Mazda Iconic SP: RX-7 revival to potentially pack EV and ICE power

At Mazda’s Japan Mobility show stand, the 103-year-old company was leaning heavily into its sports car heritage via the MX-5. An original ‘NA’ MX-5, updated ‘ND’, a hand-control model and cute-as-a-button kids-sized roadster.

There's plenty of excitement for an NE MX-5 which is likely to stick to the tried-and-true lightweight roadster formula with minimal hybrid augmentation.

The Iconic SP concept car, though? We reckon this more serious coupe is pure RX-7.

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For a start, its powertrain centres around a twin-rotor combustion engine running as a generator for the battery and electric motors. And what does ‘RX’ stand for? Rotary Experimental.

The 2023 Iconic SP’s powertrain runs a similar setup to that in the MX-30 R-EV though with a healthy dollop more grunt at 270kW (compared to 125kW). And it’s a technology Mazda will continue to push, as outlined to Wheels by Kotoro Minagawa, Mazda’s manager of product, planning, and corporate communications in Japan.

“We just launched the MX-30 REV and we haven’t yet got feedback from the market. [The MX-30 REV] is going to be launched in Japan and Europe, and we’d like to see the feedback from the customers and then we move further into development of the R-EV two-rotor system.

“We revived the rotary engine with the MX-30 R-EV so we’d like to maintain the rotary engine technology, and this vehicle we hope does that”, said Minagawa-san.

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But what if the R-EV system isn’t well received? We asked if Mazda had explored other powertrains for the Iconic SP, and Minagawa-san didn’t rule out the future possibility of pure electric or hybridised internal combustion power.

“With this package, the [Iconic SP] can be an electric vehicle, or it can be an internal combustion engine with carbon-neutral fuel”, he said, noting that the MX-30 is available across the world with different powertrains.

“We’ve already introduced MX-30 as a BEV and ICE and now we have an MX-30 REV… this is a sports car project with MX-30 technology”, he said.

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As for what model the Iconic SP is the spiritual successor to, its dimensions sit between ND MX-5 and FD RX-7 – though they’re closer to the RX-7. With double the power and a 1430kg weight target, the Iconic SP isn't exactly an ND MX-5 follow-up.

Values for the Iconic SP concept are claims for a non-production vehicle.

Visually, too, there are FD RX-7 elements such as the neat pop-up headlights and organic curves. Mazda’s European design director Jo Stenuit even admitted he sees plenty of RX-7 in the proportions.

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“For me, it’s an RX. When I look at the design cues, especially in this colour, I see the RX-7… It’s wider, lower, and longer than an MX-5,” Stenuit told TopGear.com, “so it’s a different kind of animal”.

It’s said that the Iconic SP has a 50:50 weight distribution, but that’s about it. Mazda hasn’t claimed which wheels are driven (though we’d be staggered if it isn't the rears) nor when we’ll see a production version of the Iconic SP.