It’s not the 1st of April but I’d still be taking this one with a grain of salt, for the time being at least. These images have appeared on the JustPut.com forum with the claim that they are quite possibly a Mazda RX-9 Concept, due for production in 2012. Not being a big fan of the styling of the RX-8, these renderings if genuine, do little to excite, appearing in many ways to be an evolution of the current car, less the rear doors. The rear styling appears to be unique but not terribly noteworthy.

It would be nice to see Mazda go back to its roots and develop a serious looking successor to the now legendary RX-7 series – and that means a genuine two door, like the renderings…but not like the renderings if you know what I mean.

The rest of the speculation is all good, with a larger 1.8-litre Renesis rotary sporting twin turbo-chargers, supposedly being earmarked for the “9” which should address the torque deficit found in the RX-8. The gearbox is reported to be a six-speed dual clutch unit similar to that found in Mitsubishi’s EvoX and the concept retains the RX-8’s rear wheel drive layout.

I’ll let you be the judge of whether the images are genuine or the product of a bored 12 year old on school holidays.

GALLERY » mazda-rx9

[Source: JustPut.com via Autoblog]