2001 January 9th: Mazda had the next iteration in the RX's development at the North American International Auto Show [Detroit]. The RX8 closely resembles the RX-Evol show car, with the wheels at the corners, 4-seat, 4-door body, the rear doors being hinged at the rear. The nose is softer, almost MX-5 style.

The Renesis naturally aspirated rotary engine has side intake and exhaust ports, three intake ports and two exhaust ports in total per rotor. This, and other improvements, are said to improve efficiency & fuel economy and to reduce emmissions.

RX8: 4-seat sports coupe, loa 170.3", width 70.1", height 52.4", wheelbase 106.3", track 58.7"/59.1",
engine water cooled 2-rotor Wankel, 654ccx2, 250hp@8500rpm, 152.7ft-lb@7500rpm,
6-speed auto/manual gearbox, rear wheel drive, suspension double wishbone front and rear, tyres 225/50ZR19/ 245/45ZR19.

2000 November: The Mazda RX-Evolv concept car for the Sydney Motor Show 17-26 November 2000.

The latest derivative of the RX-7 sticks to its Renesis rotary (Wankel) engine up-front; it delivers 200kW at 10,000rpm. The 6-speed gearbox can be operated in "clutchless automatic" or "manual shifting" modes, the latter operated by controls on the steering wheel. Suspension is all independent and the engine's light weight helps towards a 50/50 weight distribution.

There are four "individual bucket seats", access to the rear ones being through suicide (rear hinged) doors which give a wide opening thanks to the pillarless design.

The active cornering brake system is said to allow "the driver to control the alter the handling of the vehicle depending on his or her preferences (from under-steer to over-steer)". Now, I wonder if that would be a good idea in a production car given the litigation possibilities.

2000: Mazda has been showing a ``RX-Evolv'' 4-door concept car (above) at motor shows, starting with the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show. However, there are rumours that this will not go into production and that the next RX-7 will be closer to the original concept - a small light-weight coupe with just 2-doors and a revised MSP-RE rotary engine.

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