I would love to see an RX-7 that would stomp a C6 corvette, a 997 porsche, and upcoming Supra, Skyline. If Mazda would need to keep costs down you could put it on the Miata platform and turbo it. You'd easily be around 2500 lbs and 300 hp. You could probably get it to pull .95-1.0 G's with a stiffer suspension and some wider tires.

Boom insta halo car...

 

I think they have to keep it simple and light so NA and latter an ms version with FI

 

History of car company buyouts/mergers leans toward bad move. Don't see it happening but i've been wrong before.

 

...and then Supras will rule the world.

 

The RX-8 IS the RX-7 Replacement....

I agree with RG....

There is NO RX-7....it won't happen....at least the name anyway....sorry...the RX-7 is gone...

 

i want it to have the sa spirit. light n/a fun

 

Not really, it's to keep the RE alive. The whole "sports car I can take my family in" ad campaign is completely opposite to that of the "pure sports" RX-7.

 

j_tso, do you have a larger photo of your ID thumbnail?

 

yeah, here http://homepage.mac.com/jolocho/CosmoSport.jpg

I wish there was a bigger version of that out there, that's the biggest I could find.

 

You have no idea what you're talking about... If you think the RX8 is the RX7's replacement.. You have no idea what an RX8 is.

 

I don't think they will use the RX-7 name again since people would logically expect it to exceed the FD's performance. So call it RX-3 or RX-5 or RX-9, problem solved. Stick the renesis into a hardtop NC, stick on a more aggressive bodykit, firm up the suspension, and sell. Bonus points for FI or 3-rotor, all-aluminum engine, or more muscular looking fenders and such...but none of those are really necessary to have a competitive car.

And if they can actually pull off the Kabura seating arrangement without jacking the price or the weight, I would imagine they'd cancel the 8. In other words, my hypothetical lighter rotary-coupe would basically *be* the next-gen 8.

 

I don't see the RX-8 as the successor to the RX-7. Not in terms of pure performance sports car. It is only it's successor in the way that the RX-7 was the successor the the RX-2, RX-3, etc... It's the next rotary powered Mazda. It's not a replacement for the RX-7. We will see another rotary powered car again. It may be another generation RX-8 or it may just be another rotary powered car. Each new rotary car that has a different name is nothing more than a different car powered by a rotary engine. If they aren't numbered the same, they aren't a successor to the lineage of that model.

 

Good point, RD. RX-7 was always a 2-seater sportscar, and the FD was the purest interpretation of all the generations. No way that a 4 door coupe is a successor to that car. It just doesn't go with the lineage. If there's no RX-7 for the foreseeable future, so be it; but the RX-8 is a different version of a rotary sportscar.

By the way, I voted for a new design. Why should Mazda base its new RX-7 on a car that's now over 16 years old? As good as it was then, it's time to be innovative and move ahead.

 

It's a timeless design.

 

I say base it on the FD from the standpoint of beauty not in terms being twin turboed or anything. Look how the Corvette and the 911 have 'evolved' over the years.

Paul.

 

I don't know if this article is a repost, but it's a pretty good write-up on what the next RX-7 could be.

http://www.autozine.org/blog/archives/22

 

But we did that with the RX-8

 

Forget it. they will never replace their legendary RX-7. They belive in heros and myths. Why destroy it by making a supeerior icon?

 

Actually I've seen the guts of the mustang's engine, and it is a pushrod design, not OHC.

 

Then by this logic Nissan should have never made another GT-R after the R32.