The Mazda RX-500 with Wankel mid-engine from 1970
10/10/2012
In 1970, Mazda presented the RX-500, a mid-engined sports car with a twin-disc Wankel engine, at the 17th Tokyo Motor Show. No other car looked like this forward-looking Mazda. The engine came from a racing car and is said to have produced around 250 hp with Weber carburetors, so the targeted top speed of 201 km/h seems quite realistic.
However, Mazda was not primarily concerned with performance, but with safety in the higher speed range. For this reason, the prototype also had different colored rear lights to indicate whether the car was accelerating, braking or cruising.
Thanks to its plastic body, the car weighed just 850 kg and was fully functional.
Apparently, the Mazda RX 500 was forgotten after its presentation in 1970 until it was rediscovered and restored a few years ago.
The original pictures are of course stored in the Zwischengas archive and we have published an extensive article on the Wankel engine .
