The only car brochure we ever held on to was for a 1993 Mazda RX-7. It was the baddest car of the time — the 300Z was four years old, the 911 had gone soft, Ferrari had that hideous 348, the C4 Corvette never really did it for us, and the lunar lander Supra hadn’t landed yet. The low, tiny twin-turbo monster was it as far as we were concerned.
Which is why we are always happy to read about the next coming of the RX-7. Just Put has renderings of an RX-9 concept that it says would have a Wankel powerplant of somewhere around 1.8 liters, and be more oil and fuel efficient than the current generation. Power would make it to an unidentified number of wheels via a dual-clutch 6-speed transmission and limited-slip diff.
We have no idea from where these two renderings have come. They could be official images that were leaked. Their slightly low resolution supports that theory, as often leaked images are small and enlarged beyond their resolution later. Or it could be a nicely done photochop by a fanboy. Either way, we think it lacks aggression and the rear looks highly derivative. The front end’s nicely complex features doesn’t seem to match the simple buttocks, another reason why it might not be the real deal. But hey, first let’s get verification that an RX-something-fast really is on the way, and we can sort out the styling later.
