Recently in the far away land of Japan a 2 day motor event was held. The “2 days of Nostalgia” historic/classic car was held on the 5th and 6th of April 2010 showcasing the best of mainly Japanese classic cars. Of course lots of classic 1950s, 1960s and 1970s era Japanese cars were out in full force and this Mazda Cosmo Sport from the late 1960s is one of them. The car in the pictures was prepared by a Japanese tuner called Garage Starfield for its American owner and was returned to the United States after this event.

This car isn't one of those classic cars that runs the original or even the same engine as it first left the Mazda factory in the 1960s. This car is one that has a transplant and modern suspension parts attached to it. Some may say its blasphemy to corrupt a collectible classic, but nothing in this car is irreversible from the looks of it, even the engine can be changed back to stock form. Anyway, the event showcases both 'true to original' and also 'modified classics'. This and another car I have written about showcases the modified classics as there would be not much to show (other than some pictures) if the cars were basically stock.

Back to the Garage Starfield Cosmo. The original 10A rotary engine (491cc x 2) has been replaced by one from the newer 13B (654CC x 2). The suspension has been uprated to suitt the low profile rubber and larger rims. I don't think the stock shocks would be able to carry the unsprung weight of the new, very much larger rims. The seats have been also changed to new Mazdaspeed items that somehow goes well with the retro Nardi steering wheel. The original 10A gave 128ps and 200km/h, this newer 13B has the same power rating but oodles more torque. And given that the original car weighs only 940kg, the power to weight ratio is around the 130bhp per ton level, which is a good figure even by today's standard.

This car is famous for two things. One of the is that this is the world's first production rotary engined car. The second was the German NSU RO80. Both of these cars showed the world that rotary engines were small compact powertrains that were incredibly smooth and refined yet gave a high output per engine capacity. Of course, it also showed the world that mankind could invent a small capacity internal combustion engine that could guzzle petrol faster than a 4liter engine of that era. You win some, you lose some.

The second thing that made this car famous was that it featured heavily in the Japanese television series 'The Return of Ultraman'. Yes. This was the original M.A.T pursuit car or whatever they called it. 'MAT' stands for Monster Attack Team. This was the team that went around searching and trying to destroy big rubber suited monsters from outer space. Unfortunately no one told them that their fireworks based rockets and their puny hand held pistols were no match for these creatures. So the MAT guys went round chasing monsters in a fancy 2 door coupe that guzzled petrol as fast as the monsters could flatten Tokyo but never destroyed anything at all. Luckily they had Ultraman, and we also noted the fact that there were so many cities, towns and buildings to destroy in Japan and the country was rich enough to keep rebuilding the buildings so that monsters as well as Ultraman could flatten them again. If it were me, I'd evacuate the whole of Japan if those monsters kept appearing there. Then I'd also serve a lawsuit to Ultraman and/or the chap who became him for billions of yen worth of property damage. But that's another story altogether. Enjoy the photos posted on the Garage Starfield Cosmo for now. It's a beaut.


- check out the twin exhausts





- this photo is for those Ultraman fans out there

Motor Show, Classic Car Show and 5 more...

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