Mazda set tongues wagging at last year’s Tokyo motor show when it unveiled the Iconic SP concept, a car which bore a strong resemblance to the RX-7 sports coupe from the 1990s.
Since then, Mazda has remained tight-lipped about its plans for the concept, however, chief designer Masashi Nakayama has now turned the expectation up a notch, all but confirming the Iconic SP will enter production.
“This concept is not just one of those empty show cars,” said Nakayama-san.
“It has been designed with real intent to turn it into a production model in the not-so-distant future.”
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At its unveiling, Mazda said the Iconic SP used a rotary engine… but not in the way past sports cars like the RX-7 and RX-8 did.
Instead, the two-rotor engine charges an onboard battery – which powers the electric motors – when it goes flat. The rotary engine doesn’t send drive directly to the wheels.
According to Mazda, this powertrain can produce up to 285kW, a respectable figure for a vehicle with a target weight of 1450kg.
In June, Mazda previewed a twin-rotor engine range-extender concept which it said was “being considered for use in sports cars”.
Mazda has claimed rotary engines are better suited for use in range-extender applications as they can run on a wider variety of fuels than piston engines and are typically smaller, allowing more design freedom.
It already offers a rotary range-extender powertrain in the MX-30.
Though most evidence points to the Iconic SP becoming a long-awaited successor to the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars, the concept is similar in size to the current Mazda MX-5, which is in the final years of its current generation.
As reported in October 2023, Mazda’s Kato Matsue doesn’t believe electric vehicle (EV) technology is good enough to keep the MX-5’s kerb weight low, suggesting the next-gen model won’t be fully electric.
It could still be partly powered by electricity, such as with a range-extender system as seen in the Iconic SP concept.
Regardless of what the Iconic SP concept is called or powered by when it eventually enters production, it’ll be one of a growing number of new sports cars from Japan.
The Japanese sports car renaissance includes upcoming models such as the Honda Prelude (confirmed), the Toyota Celica and/or MR2 (rumoured), and the Nissan Silvia (rumoured).
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