There have been numerous rumors going around about Mazda bringing the rotary engine back. The automaker defined itself with its rotary engine and created one of the most loved sports cars of all time with the Mazda RX-7. While it would be nice to see another Mazda sports with a rotary engine, none of us are holding our breaths to see it happen. The most recent report about a rotary engine should still be taken with some salt, but comes from a source within the automaker.

Australian car blog Motoring recently spoke to Mazda's drivetrain and powertrain assistant manager Tetsushi Marutani and he had a lot to say about the brand's new engine. "We are still developing the new engines with rotary," stated Marutani. "So in the future we hope to release it, of course, yes. But it's still under development. We can't say anything about the [rotary] program; when, what type of vehicle, what is the horsepower, we can't say anything about it yet." When asked about forced induction, Marutani stated, "Personally, I think that a rotary with some turbo or compressor would be good."

Because a rotary, in my opinion, they require more [torque at] low speed, low down torque. So if we have some small compressor or turbo it would help." That sounds like Mazda is getting to work on a new rotary engine that will have some type of forced induction. While that sounds like good news, there's no word or guarantee that the engine will make it into production. With emissions becoming even more stringent, Mazda will have a tough time with making the engine fuel efficient and powerful. We would be thrilled to see a rotary-powered sports car that uses some kind of forced induction in the near future. But we can still dream about the engine in the beautiful Mazda RX-Vision Concept.