New Mazda RX-9 rumored to be underway… with a non-rotary-engine

Another bit of speculation just emerged claiming that a new Mazda coupe is in development. The strange part is that the car is being reported as an RX… lacking its trademark rotary (=Wankel) engine.

The latest Mazda sports car with the famed, yet commercially unsuccessful Wankel engine under the hood – the RX-8 – left the assembly lines for good in 2012. Ever since then, we have been hearing countless rumors that the Japanese carmaker wanted to resurrect both the RX range and the Wankel powertrain tech. Releasing a new RX model in 2020 or later with the regular straight or V-shaped engine would be odd at best.

The alleged RX-9 is said to be coming with an inline-six SkyActiv turbo mill rated between 350 and 400 horsepower (260 – 300 kilowatts). This sounds close to what Toyota did with its latest BMW Z4-based Supra. That said, Mazda let it slip last spring that it was looking into designing a larger proprietary engine to use in its future models, so this might as end up being an in-house design.

The rumored new ‘RX’ is said to borrow certain stylistic cues from the RX Vision Concept featured in our media library here. What is more interesting to us right now, however, is how the fans of the marque are going to react to the news. On the one hand, an RX-9 would help Mazda re-enter the sports car segment of the market; on the other hand, calling it that way while foregoing the actual rotary engine is bound to attract polarizing opinions.