s now direct injection that makes it up to 25 per cent more efficient too. Plus, imagine if the end result looked something like the RX Vision concept that you see above. Ooof...
