It may be hard to imagine now, as Toyota endures its current safety recall nightmare and Honda loses focus, but as little as 15 years ago, the Japanese auto manufacturers built not just solid, reliable cars, but exciting, soul-stirring sports cars. From 1985 to 2000, the list of Japanese sports cars offered in America - both legendary and forgotten - was massive:
Acura Integra Type R, Acura NSX, Honda CRX, Honda Civic del sol, Honda Prelude, Honda S2000, Isuzu Impulse, Lexus SC300/400, Mazda MX-3, Mazda MX-5 Miata, Mazda MX-6, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Starion, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Nissan 240SX, Nissan 300ZX, Subaru XT, Subaru SVX, Toyota MR2, Toyota Celica, and Toyota Supra.
Many of them had pop-up headlights, high-strung turbocharged engines, all-wheel-drive powertrains, and even 4-wheel steering setups. Back in the day, the odds were that if it was Japanese and had 2 doors, it was a technological and performance tour-de-force. They made the traditional American and European sports cars of the day look positively dowdy, pudgy, and agricultural by comparison.
By the year 2000, though, most of them were either gone or on their way out as their manufacturers stopped running the performance race, but instead raced to the middle to offer buyers bland sedans by the hundreds of thousands. Today, only 6 of the above sports car legends survive in any form. This week's Car of the Week celebrates the prettiest, yet among the shortest-lived (in America, anyway) of them all - the 1993-95 Mazda RX-7.
Of all the major Japanese auto manufacturers, Mazda has always gone their own way. Ever since their entrance into the American market in 1970, the company has positioned itself as a maker of vehicles that had a few things in common with each other: responsiveness, attainable performance, and driving enjoyment best described by their own marketing department as "zoom-zoom".
When the first generation RX-7 debuted on American soil, Mazda was in serious trouble. The company had staked its reputation on cars (and even small pickups) motivated by powerful, compact, lightweight, revolutionary Wankel Rotary engines. Known for incredibly smooth operation, simplicity derived from using very few moving parts, and unbelievable power output for its size, engineers the world over were starstruck by the rotary when it debuted under the hoods of German NSUs and Japanese Mazdas in the late 1960s. Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, and Citroen in particular jumped on the 3-lobe bandwagon and came up with their own designs, fully intending to produce them for use in the retail auto market.
However, the advantages that rotary engines had were offset by some major disadvantages, chief among them being high fuel consumption. But that particular drawback, at the height of the muscle car era when gas prices were around 35 cents a gallon, didn't really matter to most people.
When the first energy crisis hit in October 1973, fuel prices skyrocketed as gasoline was rationed and people waited for hours in miles-long lines to put a few gallons of gas at a time in their tanks. These conditions effectively killed the Mercedes, GM, and Citroen rotary projects where they stood. But it was especially bad news for Mazda, which had a product line chock full of rotary-equipped compact coupes, sedans and wagons that yielded fuel economy on par with the much bigger fuel-swilling V8-powered American cars of the day. As a result, Mazda saw sales plunge from 105k cars sold in 1973 to 35k in '76. So they worked with all possible haste to replace their rotary-engined lineup with cars powered by more economical conventional piston engines.
But the plucky little carmaker didn't give up on the rotary engine design. They continued to develop it, and find greater efficiencies with it. And by 1978, with a razor-sharp focus guiding them, they found the engine's calling in life, placing it under the hood of a sexy, new 2-seat hatchback sports coupe called the RX-7. In so doing, a new automotive legend was born. And it would be the only Mazda vehicle sold in North America to carry the engine from that point until its cancellation.
The strategy worked. When the second gas crisis hit in 1979, sales for the whole brand nearly quintupled, to 156k. And along with the piston-engined line, the RX-7 found plenty of homes, too.
For 1985, the RX-7's twin-rotor engine grew from 1.1 to 1.3 litres displacement, good for 135 horsepower. By comparison, the much bigger, heavier Camaro Z-28, with its standard 5.0L V8, managed 155. In 1986, the RX-7 saw its first full redesign, and along with it, optional turbocharging. The latter updated would bring the little spinner's output up to 182 horsepower.
For 1993, Mazda once again redesigned the car and thoroughly updated the engine. Still a 1.3L, the 13B-REW - as it was called internally at Mazda - mill had twin intercooled turbochargers strapped to it. They worked in concert to achieve a staggering 255 horsepower, pushing the 2800lb car from zero to 60mph in a claimed 4.9 seconds.
But the '93 RX-7 wasn't just about putting up the performance numbers. Its incredible engine was wrapped in a sexy, curvaceous liftback coupe body featuring blacked-out horizontal taillights, front fender exhaust scoops mounted aft of the front wheel arches, a Jaguar-esque gaping grille opening, and cleverly hidden doorhandles. The car retained its characteristic retractable headlights, yet showed extremely cool scooped door shut lines that gave every aspiring young car nut across America - including myself - the inspiration to put them on every car we'd sketch in our notebooks at the back of our classrooms for years to come.
Initial reviews of the car were extremely positive. Acceleration was mind-blowing. Handling was phenomenal. And fuel consumption, though still below ideal, was improved despite the massive increase in power. Criticisms were focused around the hard ride quality, cramped interior quarters, and steep asking price ($32,500 base in 1993). But the sinewy, muscular, yet elegant styling was what set many-an-auto journalist's heart aflutter.
However, the poor ride quality and high price conspired to do the car in on the American market. Mazda engineers tampered with the suspension settings, softening the standard setups for 1994 and again in 1995, while offering the original tuning as a performance option. But their efforts would ultimately be in vain. When, at the end of the 1995 model year, dealers still had droves of them on lots, Mazda decided to pull the plug on importation to the States. And despite the presence of the 4-door, 4-seat RX-8 on our shores today, the original RX-7 concept hasn't been seen here since.
Despite the car's poor sales performance, resale values have held up quite well. A good condition '95 example books today for $18,500. Its Dodge Stealth R/T turbo AWD and Porsche 968 competitors list for less than $8k, and $14k, respectively, in the same condition.
And after 17 years, its luscious styling has aged gracefully, indeed. Comparing the Mazda's styling today to its contemporary Mitsubishi 3000GT rival is like comparing Jennifer Aniston to Kirstie Alley in the ways they have tacked on the years. In fact, as a testament to the inherent goodness of the design, Mazda kept the 3rd generation RX-7 in production with minimal exterior modifications for Japanese consumption through the end of 2002.
But that's not the end of the story. Rumor has it that Mazda is hard at work on a 4th generation RX-7 that's supposed to feature an all-new rotary engine. Given the current economic downturn and ever-tightening fuel economy and emissions regulations, whether the RX-7 redux ever sees the light of day is certainly still in question.
Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, and to a lesser extent, Nissan, have largely ditched their performance credentials as they've sought instead to peddle large pickups, SUVs, and what equates to beige midsize 4-door tumble dryers to the unimaginative middle of the market. Subaru is heading that direction, as well. Isuzu long since stopped selling passenger cars, and pulled out of the American market entirely (and quietly) after the '08 model year. Mitsubishi and Suzuki are near death in the US, as it stands now.
But Mazda is still hanging in there. They're more than happy to offer any number of piston-engined small and midsize cars and crossovers that'll surely put a smile on your face if you let them. The current RX-8, though no RX-7 successor, will certainly do that, in spades. The MX-5 Miata is as sharp as ever, too. The company that has put "zoom-zoom" in their commercials for 10 years and in their cars for 40, is now the only Japanese automaker still keeping the faith as alive for enthusiasts today as they were when their factories were pumping out RX-7s.
To my mind, though, the '93-95 RX-7 is the prettiest Japanese production car ever made. Its engineering remains clever and novel. Its performance is still exceptional. Its design is timeless. The 3rd-generation RX-7 is, to this day, nothing short of spectacular. And so it earns its place as Car of the Week.
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