More details and photos of Mazda’s Taiki concept

Posted Fri Oct 12 2007 6:58 AM by Viknesh Vijayenthiran

Mazda was one of the first carmakers to reveal its upcoming concepts planned for this month’s Tokyo Motor Show with the reveal last week of the stunning Taiki Concept and an all-new rotary engine. The only solid info released with the concept was that it will be powered by a larger displacement 1.6L twin-rotor engine dubbed the 16X and previews a possible design direction for a future generation of Mazda sports cars.

We now have some of the official specs of the car including details about a Mazda developed dual-clutch gearbox. Engineers considered two separate gearbox designs for the Taiki, a seven-speed dual-clutch unit or a more conventional sequential manual transmission. We’ll have to wait until the Tokyo show to find out which one they went with but there’s a good chance it’s the dual-clutch.

Driving the rear wheels is the 16X rotary engine, which features direct-injection technology. The Taiki also rides on double-wishbone suspension and 22in alloys shod with 195mm Yokohama tires all around. Its wheelbase is a generous 3.0m and its super slippery shape delivers a drag coefficient of just 0.25Cd.

The Taiki certainly ticks all the right boxes but how many of these elements actually make it onto a production car is still up in the air. Thankfully, Mazda is the type of company that has the guts to break the mold and launch a product packed with innovative and unique features.