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The Japanese sports car rumour mill never rests, and the latest to emerge from the Land of the Rising Sun involves the future of two sports car icons: the Toyota Supra and Mazda’s rotary engine.
The information coming out of Japan regarding this is via renowned auto magazine Best Car, which is reporting in its March issue that Toyota and Mazda are working together to create a pair of sports cars in the same vein as the likes of the BRZ/86 or the Supra and Z4.
The good news is that this means there could be a pair of new fun rear-wheel drive cars out of Japan in the near (enough) future, but the bad news is that it might mean the end of the rotary engine dream for Mazda fans.
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The reason is that Best Car reckons both of the cars will be powered by inline six-cylinder petrol engines, just as the Toyota GR Supra is currently.
But with BMW moving to work with Mazda for the next-gen Supra rather than BMW, the next turbocharged straight-six will have to come from Mazda instead. Fortunately, the Hiroshima brand has its relatively new 3.3-litre turbo six developed for its Large Platform SUVs; the CX-60 through -90.
In these cases, the engine makes as much as 245kW and 500Nm, which is down on the 285kW/500Nm the Supra currently boasts. It is unlikely Mazda has wrung the most out of the 3.3-litre engine, though.
This paints a relatively clear picture in terms of the potential next Supra, but what about Mazda’s car?
Given the apparent direction towards the inline six, talk of the return of the Mazda rotary engine may have all been for naught — it’s unlikely Mazda would use a completely different drivetrain after working with Toyota and offering up its own engine for the Supra.
Instead, Mazda may take some engineering from Toyota have styling inspired by the Iconic SP concept car.
But selling a car so similar to the Supra wouldn’t make as much sense as finding a point of difference, much like the case of the Supra/Z4 pairing involving a coupe and a roadster.
Best Car suggests Mazda’s sports car will be a four-door coupe, instead.
Of course, we won’t know which elements of this apparently leaked information is accurate until as early as Northern Spring (Autumn here in Australia) when there’s apparently an announcement due.
