According to the reports, 2016 is likely to see the new Mazda RX-7. The car will be an agile, lightweight, two-seater coupe. The car is expected to be powered by a rotary engine that would produce up to 250bhp. Though there is no official information available yet about the car, the sources from inside of the company have pointed out that a rotary engine is under development and the company is also working on a platform derivative of the lightweight MX-5, which is due in 2015.
The new RX-7 will not have any new design as the car is mostly based on the design of the new MX-5. According to the sources, the RX-7 design is going for advanced work. The final shape of the car is yet to be made into the production-ready form. The chief designer, Ikuo Maeda, is the one looking after the work currently. His father was the head of the design department of Mazda in 1970, when the actual RX-7 had been created. The new rotary engine of the RX-7 is being planned as an aspirated unit. In order to keep the costs low, it is expected that the production RX-7 would feature conventional powertrain. Being a little smaller than the 654cc per rotor unit of the RX-8, the new RX-7’s engine capacity is said to be 600cc per rotor.
The reliability, fuel-efficiency and the power output of the car is expected to be improved. Sources have said that power below 300bhp can be featured, of which 250bhp could be expected. In order to do better than its rivals in the market, like the Nissan 370Z and Toyota GT-86, the RX-7 will have to perform well.