When the Mazda RX-8 died in 2012, the legendary rotary engine also appeared to die with it. It may have been a bit of a misfit engine, but it was also Mazda's calling card since the 1960s.
What we didn't know what that Mazda kept the engine on life support in Hiroshima, with a team of engineers working on it to figure out how to make it work with emissions regulations that are becoming ever more stringent.
And with the RX-VISION, it seems Mazda thinks they're close to cracking the code on getting the rotary up to snuff to be back on the roads. Or they just want rotary fans to stop asking when the engine will return.
The new engine is dubbed the SKYACTIV-R, and, unsurprisingly, Mazda has released basically no details about it, other than the fact that it has rotors. We don't know if it's turbocharged, we don't know the power output, but we do know that it has an 8000 RPM redline, is rear-wheel drive, and is compact to allow the RX-VISION to have very low hood.
The design of the concept looks more like a grand tourer than a pure sports car, but there are some definite RX-7 and RX-8 cues in the design. The tail lights are pure FD RX-7, while the front end has a bit of RX-8 to it. The design is flowing and really pretty damn excellent, like a Jaguar F-Type or an AMG GT S that was breathed on by anime.
Inside is a dedication to minimalism, with basically no buttons, screens, or anything you don't need. What it does appear to have is a shifter that may or may not be linked to a manual transmission. It really looks that way, at least.
Right now, the RX-VISION is strictly a concept and Mazda is quick to note that "mass production (of rotaries) is currently on hold" and the car is a "vision of the future that Mazda hopes to one day make into reality."
We're just thankful that Mazda has built a concept that has a rotary engine and is built for the soul purpose of driving pleasure, not to find a way to stop us from driving forever. That's the kind of car that we long for.
Travis was an editor at Road & Track. He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of Jalopnik.com.
