Carson Chen

MAZDA COSMO 110S

One of the most exciting cars in Pacific Grove made its way there via Carmel, where it picked up a class win at the Concours on the Avenue the previous day. Carson Chen’s 1967 Cosmo fits the Little Car Show brief perfectly, with a 982cc capacity and a wild design rarely seen on the road. “I first gained an appreciation of Wankel rotary technology after buying an RX-7 project to work on with my son,” says Chen. “Something about this manufacturer and its innovations captured our imagination.” The lion’s share of Cosmos remain in Japan, where Chen found his car: “I watched it for two and a half years, and was finally able to bring it to the US last October; 343 S1s were made and 12-16 are thought to survive. Mine has been back to bare metal and repainted, but the rest of the car is original.”