When Mazda came to the States, it was with little economy cars. Their ads said "... and Mazdas go hhhmmm." In the ads Japanese guys were dressed like the Beatles and Japanese girls wore go-go boots and they were playing wild music and jumping up and down.
My Cosmo is a Series II that was once owned by an American U2 pilot living in Japan. It still has the pilot's insignia and a window decal that says "Japan Special Forces." He brought the car back to Florida. And I bought it from the guy who bought it from him. Restoring this car was a challenge. You can't get original Cosmo parts, at least not over here. Luckily, the car was in good shape, with all the trim. We changed as little as possible, including these two funky speakers in the back window. They look like accessory units that you'd get in Circuit City or Radio Shack--sort of two black tissue boxes sitting on the back shelf. But I looked in the manual and they're original.
The engine was completely shot. Since we don't have any experience with these at the Big Dog Garage, we figured we'd consult the experts. So I called Dave Lemon at Mazdatrix in Signal Hill, Calif., who's been working on rotaries since 1982. We upgraded the Cosmo's L10 engine to a 12A, with a custom intake manifold and a Weber side-draft carburetor. We updated the brakes and shocks and replaced the gearbox with one from an RX-7.
Amazingly, the Cosmo weighs only about 2200 pounds. So everything in it is exceptionally easy and light. The engine just keeps on revving. It has this motorboat-like wwwrrrwwwrrr at idle. When you put your foot in it, it makes you smile. It revs to 9500 rpm, easily. And the engine dates from the days when taking your MGB to 5200 rpm would cause rods to start popping through the valve covers.
The Cosmo is a uniquely styled Japanese interpretation of what a Western sports car should look like. Face it, it's curious looking. But I like it. It doesn't really look like anything else.
And, it was ahead of its time. World War II was only 20 years behind us and the Japanese still had a reputation for making crappy products. What would you rather have? A Corvette? An XKE? Or a Japanese car with an engine that nobody ever heard of? And with a name like Cosmo?
So by the time production ended in 1972 the Cosmo Sport 110S had only had a run of about 1200 units. Mazda kept a Cosmo model in production for many years, but it was a less interesting car.
Mazdas were marketed as economy cars in the early 1970s, right in the midst of the first fuel crisis. But even at their best, rotaries were never noted for their fuel economy. Still, I have to hand it to Mazda. They eventually improved everything about the rotary engine. They were the first to make the rotary work. And they're still selling them today.
