Rotary “part of our DNA,” says Mazda

Whenever we talk to Mazda senior executives, the one question always asked is: “rotary sports car – is it any closer?”.

We’ve written countless stories on it - and will continue to do so - because the passion among fans manifests just as strongly by Mazda employees.

The only problem is, the financial institutions that own and run Mazda are risk averse.

The capital required to develop and manufacture a rotary-powered sports car far outweighs the return - at least financially. It’s a loss-making venture (as many sports cars are) but that hasn’t dampened the spirit of many of the company’s heavy-hitters. Even CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation, Masamichi Kogai, has said on several occasions he won't rule out a rotary sports car.

More recently Julien Montousse, design director for Mazda North America responded unequivocally to the question: would you like to see a Mazda RX-9?

“From a design standpoint, yeah!”

He says the idea of a rotary sports car burns deep in the veins of many employees, but the clincher is making the business case work, or “sketching it and then hoping the finances allow it,” to use Montousse’s words.

“It truly is a 'never give up' spirit,” he enthuses.

“When I go to Hiroshima, there are some buildings where I'm not even allowed to go, where you know they're working on something that they truly trust is the future, there's such passion, and they’re protecting it to a point where I can't even have access, but I know it's very promising.”

Mazda’s current flagship sports car is the MX-5, and it’s been an excellent ambassador for the brand, holding the Guinness world record for the highest selling sports car in history. It’s also rear-drive and convertible.

But as Montousse explains, the rotary engine is intrinsic to the Mazda brand.

“I mean it’s part of our DNA. Mazda has this kind of insane passion for the brand and what it represents and that engine is part of it. Kogai mentioned many times that we would only come out with it when it's ready and when it makes sense.

“For the past 15 year they've never stopped [working on rotary]. I know they're working on it extremely hard, and with considerable investment behind it.”

A region where the RX-9 would be hugely popular is the USA, and the head of Mazda North America, Masahiro Moro, didn’t mince his words when the topic of rotary sports cars was raised.

“Rotary engine has interesting opportunity from power source to ultimate environmental capability. So we have resources continue to develop it. In the future at some point we need to decide what we do.”

Arguably, that’s code for ‘we’re keeping rotary alive under the guise of a range extending EV’ but ultimately there’s a strong desire for a sports car.

“At this moment, it’s not on the official roadmap,” admitted Moro.

But the unofficial roadmap?

“We have dedicated engineers for it,” was all Moro-san would say. But for the die-hard rotary fans, this will be enough to keep the dream alive.