Top Car

January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 9Manual and RWDNo NSX-style fancyall-wh eel driv e, justdriv en rear wheels anda manual’box, thou ghMazda acknowledgesbuyers may demandanice and easy DCTNew RX-7:Mazda’s rotaryrenaissanceStandout beautiful and po wered by a next-gener ationrotary, the RX-Vision is the futureMazda is hell-bent on making realBASED ONITSshowings at the recentTokyo motor show, Honda – rightly orwrongly – is convinced the future is fuel-cellpowered. Over at Ni ssan, Carlos Ghosn is ona path to autonomous electric mobility vi acash-rich funky crossovers. In stark contrastMazda has gazed at 2018 and seen this: an analoguesports car notable for all that it lacks (a hybrid powertrain,autonomous tech, a neon-lit, tablet-stuffed ‘lounge’interior) as the things that it has: fossil-fuelled rotaryengine, rear-whe el drive, a manual gearbox and astriking, unfussy beauty.‘This car is the embodiment of Mazda’s futurevision: the ultimate front-engined, rear-whe el-drive sports car,’ said CEO Masamichi Kogai ashe pulled the covers from the RX-Vision and theworld bit its collective fist in lust. ‘It is drivingpleasure with exce llent environmentalperformance. The ro tary engine has not beenaneasy path but one day the ro tary will makea comeback. There are many issues to overcomebut we won’t stop working.’Mazda insists RX-Vision is a concept car in thetruest sense, and that a production-ready RX-does not lurk in the wings. ‘I can tell you that aproduction car does not exist: this is a puredesign concept,’ says veteran Mazda designer IkuoMaeda, whose team create d RX-Vision’ s endless bonnet,fuss-f ree surfaces and restra ined, almost classicaldetailing. ‘This is a pure design exercise, though I hopethis is a car with which we can go head-to-head withPorsch e. It is our aspira tion totake our brand to the next