Maybe, it looks to have a shorter wheelbase, which would make it less stable and depending on how stiff the chassis was potentially a lot more twitchy. The RX-8 improved on the FD3S by having an much stiffer chassis and lengthening the wheelbase by 11.5"
Back to an N/A rotary, true 2 plus 2, bit of the look in the front.. Looks like this was basically the RX8 concept. Edit: And overall, I'd say the RX8 was an improvement on this in almost every way... Except for that dope front wing!
I remember seeing this in magazines before the new RX-7 came out. I had forgotten how much the RX-7 ended up looking like this. They used a lot of the design cues from this concept in the production car.
You should see the Mazda factory in Japan now. They basically have a shrine to commemorate the rotary engine and all the rx7s. They even have a hydo-powered rx8 on display.
I could never understand all that talk about the 3rd generation RX-7 being “too expensive”. The truth is it was not really expensive at all for what it was - a car that Road & Track once called an “NSX killer”. I think the reason it was considered to be so expensive is because the original RX-7 was such a great poor man sports car, much like the original Datsun 240Z, and I think people just expected that this would always be the case with future RX-7’s. Instead however Mazda decided to pull out all the stops and make a borderline supercar, and cars like that don’t come cheap. If memory serves, the original RX7 sold for about $6000 brand new and that is the equivalent of over $10,000 in 1993 when the last generation RX-7 went on sale for around $30,000. So they basically made a car that was a whopping 3-times more expensive than the original when adjusted for inflation. And lets face it, that’s pretty much unheard of in the auto industry. I mean you can buy a new Mustang today for the same price equivalent of the original 1965 model, and that’s pretty much the story with ever other car model on the planet. Still, I’m glad they made last RX-7 the way they did. I was actually living in Japan when it first came out and when I saw one drive by one day I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that I was instantly blown away by what I saw and when I noticed that it had parked down the street I ran down there to check it out up close and see who made it. Then 7 years later when back in the States I bought one of my own and I still have it to this day.
im not saying your judgement of car style is inadequate, im saying objectively the body design on the mazda rx-01 is (in my opinion) unique, eye catching, incredibly functional, and most importantly mazda.
DanKorCZ I know. I would've preferred this over the RX-8, but the short wheelbase has me a little sketched out. Might be a bit too twitchy on loose surfaces. I'm a rally guy. Sue me. By the way, love your avatar.
YEah, although I'm not into motorsports (Yeah I know weird) I do respect that it would be more of a track car... although that doesn't mean this wouldn't be able to compete in rally against little Renaults and Peugeots although I prefer the way the RX-8 looks
I don't know why people are commenting saying that this should have been built,its a true beauty,etc.The car is ugly as balls,the interior makes me wanna throw up, those rims look like they belong on a lowrider,need I go on more? Looks nothing like the old mazda fc fd and rx3 no wonder it wasn't put into production.Would've been a huge ugly flop like ford's edsel
Wow that looks like something that would be sold today. Are you sure that car is 20 years old? (Might need a couple of tweeks but dam near spot on). All it needs is a sub 18k usd price tag
I love the comments, half of them think this is the best car ever and the other half is grateful this never came out. this would've been worse for Mazda than the rx8. this thing looks like a Honda
Ah Top Gear, back when it was actually a show about cars. The BBC should go back to this old format, ditch Leblanc and Reid and just get Chris Harris to front a proper car show.
I actually think the RX-8 is uglier if perhaps less offensive. And the integrated front spoiler is a far more appealing take on "what we can do when the engine is so small" than the RX-8's "i got a tumor on the bonnet" Although the offcolor top is making me a bit ill.
TONIGHT! Hammond does nothing, and James May also does nothing. I didn't do anything either. Because we're not on this show. Which means we didn't hand anything over to our tamed racing driver, because he hasn't been shipped in by a crate yet. All we know is... Nothing.
calling it a potential successor to the FD was a mistake; it was more of a completely different car, like other RX's with numbers other than 7 at the end. To me, it looks like its a decade older in design from the FD. If they only used the MX5 and and other platforms that would suite it, to have a rotary engine option to support/subsidize the motor and maybe we wouldn't be RX-less right now and for the foreseeable future.
I think i just threw up..... This rotard says thank god they didnt build it. Its ugly as hell. Hopefully they do better on the 9. I am happy with the way the r3 8s look.
It's ugly and we know from the RX-8 that the HP was likely inflated a bit. Also I don't know what he's on about with what sounded like the MX-5 had edge in handling of the 3rd gen RX-7. The price was high for the 3rd gen cars but in the early 90's it's was one the best handling cars at any price.
Well it sure would be nice if they'd roll this out of the moth balls and tweak it and bit and make it the NEW RX9 or just leave it as the RX01 or RX10 who cares..just build it!!!!
Oh frothing at the mouth over this one and bagging on the FD... hindsight though. They did finally essentially build this car but uglier. Called it the RX-8
why... why on earth did we get the rx8 instead of something more closer to this..? you NEVER turn your sportscar into an eco 4 door grocery getter. unreliable, horrible on gas, rotary... so not many people are used to working on them... yeah i can see why the rx8 flopped. especially comparing it to the beauty that is the rx7
Авто/Мото
Too bad they didn't make it. This is the first time I've ever seen it. Thanks.
They did make it, it just didn't sell at all
Thank god this thing is not on the streets
Alam Khan agreed
christdragon me too.. saw this for the first time...
I see some rx 8 inspiration in there
If only he knew how sought after the FD RX-7 would become...
I didn't know about this concept, really interesting, it's some sort of mashup between what Rx8 is and what the Rx7 was
Garden I know! The front lights have this RX8 feel.
The wheels are pretty similar to the RX8 wheels
TESLACOM Exactly what I thought! The ones that were on the facelift RX-8...
Crazy!
Kev27RS timeless
I see a lot of this design language still, between the 2019 MX-5 and the RX-Vision concept.
Wow THE Andy Willman, before he became the producer of the later Top Gear and the current (awesome) Grand Tour series
The rims on that RX-01 look like they came off of a modern sports car. Thats impressive in a time when you could still get a BMW with bottlecaps.
You can see bits of RX8 in the look of the front. Serioulsy though imagine a car 400;bs/180kg lighter than the slim RX7FD, it would've been sweet.
Maybe, it looks to have a shorter wheelbase, which would make it less stable and depending on how stiff the chassis was potentially a lot more twitchy. The RX-8 improved on the FD3S by having an much stiffer chassis and lengthening the wheelbase by 11.5"
Back to an N/A rotary, true 2 plus 2, bit of the look in the front.. Looks like this was basically the RX8 concept.
Edit: And overall, I'd say the RX8 was an improvement on this in almost every way... Except for that dope front wing!
Wow! That was a good looking car.
I genuinely wasn't expecting this to start out with The Smiths.
what is the song called?
The Smiths - How Soon is Now?
You wouldn't expect Top Gear to play one of the most successful British bands of all time?
The wheels look like the ones that were on the *facelift* RX-8...
Crazy!
Ahead of its time...
The producer.
Mazda dropped the ball on this one. They should have built this beauty.
Roy Young nah way too ugly wouldve been a fail
Nah, I like it. Pretty sporty looking. Back end is another story, but still overall not a bad looking ride.
You can see from the proportions and the main ideas that this morphed into the RX8
They did.... the rx-8
I remember seeing this in magazines before the new RX-7 came out. I had forgotten how much the RX-7 ended up looking like this. They used a lot of the design cues from this concept in the production car.
How unappreciative they are to FD. Why is it the majority never really realize how good they have something until its gone?
That's always been the case. You don't realize what you have until it's gone.
Hate to say it, but that's human nature.
You should see the Mazda factory in Japan now. They basically have a shrine to commemorate the rotary engine and all the rx7s. They even have a hydo-powered rx8 on display.
I could never understand all that talk about the 3rd generation RX-7 being “too expensive”. The truth is it was not really expensive at all for what it was - a car that Road & Track once called an “NSX killer”. I think the reason it was considered to be so expensive is because the original RX-7 was such a great poor man sports car, much like the original Datsun 240Z, and I think people just expected that this would always be the case with future RX-7’s. Instead however Mazda decided to pull out all the stops and make a borderline supercar, and cars like that don’t come cheap.
If memory serves, the original RX7 sold for about $6000 brand new and that is the equivalent of over $10,000 in 1993 when the last generation RX-7 went on sale for around $30,000. So they basically made a car that was a whopping 3-times more expensive than the original when adjusted for inflation. And lets face it, that’s pretty much unheard of in the auto industry. I mean you can buy a new Mustang today for the same price equivalent of the original 1965 model, and that’s pretty much the story with ever other car model on the planet.
Still, I’m glad they made last RX-7 the way they did. I was actually living in Japan when it first came out and when I saw one drive by one day I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that I was instantly blown away by what I saw and when I noticed that it had parked down the street I ran down there to check it out up close and see who made it. Then 7 years later when back in the States I bought one of my own and I still have it to this day.
Tommy Wiseau I'm not haha I just there in the summer. I even have photos!
Thanks for the clip! You're doing gods work here :)
Wow. Those wheels look so modern lol
Gabriel lopez Right?!
Like the ones that were on the facelift RX-8...
Crazy!
wow, the rear looks strikingly similar to the McLaren 720s.
aneesh Sorry for your loss of vision.
It doesn't even come close.
omg it does
More like Ford ZX2
It’s a rear of a car and that’s where any similarities end
They should have built this.
Billy the anti bully bullies buddy nah its ugly
Awesome
Way ahead of its time.
Those wheels look almost exactly like the 2nd gen mazdaspeed 3 wheels i have!
It was way ahead of its time that’s for sure
What a shame this never went into production. :(
PeugeotRocket I know, right? A true beauty.
PeugeotRocket lmao its ugly as hell lmao
PeugeotRocket true I changed my comment
I think it's pretty cool looking actually. The front looks much better than the back though.
Looks like a Saturn ion/ Pontiac SunFire.
They learned from american tv that tires can sqeal on grass at 0:53.
is that the executive producer of grand tour?
edit :
well I knew now where clarkson got his review style
First time I've ever heard or seen this car.. looks pretty cool, has different styling than most cars.
that's the MAD Special from Choro Q2 & Q3 !!!
Sorta looks like a Mitsubishi Eclipse at the back, sweet looking car, shame it never materialised
wow
Jesus that poor FC... Bottomed out so hard on the landing
Holy crap, it has the same front spoiler as the Ferrari 488 Pista.
The RX7 was really more expensive than a BMW? Crikey! It's funny seeing Wilman in front of the camera, I thought he only ever produced.
Yup, it does happen. Heck, the RX-7 at one point cost more than the E36 M3.
Still looks modern
Amazing front end.
The RX-01 would have been a better car. Because 220hp in this lighter car would have been better than the larger and heavier RX-8
would love to know his opinion on the styling now, love the rear lights, not as in your face as a clio rear end and front end looks good too.
that body design is absolutely flawless
Tukaw its hideous what are you talking about
im talking about the perfection of curvature across the entire length of the body.
Tukaw what? I've seen better looking concept cars than that for instance the challenger concept
im not saying your judgement of car style is inadequate, im saying objectively the body design on the mazda rx-01 is (in my opinion) unique, eye catching, incredibly functional, and most importantly mazda.
The Smith's!!! Awesome intro song :)
Supersnake 93 WHATS THE NAME OF THE SONG?!
Boy did they fuck up bad on this XD
DanKorCZ I know. I would've preferred this over the RX-8, but the short wheelbase has me a little sketched out. Might be a bit too twitchy on loose surfaces. I'm a rally guy. Sue me. By the way, love your avatar.
YEah, although I'm not into motorsports (Yeah I know weird) I do respect that it would be more of a track car... although that doesn't mean this wouldn't be able to compete in rally against little Renaults and Peugeots
although I prefer the way the RX-8 looks
its crazy what they thought was like modern and current. its funny.
I don't know why people are commenting saying that this should have been built,its a true beauty,etc.The car is ugly as balls,the interior makes me wanna throw up, those rims look like they belong on a lowrider,need I go on more?
Looks nothing like the old mazda fc fd and rx3 no wonder it wasn't put into production.Would've been a huge ugly flop like ford's edsel
That's well nice car RX-01.
Well that never got launched
AK type R sadly...
that became the RX-8
DaBrute eventually but the rx8 looks completely different
Back when Japan used to creates some Sexy Sport Cars
fu..k this is proper TopGear.
Wow that looks like something that would be sold today. Are you sure that car is 20 years old? (Might need a couple of tweeks but dam near spot on). All it needs is a sub 18k usd price tag
You can see the rx8 in he front if you put the lights on there
2:37, garish interior ''keep it simple'' lmao
I love the comments, half of them think this is the best car ever and the other half is grateful this never came out. this would've been worse for Mazda than the rx8. this thing looks like a Honda
make it a dfi hi compression/ev hybrid and u might have a winner rotary lol. decent tq mpg and that rotary high rpm noise
Money
Is this apresentator Mr Wilman that Clarkson,Hammond and May talk so much about on The Grand Tour?
jvq3422 yeah
I would like to have one,
There's a hint of Xedos in it too
The smiths ❤️
Just how many RX-7s broke down making that commercial?
it starts with a the smiths song
It's got the rx8 speedo/ cluster
its like if the corvette was made for consumers
Ah Top Gear, back when it was actually a show about cars. The BBC should go back to this old format, ditch Leblanc and Reid and just get Chris Harris to front a proper car show.
my my was that ever the greatest car never built
Haha Japan's relentless humidity is causing this bloke to melt.
this had to be a proto rx8, same engine output and placement and similar model size.
And y'all wanted to hate on the RX-8's looks, well here's where it started. Not so bad now, eh?
DaveSpen well, most of the time the daughter tends to be hotter than the mom if you look at it that way
I actually think the RX-8 is uglier if perhaps less offensive. And the integrated front spoiler is a far more appealing take on "what we can do when the engine is so small" than the RX-8's "i got a tumor on the bonnet" Although the offcolor top is making me a bit ill.
Is this Jason Plato's brother?!
should have drove it straight into the river
Joseph Allen i agree
Also not keen on the rear of the RX-01, otherwise of the view it would have been a better direction then the RX8 which was a step too far.
This looks just like a La Ferrari!
it never saa the light of day in production
was cool as F
I would of taken this over a saturn/Ford/Mazda rx8
Hmm japan miracle
TONIGHT! Hammond does nothing, and James May also does nothing. I didn't do anything either. Because we're not on this show. Which means we didn't hand anything over to our tamed racing driver, because he hasn't been shipped in by a crate yet. All we know is... Nothing.
Can I have one? Black please.
The RX7 FD is a legendary japanese sports car icon today and nobody has ever heard of this thing.
I think that says it all really.
This prototype was shown at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show but it never went into production.
calling it a potential successor to the FD was a mistake; it was more of a completely different car, like other RX's with numbers other than 7 at the end. To me, it looks like its a decade older in design from the FD.
If they only used the MX5 and and other platforms that would suite it, to have a rotary engine option to support/subsidize the motor and maybe we wouldn't be RX-less right now and for the foreseeable future.
I think i just threw up..... This rotard says thank god they didnt build it. Its ugly as hell. Hopefully they do better on the 9. I am happy with the way the r3 8s look.
It's ugly and we know from the RX-8 that the HP was likely inflated a bit. Also I don't know what he's on about with what sounded like the MX-5 had edge in handling of the 3rd gen RX-7.
The price was high for the 3rd gen cars but in the early 90's it's was one the best handling cars at any price.
The back looks like a Ford escort zx2
Could you imagine a programme opening with that criticism nowadays haha. They'd be hanged for racism or some other crap lol
Thanks God that was never made into production
Well it sure would be nice if they'd roll this out of the moth balls and tweak it and bit and make it the NEW RX9 or just leave it as the RX01 or RX10 who cares..just build it!!!!
The "top secret" replacement for the RX7 was soooo top secret that no one's actually seen one.
Oh frothing at the mouth over this one and bagging on the FD... hindsight though. They did finally essentially build this car but uglier. Called it the RX-8
why... why on earth did we get the rx8 instead of something more closer to this..? you NEVER turn your sportscar into an eco 4 door grocery getter. unreliable, horrible on gas, rotary... so not many people are used to working on them... yeah i can see why the rx8 flopped. especially comparing it to the beauty that is the rx7
like the 7 is any more reliable, better on gas, and doesn't have a wankel . and btw tge rx8 wasn't meant to be an eco car at all
The rear reminds me of a 458:488
Did that pompous fool just diss the RX-7? When the RX-01 drove through heaps of Mazda meetings it became the RX-8.
Hideous design.
Took the turbos off.... stopped watching.
Its so ugly! Almost as ugly as the BMW i3!!!
man, old top gear hosts sucked!
bo darville Andy Wilman went on to do pretty well in the car show biz as a producer: Top Gear, Grand Tour, etc.
Christ, what a hideous vehicle
Azurex agreed.
would love to know his opinion on the styling now, love the rear lights, not as in your face as a clio rear end and front end looks good too.