Mazda Cosmo
There have been four generations of
Mazda automobiles which went by the name of
Cosmo, although they are not all particularly related. All were
GT cars, with the first proving a successful launch for the
Mazda Wankel engine and acting as a
halo vehicle for the new Mazda brand. Later Cosmos competed in the ultra-high luxury performance market in Japan with the final JC Cosmo (1990-1995) sold as the
Eunos Cosmo -
Eunos was a luxury sales channel similar to
Toyota's
Lexus brand.
The first Mazda to wear the Cosmo name (called the
Cosmo Sports or
110S) was the first 2-rotor
rotary engine powered car. A prototype was introduced at the 1964
Tokyo Motor Show, and 60 pre-production Cosmos were produced for dealership testing in 1965. Full production began in May of 1967 and lasted through 1972, though Cosmos were built by hand at a rate of only about one per day.
Cosmos were built in five batches:
| Date | Number | Engine | Description | | 1963 | 2 | 8A | prototype Cosmo |
| 1964 | 1 | 10A | Tokyo Motor Show prototype |
| January 1965 | 60 | 0810 | preproduction test cars |
| May 1967-July 1968 | 343 | 0810 | Series I |
| July 1968-September 1972 | 1,176 | 0813 | Series II |
Racing
In 1968, Mazda went racing with the Cosmo. They selected one of the most grueling tests in Europe to prove the reliability of the rotary engine, the 84-hour
Marathon de la Route at the legendary
Nürburgring circuit in Germany. Two mostly-stock Cosmos were entered, along with 58 other cars. One major change to the cars'
10A engines was the addition of a novel side- and peripheral-port intake system: A butterfly valve switched from the side to the peripheral port as RPMs increased. The engines were limited to 130
PS to improve durability.
The cars ran together in fourth and fifth place for most of the race, but the all-Japanese car was retired with axle damage in the 82nd hour. The other car, driven by Belgians, completed the race in fourth overall. This was to be the only racing outing for the Cosmo - the next Mazda race car would be a
Familia Rotary (R100).
See also:
*
Speed Arena History of RotarySeries I
The
Series I/L10A Cosmo was powered by a
0810 two-rotor engine with 982 cc of displacement and produced about 110 hp (thus the
110 name). It used a
Hitachi 4-barrel
carburetor and an odd ignition design - two spark plugs per chamber with dual distributors. A 4-speed
manual transmission and 14 in wheels were standard.
The front
independent suspension was
A-arm/coil spring design with an
anti-roll bar. The rear used a
live axle with a
de Dion tube, trailing arms, and semi-elliptic
leaf springs. Non-powered 10 in
disk brakes were found in front with 7.9 in
drum brakes in the rear. Performance in the quarter-mile (400 m) was 16.4 s, with a 115 mph (185 km/h) top speed. The price was lower than the
Toyota 2000GT at 1.48 million yen (US$4,100).
Series II
 |
Mazda Cosmo Sport L10B/Series II (note the larger "mouth") |
The
Series II/L10B was introduced in July, 1968. It had a more-powerful 128 hp (95 kW)/103 ft·lbf (140 N·m)
0813 engine, power brakes, 15 in wheels and a 5-speed
manual transmission. The wheelbase had been expanded by 5.9 in for more room and a better ride. This Cosmo was good for over 120 mph (193 km/h) and could accelerate to cover a quarter mile (400 m) in 15.8 s.
Visual changes included a larger grille under the front bumper with two additional vents to each side of this "mouth". Only 1,519 were ever made, and just six were imported into the
United States. The price was up a bit to 1.48 million yen (US$4,390).
Talk show host
Jay Leno owns what is believed to be the only remaining Series II Cosmo in the
United States, a 1970 model featured on the
Speed Channel series
My Classic Car in March, 2006.
The second generation
CD Cosmo appeared in 1975 and lasted until 1981. It was known as the
Cosmo AP in Japan, and sold internationally as the
Mazda RX-5, though in some export markets its piston powered counterpart was called the
Mazda 121 (a name later applied to Mazda's subcompact model). Mazda America used the Mazda Cosmo name and offered it from 1976 through 1978. The CD Cosmo/RX-5 series was a flop internationally as Mazda tried too hard to "Americanize" the car. It was however an enormous success in Japan where over 55,000 where sold in the first year alone. Due to its poor sales as an export, the series-II version from 79-81 was not exported and remained on domestic sale only.
The Cosmo was Mazda's 'large' compact rotary coupe and based on the
Mazda RX-4 floorpan and mechanics, but slightly heavier due to body design and more luxurious appointments, including an 5-link rear suspension and rear disc brakes. It was available with the
12A and
13B engines.
A piston engine version, the
Cosmo 1800, used a 1769 cc (80x88 mm)
straight-4 SOHC engine that produced 100 hp (75 kW) and 110 ft·lbf (149 N·m).
|
Mazda Cosmo 1979 (French) |
Dimensions:
* Wheelbase: 2510 mm
* Front Track: 1380 mm
* Rear Track: 1370 mm
* Length: 4470 mm
* Width: 1680 mm
* Weight: 1120 kg
The third generation
HB Cosmo from 1982 shared the
Mazda HB chassis with its twin, the
Mazda Luce. The Cosmo name was available on a coupe, hardtop and sedan body. Its equal
Mazda Luce variant was not available in coupe form. The HB Cosmo/Luce was the only car in automotive history to option all three forms of Automotive engine. Piston, Diesel and Rotary.
Mazda offered three versions of rotary engine for the HB series. A 12A-SPI, 12A-turbo and 13B-RESI. The latter available with automatic transmission only. The 1982 12A-turbo Cosmo coupe was officially the fastest production car in Japan at one stage.
The HB Cosmo was sold with its rotary engine option in Japan only. The sedan variant was replaced in 1986, but the Cosmo soldiered on unchanged until 1989.
|
Eunos Cosmo 3-rotor rotary engine |
A truly modern
Eunos Cosmo (roughly based on the 1985 MX-03
concept car) started production in 1990 on the new
JC platform. The Eunos Cosmo was the top-line touring flagship of the Eunos luxury channel. It is the only Mazda to use a triple-rotor engine. The car was a 2+2 coupe and was loaded with power amenities. An electronically controlled 4-speed
automatic transmission was mandatory.
Two engines were available, the twin turbo
13B-RE and the
20B-REW. The triple rotor 20B had two liters (1962 cc) of displacement, which is quite large for a rotary powerplant. It produced 300 hp (224 kW) and 300 ft·lbf (402 N·m) with twin turbochargers.
This 4th generation JC Cosmo was way ahead of its time (1990) by being the first production car with
Car Control System, a
CRT colour
touch-screen controlling
climate control,
mobile phone,
GPS car navigation,
NTSC TV, radio and CD-Player. With the Toyota Soarer following the next year for its V8 Ltd models. The first similar systems appeared 2001 on the
BMW 7-Series (
iDrive).
The Cosmo was manufactured from FEB-90 until SEP-95 for a total of 8875 sales.
Dimensions:
* Wheelbase: 2750 mm
* Front Track: 1520 mm
* Rear Track: 1510 mm
* Length: 4815 mm
* Width: 1795 mm
* Weight: 1570 kg
Mazda Cosmo Specs Mazda Cosmo Specs from 1967 to 1981 *
RotaryEngineIllustrated.com*
*Sam Mitani. (April, 2002). "
Salon: Mazda Cosmo Sport"
Road & TrackCosmo Sport 110 Brochure
