New RX-7 surprise package

Mazda will almost certainly unveil a near production-ready RX-7 at the Detroit motor show in January.

The big surprise is the show car is said to be much closer to the final product than the RX-Evolv, upon which it is based. It will be powered by a new-generation fuel-injected rotary engine and should go on sale late in 2002.

The development of a new RX-7 from the RX-Evolv concept hasn't been confirmed by Mazda, nor has a new rotary engine.

But the president of Mazda Motor Corporation, American Mark Fields, said the other day: "We do not do show or concept cars for fun. Our intent is to see if we can make business sense of that vehicle.

"No decisions have been made yet, but clearly the rotary engine cuts right to the soul of Mazda, especially our research and development community, and we are working very hard to make it happen."

One design feature of the RX-Evolv the new RX-7 will retain is the rear doors.

Fields said that Mazda engineers had been told the rear-door set-up was "absolutely not negotiable."

There is no central, or B-pillar, in the RX-Evolv and the rear doors hang on the rear C-pillar. Mazda engineers apparently are finding the doors difficult to engineer to meet different global design regulations.

But they are nevertheless expected to be offered on the new RX-7, especially as the all-important North American market is asking for them.