Last week, Mazda made official what many of us had suspected for a while: the Mazda RX-8 will soon be no more. Goodbye, communicative chassis; goodbye, odd-yet-useful rear suicide doors; goodbye, screaming rotary engine. You shall be missed.

But it’s not all bad news coming out of Mazda these days. The car maker’s official Twitter feed recently dropped news that Mazda is hard at work developing new models to be driven by Wankel engines. “Mazda is aiming to achieve a breakthrough with the ‘Skyactiv’ technology, and we are currently zealously working on a new model to house the next generation rotary engine,” the @Mazda_PR Twitter feed posted on October 8th.

Last we’d heard, Mazda had put its program to develop a new rotary on the back burner in order to work on other engine projects, so we’re hoping this news means the rotary is back in full development mode. (We also hope the new one will use laser ignition, because it’s just awesome.) What sort of new car might the next Wankel inhabit? A new RX-7 always seems like it’d be a safe bet, but if Mazda’s feeling adventurous, maybe they’ll do something as unique as the RX-8 was. [via Twitter, Integrity Exports]