50 good reasons to drive rotary pickup
Let’s celebrate rotary anniversary with a retro road drive. By David Linklater.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mazda’s first rotary-powered production car. And this year is almost over.
Do we need any more justification to go and drive some classic rotary vehicles?
Mazda North American Operations (MNAO), based in Irvine, California, has a bunch of cool ‘‘heritage’’ stuff in its basement. It’s not a museum because it’s not open to the public, but there is a car collection that’ll make you go weak at the knees. More about that another day.
Our visit to Irvine is a short diversion en route to the Los Angeles Auto Show, made very sweet by the that fact that MNAO has lined up four classic rotaries from its collection for a day’s driving: the REPU pickup truck from 1974, an FB-generation RX-7 GSL-SE (1985), a final-generation FD RX-7 (1995) and a 2011 RX-8.
There’s some box-ticking, bucket-listing stuff here, made all the more glorious by the fact that there’s really no commercial or promotional reason for Mazda to let us loose in these things.
In fact, rotary power is a bit of a touchy subject in some quarters at the company, because it’s the technology everybody asks about and something Mazda doesn’t have at the moment.
The closest we’ll get in the medium-term is a humble rotary range-extender engine in its forthcoming electric vehicle range, from 2019.
So this is all simply for the sheer joy of it. A decent spin in some classics: 300km-plus in the So-Cal sun.
As if the day couldn’t get any better, I also managed to cycle through the cars in chronological order: not only experiencing the evolution of rotary lunacy but also starting out in what’s possibly the best vehicle ever made.
The REPU is the world’s first and only rotary-powered pickup truck, based on the Mazda B-series (think of it as the BT-50 of the 1970s), an oddity produced exclusively for the United States and Canada.
Why? Well, why not? Mazda was all about rotary power in that era, at least until the oil crisis killed all the fun. MNAO’s REPU (in case you hadn’t twigged, it stands for Rotary Engine PickUp) has been tricked up, with a fivespeed manual gearbox from an RX7 and ridiculously loud exhaust system by Mazda specialist Racing Beats.
Mad Mike would approve: the Kiwi connection to REPU is that NZ drifter Whidett ran one while competing in the US in 2015, a vehicle since immortalised by Hot Wheels.
This REPU, resplendent in period green with gold pinstripes, is an absolute hoot to drive. Past 3000rpm it’s easily the loudest thing in this fleet-of-four and possibly the loudest thing on the road at any given time.
The raspy engine note is like a rotary-shaped rag to a bull-headed driver, enthusiasm tempered only the knowledge that the position of the steering wheel has quite a vague relationship to the direction of travel and that the brakes are apparently made from modified boot-polish tins.
The boot polish in question was probably blue. At least that was the colour of the smoke pouring out from the REPU’s front brakes as we followed it down a steep descent later in the day, from the relative safety of the RX-7 GSL-SE. Hilarious.
The RX-7 was introduced in 1978, but the silver example featured here is a 1985 GSL-SE model, the third-and-final iteration of that original shape powered by a fuel-injected 101kW engine.
This is Eighties swish: sumptuous red leather, silver interior trim and a cassette-audio system with graphic equaliser and joystick four-way balance control.
The intention was to enjoy it ironically, but I was actually taken aback at what a nice car this is to drive, even by modern standards. I’m getting the best possible experience, of course: this example has just 2400km on the clock. No, there isn’t a zero missing. There’s no torque to speak of, but the 13B engine is faultlessly smooth and light weight, with a balanced and nimble feel on the road.
If only I could truly fit in the cabin: it’s comfortable enough, but the sunroof fitted to this car means my head is jammed into the roof lining. Imagine how it would be with 1980s-hair.
Weirdly, the FD RX-7 is 10 years newer but feels a lot more downbeat in the cabin; possibly because its 1990s interior style is not yet old enough to be interesting. But it does have that now-classic ‘‘Batmobile’’ exterior shape and it’s a very fast car.
This generation of RX-7 was the first export model to have a sequential twin-turbo rotary and this one winds up to 188kW.
The RX-8 might be the newest machine here, but this particular example is arguably the most special of today’s fleet. It’s the last rotary-engined car to be imported into the US and it still wears the ‘‘LM20’’ decal package fitted to US media cars in 2011 (celebrating 20 years since Mazda’s Le Mans victory with the rotary-powered 787B). All but two had those stickers subsequently removed; one’s in private hands and this one belongs to MNAO.
Amazing how similar this feels to the FD on the road, despite the decades between them. A bit more rotary rasp and a lot more passenger space, but the Eight definitely picks up where the Seven left off.
Couple more things: this one’s an RX-8 R3, which has enhancements including Bilstein suspension, larger 19-inch wheels, sports seats and a unique front bumper. Oh, and this example has just 130km on the clock, so it’s hardly been driven over the last six years. Very collectible then.
Correction: it had 130km on the clock. Our little outing nearly tripled that figure.
This year marks 50 years of Mazda’s rotary technology and all of the above marks Mazda’s generosity in letting a couple of Kiwis go touring on public roads in four cars from its private collection.
Great day. My head’s still spinning.