Sketch of the Mazda RX-9 - Autocar

[Careener]

Two thumbs up. I find it has a bit of a Mercedes line to it.

http://www.insideline.com/mazda/rx-9/photos/mazda_rx-9_ill_ns_110510.html

[mmret]

SLK-ish from the middle onwards. Generally like it although I hope it will be a bit less "happy" at the end of the day

[TopGun]

While that may be the silhouette, the Nagare "design-lanugage" is dead...hopefully.

"Creator of Nagare, Laurens van den Acker, left the company for Renault last year, and the brand’s European design boss Peter Birtwhistle was recently quoted as saying: “Nagare is done. After the 5, it’s highly unlikely that there will be another Nagare car. Mazda has moved on.” He adds that Mazda top guns in Japan aren’t fully convinced with the Nagare look, which the Brit describes as “particularly difficult to apply to a boxy people carrier shape.”

http://paultan.org/2010/08/11/mazda-design-nagare-no-more-yesterday-once-more/

[IceAndFire]

Wouldn't take too much to make that sketch fit with the new Shinari concept styling which they were saying may inform future Mazda designs.

http://www.netcarshow.com/mazda/2010-shinari_concept/

[G0dspd]

I thought they were going back to the RX-7.

Wouldn't take too much to make that sketch fit with the new Shinari concept styling which they were saying may inform future Mazda designs.

http://www.netcarshow.com/mazda/2010-shinari_concept/

Looks like the Infiniti Essence Concept with some Jaguar DNA.

[airbalancer]

I really do not think thay would be able to stamp all those lines on a piece of sheet metal

[Serniter]

So, it's not going to look like this?

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/11/04/report-mazda-working-on-next-gen-rotary-powered-rx-9/

[Careener]

I suppose Edmunds and Autoblog can duke it out.

[IceAndFire]

I thought they were going back to the RX-7.

Wouldn't take too much to make that sketch fit with the new Shinari concept styling which they were saying may inform future Mazda designs.

http://www.netcarshow.com/mazda/2010-shinari_concept/

Looks like the Infiniti Essence Concept with some Jaguar DNA.

Yeah it does. Either way I think it'll be good to get past Nagare. It was interesting but in practice I'm not sure how well it worked.

I've heard all sorts of rumors on the net as to what Mazda was doing. Lots of talk about the next gen Rotary and given the confusion I wonder if the following two things will happen:

1) There will be a RX-7 and it will be a true halo car with all of the power and handling with very few compromises.

2) There will also be a RX-9 which will be a more affordable rotary and a bit more like the RX-8 (but still only 2 doors).
 
Or you could swap the numbers around... not sure how that might work marketing wise. But given the confusion over the years I do wonder if there are two cars in the works rather than one. It might make the base production of the next-gen rotary cheaper if there is higher demand.