Mazda Reveals its RX-Vision Concept

Mazda RX-Vision Concept (Credit: © Mazda)

A few weeks ago, Mazda teased us with a dark image of an upcoming sports car concept that it would launch in Tokyo. It was easy to see through the rouge and make out that the Japanese automaker was previewing a rotary-powered RX concept. Today, the automaker revealed the concept, confirming my suspicions.

Dubbed the RX-Vision, this model “represents a vision of the future that Mazda hopes to one day make into reality.” It features a front-mounted engine that delivers power to the rear wheels, the now-staple Kodo design language, and a new SKYACTIV-R rotary engine.

Mazda RX-Vision Concept (Credit: © Mazda)

You read that right, this sports car has a rotary. Now, before you lose your mind about how inefficient and dirty rotary engines are – I thought the same thing initially – Mazda’s head of research and development, Kiyoshi Fujiwara, clarified this. He told Autocar, “People think rotary cannot meet modern Eco demands. The SkyActiv engineers worked on rotary and have made it cutting edge tech. It is an essential part of our DNA and it just be passed onto future engineers. It is synonymous with the brand. Sometime in the future it will return and be called SkyActiv-R.”

Unfortunately, Mazda did not reveal any of the SKYATIV-R engine’s specifications, so we are all stuck guessing for now. Chances are that the automaker has spent so much time fixing the known issues with the rotary engine (fuel economy, reliability, and emissions) that it hasn’t tampered much with the performance side of things. So, it may be some time before we learn how powerful the new rotary is.

Autocar probed Mazda execs further, trying to find out when it’s looking to launch this engine in a production model, but they declined to shine any light on this topic.

Mazda RX-Vision Concept (Credit: © Mazda)

In terms of the concept itself, well, just look at the images. This thing is simply stunning. It features proportions similar to the original RX-7 and the Cosmo 110S. What’s more, the outline of its headlights are clearly a hat tip to the chrome headlight surrounds on the Cosmo.

While the RX-Vision’s proportions make it look quite long, it is actually shorter than the RX-8. It measures 4,389 mm (172.8 inches) long, 1,925 mm (75.8 inches) wide, and 1,160 mm (45.7 inches) tall, while its wheelbase is 2,700 mm (106.3 inches) long.

This is likely all we’ll know about the RX-Vision and the SKYACTIV-R engine for quite some time, but I’ll keep an eye on it moving forward, and bring you any updates.