A Japanese publication has speculated that the new vehicle could debut at October’s Tokyo Motor Show, 50 years after the first rotary engine debuted.

Levolant Boost has reported that the car, which will likely be called RX-9, will look very much like the the RX-Vision that premiered in Tokyo 18 months ago. No firm details were given in the article but it guessed that the car's powertrain will be dubbed ‘Skyactive-R’ and it will feature turbocharging. A power figure of 450bhp has been estimated and the car would weight around the 1,300kg mark.

While the news is a welcome for enthusiasts, Mazda has made it clear before that it does not intend to build a sports car that is powered by a rotary engine last year. However, it has admitted that it is still developing the rotary engine to make sure it passes the emissions and fuel efficiency issues.