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.
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Mazda’s final-generation ‘FD’ RX-7
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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