Could this Mazda concept be the next RX-7 or RX-9?

Mazda has released an image teasing a sports car concept the company will show later this month at the Tokyo auto show. We think this could be our first taste of the brand’s next rotary-powered model.

Last summer, we told you about rumours Mazda was working on RX-7 and RX-9 models that could come to market in 2017 and 2020, respectively. Of course, Mazda has refused to offer concrete proof one way or another that it would bring back rotary power, which disappeared with the RX-8, last sold in 2012.

Whatever this nameless concept previews, and whatever ends up powering it, we think it’s gonna look good: the teaser shows a long hood with a rear-slung cabin that reminds us of the phallic-looking Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. For its part, Mazda says “the design of the sports car concept… is modern, yet maintains a sense of lineage and authenticity, appearing almost to condense Mazda’s entire history of sports car development into a single model.”

Reading between the lines, if this concept is to tell the story of its sports cars of years past, then rotary power makes perfect sense, at least for a future production car. We’ll have images of the concept from the floor of the Tokyo show when it opens to the media on October 28 and 29.