A turning tide

THE OIL CRISIS OF THE ’70s SENT THIS STYLISH ROTARY INTO A SPIN

MOST PEOPLE WOULD agree that this Mazda RX-4 Hardtop is a damn fine car. American-inspired Coke bottle curves, aggressive quad-headlamp grille and a kicked-up tail, with chrome bumpers smoothly massaged into the styling. Larger than any Mazda before it, the RX-4 was comfortably equipped inside and interestingly, and certainly adequately, powered by a rotary engine.

Too bad it almost killed the company.

Okay, that’s not entirely how it happened. Mazda had thrown almost everything into developing the rotary, which had been its ticket to freedom from a government-planned merger with Nissan and Toyota.

The rotary-engined R100 and RX-2 led Mazda’s launch into the US market in 1970. Mazda had done its homework in anticipation of the US Clean Air Act and the rotary was among few engines expected to comply, thanks to a thermal reactor exhaust device already installed.

By 1973, 80 percent of Mazda’s US sales were of RX rotary models. The larger, in-house designed RX-4 had made its debut in 1972 in sedan, coupe (Hardtop) and wagon – initially powered by the 1146cc 12A and, in late-1973 (early-’74 in Australia) by the 1308cc 13B.

The RX-4 sailed through the now-tougher US emissions laws, but in October 1973, the OPEC oil crisis put the focus instead onto fuel consumption – the rotary’s weakness. With its dominant rotary cars now dubbed ‘gas guzzlers’, Mazda’s US sales tanked by 40 percent. Back in Hiroshima, Sumitomo bankers joined the company board to fend off bankruptcy (not for the first or the last time).

This dark decade in Mazda’s history, which would be turned around in 1977-’78 by the runaway 323 and the sexy RX-7 rotary, has left the handsome RX-4 overlooked. The 13B-equipped Series 2, like our pictured 1974 Hardtop, looked identical to its 12A predecessor, but copped improved performance as well as handling, thanks to better rear-end location and wider tyres.

The leaf-sprung rear-end was hardly cutting-edge, but combined with MacPherson struts up front, decent steering and strong disc/drum brakes, the RX-4 was a more spacious and sensible-shoes alternative to the boy-racer, 12A-powered RX-3.

Some 223,361 RX-4s had been built when production ended in 1977.