We're not at all tired (*yawn*) of reporting about the on-again, off-again reports of a next-generation Mazda rotary sports car. We really do want it to happen, though only if it's done right. And fortunately Mazda's global design chief, Ikuo Maeda, feels the same. He designed the now discontinued RX-8, and his father penned the RX-7. The Force is strong with these two. Maeda the son is now focusing much of his energy into resurrecting the RX series, but not at any cost.

"I will never give up," Maeda told Automotive News. "Inside my head, I'm always going over shapes." No final decisions have been made yet, but Maeda clarified that a new RX can't be done without a new rotary engine. Those new SkyActiv engines just won't do. But that's exactly the problem Mazda engineers are encountering: how to make a new rotary engine more fuel efficient while still maintaining, or rather exceeding, the performance of its predecessor. It's not an easy task. But what if a solution can't be found? Will Mazda simply stick a SkyActiv engine into a new sports car named RX-something? "The name is RX," Maeda clarified, and 'R' refers to rotary.