Mazda's Rotary Powered Breadvan

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 INTRO
1:08 CONCEPTION
2:56 DESIGN PROCESS
5:36 1970 TOKYO MOTOR SHOW
6:49 DESIGN OVERVIEW
11:30 MATCHBOX MODEL
12:42 AFTER THE SHOW
14:01 RESTORATION/MODERN DAY

DESCRIPTION
The RX500 uses retractable headlights… or it appears to, at least. They're actually dummy lights. Marker lights are set below these. A set of intakes on the hood channel air to the radiator. More air is channeled there via a thin grille under the nose. The door on the hood doesn't open forward or backward, but to the left. And there isn't a luggage compartment back there, either. Early publicity shots show an off-center RX500 badge. Mazda presumably removed this after painting the car yellow. After the event, a circular badge depicting a rotary engine was placed on the nose. This, too, was later removed.

The rear end is the RX500’s most distinctive area. It features a set of multicolored lights. The green ones at the top light up when the car is accelerating. The yellow lights below these come on when speed has been reduced. And the red lights activate sequentially depending on how hard the brakes are applied. White reverse indicators are placed at the very bottom.

Between the lights sits a large grille. Mazda would know as well as anyone the thermal issues that rotary engines have. When viewed straight on, we don't see the engine, but the spare tire. The area below this has changed over the years. Originally, it was just another grille section. A thick red divider ran through it. Later, Mazda affixed a plate bearing the slogan “Powered By ROTARY.” A set of square tail pipes house a quartet of exhaust tips. The website Chicappa AZ1 reveals that only the right one is functional. The left one is a dummy.

After the Tokyo Motor Show, the automaker explored building the RX500 as a successor to the Cosmo Sport. Fukuda said that it was too large compared to the Cosmo to be viable and that the team had trouble shrinking it down to size. Production plans ended permanently in the wake of the 1973 Oil Crisis.

This didn’t keep it from becoming something of a halo car for the company. It toured dealerships around the world as a display vehicle. Fukuda stated that it sustained damage during these excursions. While undertaking repairs, the automaker decided to perform some visual changes.


Fixed headlights replaced the dummy pop-up units. This change occurred rather quickly. This photo was taken during Mazda’s 1971 shipment ceremony. It commemorates the year’s first shipment of vehicles and takes place near the start of the calendar. The Tokyo Motor Show ended on the 12th of November, meaning that the lights were installed about two months after the event at the latest.

Silver paint was applied some time later. The familiar Mazda word mark, first used in 1975, was affixed to the doors and hood. This photograph shows it displayed alongside two SA RX7s. This one competed at the 1979 Monte Carlo Rally. The one beside it was modified by Mazda tuning house Racing Beat to run at Bonneville in 1978. And then Mazda stowed it away in a warehouse.