According to an article in this week's Automotive News, the 250-hp, rotary-powered, 4-door, 4-seat Mazda RX-8 will start production in late 2002 and go on sale in 2003. The same platform will be used for a 2-seat RX-8 coupe with the same engine, also available as a 2003 model.

In addition, the Miata will be built on the same platform as the two RX-8s as a 2004 model. It will have a 4-cylinder engine, but it sounds as if Mazda still is working on how to retain traditional Miata virtues on the new platform.

 

Pretty much what I heard, too. The 2 seater coupe will be the true successor to the RX-7, so there may be an RX-7 and an RX-8 in Mazda's future. That would be amazing.

 

That RX8 would be pretty cool..... as long as it has a manual shift.... i saw they had some test mules with automatics???

Scot

 

Actually, it was an electro-mechanically controlled manual transmission, similar in concept and operation to Ferrari's F1 gearbox in the F355/F360.