ORIENT EXPRESS
STAR CARS FROM JAPAN
Some of us are old enough to remember a time when Japanese cars were perceived as the ultimate consumer societ y consumable. Sometimes unkindly and incorrect ly referred to as cheap Japanese junk, t he cars were mostly objects t hat were used until they wore out (which could ta ke decades !) and then dropped of f at t he tip, wit hout look ing back. You can’t rea lly put a f inger on t he date when t his perception changed, as it was more by osmosis than design. However there’s no question the market for the often spectacular gear out of Japan has developed and matured.
Here you’ll f ind t wo of t he a ll-time great examples, plus what our staff would buy. Down the back of this mag you’ll f ind our second annual Japanese Value Guide by Cliff Chambers, which has a wealth of adv ice and info. Enjoy!
When you look back at t he histor y of Wankel engine cars, you could be forgiven for wondering what in hell people were t hinking. The promise of a smoother, more compact and quick-rev v ing powerplant, delivering more horses per cubic inch than a conventiona l four-stroke reciprocating engine was attractive, but not necessarily compelling.
As pioneers such as NSU discovered, there were as many downsides as up to the then comparatively new technolog y. One was gaining reliabilit y – chewed-out rotor sea ls was an issue – and the other was overcoming t he buying public’s natura l suspicion of any technolog y t hat was relatively unproven.
Mazda was rea lly the only company that comprehensively overcame those issues. One of its tactics was to prov ide ample reassurance. In America the company offered a f ive-year or 75,000 mile (120,000k m) warrant y on engines,
way back in t he seventies.
If any car represents t he coming of age of t he rota r y, it’s t he R X-3 in its a lmost baf f ling array of variants. Sold as t he Savanna in other markets, the series based on the Grand Familia platform rolled into t he market in 1971 (March 1972 in Austra lia) powered by the 10A t win-rotor engine.
Displacing 982cc, t he 10A was a litt le powerhouse, giv ing t he R X-3 spark ling performance for its time. Of course t here quick ly developed a whole ecosystem of aftermarket tuners out t here willing to help extract more.
Just to conf use t he issue, t he Series I R X-3s destined for the USA market were f itted with t he larger 12A (1146cc) powerplant right from t he sta rt. We didn’t see t hat unit until t he Series II arrived a couple of years down t he track. The t wo series could be distinguished fa irly easily from t he exterior – particula rly up front, where the second version boasted more
“MAZDA REALLY WAS THE ONLY COMPANY TO OVERCOME THOSE ISSUES”