The 30th of May marks the 40th anniversary of the sale of the first Mazda powered by a rotary engine. The Cosmo Sport, which debuted in the Japanese market in 1967, was the world’s first dual-rotor, rotary powered vehicle and one of the first mass produced cars of its type. The motor put out a modest 110hp (82kW) at 7,000rpm and 130Nm of torque at 3,500rpm from its 1.0L displacement and is regarded as Mazda’s first mass produced Wankel rotary engine.
Mazda was not the first manufacturer to mass produce a car powered by a rotary engine. That title was won by Germany’s NSU (currently Audi) Wankel Spider of 1964, and it wasn’t long before the mainstream carmakers such as Citroën, Daimler-Benz, Alfa-Romeo and Mazda joined the rotary bandwagon.
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