It’s good to know there’s at least one person with pull at Mazda who wants the company’s rotary-powered two-door sports car to return. Mazda’s head of design, Ikuo “Speedy” Maeda, has an interest in creating a new RX-7 for his company for at least two reasons: one, his father designed the original RX-7; and two, he loves driving. For God’s sake, his nickname is “Speedy.” (You have any idea how much you have to like going fast to score that nickname in the automotive industry?) He wants to do a RX-7 so badly, he’s willing to beg for it. “Please ask Mazda to do a new sports car, please,” he implored during a recent chat with Motor Trend. Mazda is reportedly working on developing a new and improved rotary engine, with the goal of figuring out a way to reduce gasoline and engine oil usage (both of which are notoriously poor in rotary engines) in part by adapting the company’s new “Sky” engine tech being used in Mazda’s upcoming conventional gas and diesel powerplants. The company claims the Sky technology will allow their cars to deliver equivalent fuel economy to present-day hybrids; if they can successfully mate that tech to the rotary engine, it might spell a second coming for Felix Wankel’s baby…and the RX-7. [via Motor Trend, Car Tech]

(Pictured: 2002 Mazda RX-7)