据报道,马自达计划恢复开发RX-7,该车将于2016年发布并搭载全新开发转子引擎。虽然马自达CEO Masa-michi Kogai去年11月曾表示，不太可能重新开发转子引擎，但英国媒体报道，马自达已经在开发一台新引擎，它最终将用于驱动2016年推出的全新RX-7。这台转子引擎仍为自然进气式，排量约为600毫升，由于采用双转子布局，因此引擎实际排量为1.2升，相当于普通内燃机引擎2.4升排量。其输出功率预计为186千瓦/250马力。马自达先前开发的转子引擎存在耐用性和燃油经济性方面的问题，但很显然，新引擎在这些方面已经获得提升。而在造型风格方面，新款RX-7将与2015年发布的下一代RX-5遵循相同的设计理念，新车绝大部分设计工作已经完成，就等批准量产了。负责设计的是Ikuo Maeda，他曾在上世纪70年代设计了最初的RX-7。

 

Rotary engine-powered Mazda RX-7 due in 2016 - report

Mazda is reportedly planning an RX-7 revival with a newly developed rotary engine for a 2016 release.

 

Although in November last year we heard Mazda CEO Masa-michi Kogai saying the return of a rotary engine is highly unlikely, British media is reporting Mazda is already developing a new unit which will end up powering the RX-7 revival scheduled to come out in 2016.

 

The new rotary engine will allegedly be naturally aspirated with a capacity of around 600cc per rotor and chances are it will adopt a twin-rotor configuration which means it will have a capacity of 1.2 liters, representing the equivalent of 2.4 liters of a regular combustion engine. Output is expected to be somewhere in the region of 250 bhp (186 kW). Previous iterations of the rotary engine had problems with reliability and fuel economy but appearantly major improvements are being made for the new unit.

 

As far as styling is concerned, the new RX-7 will follow the same design philosophy of the next-gen MX-5 due in 2015 and most of the design has already been completed but still hasn't been signed off for the production model. In charge of the design is Ikuo Maeda whose father was responsible for drawing the original RX-7 back in the late 70s.