Driving pleasure comes from speed
It's not exactly Mazda that springs to mind when you read the marketing slogan "Driving pleasure comes from speed". At least not the Mazda cars you could buy in the mid-1980s, i.e. the 323, 626, 929 and RX-7 models.
In 1985, however, the Japanese manufacturer presented the Mazda MX-03 concept car at the IAA in Frankfurt , equipped with a three-disc rotary engine with a two-phase turbocharger. The engine produced a whopping 320 DIN horsepower and was built into a flat coupé body that looked not unlike the later Dodge/Chrysler Viper from the front. It was claimed to be capable of 300 km/h, which was certainly an impressive figure.
Even more impressive, however, was the final sentence in the page-filling advertisement: "The MX-03 is a testament to Mazda's forward-looking spirit. It is still only a prototype. But it will be on the market sooner than you can imagine".
Well, to be honest, we're still waiting today, although Mazda did of course launch some fast and attractive vehicles in the years that followed ...
