In the 1990s, Japanese carmakers produced cars to suit every niche. Those Japanese vehicles represented the distinct personalities of their respective marques. For example, Mazda is the only carmaker that successfully brought the rotary engine to market.
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Mazda went all-out for its flagship luxury coupe, creating the most potent street-legal rotary-powered car ever built. The Eunos Cosmo was only sold in Japan, but an imported one is recently for sale on eBay Motors in Houston, Texas.
Two Rotors Good, Three Rotors Better?
Americans know Mazda as a single-make. However, the company marketed several different brands in Japan—similar to Ford-Lincoln-Mercury or Chrysler-Dodge-Plymouth. Eunos was the luxury-oriented marque, and the Cosmo was its flagship model.
Introduced in 1990, it embodied the best technology of the era. It claimed the world’s first production of an in-car GPS. Moreover, Eunos produced the only triple-rotor road car ever built.
Mazda had developed several rotary-powered sports cars, sedans, and wagons dating back to the 1967 Cosmo Sport. Rather than pistons in a cylinder like a conventional engine, the rotary uses triangular rotors nestled inside oblong housings, with combustion spinning the rotors in one direction.
Since there are no reciprocating forces, the result is a smoother-running, higher-revving engine. Rotaries generate more power from a smaller size and use fewer parts. However, the downside is more emissions and less efficiency.
Before the Eunos Cosmo, all production rotaries had dual-rotor engines—two rotors between three housing plates. It was a different story on the track. The rotary engine could expand by adding more rotors and housings to a longer central shaft. That helps explain why Mazda took first place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most challenging and prestigious road race, a year after the Eunos Cosmos’s introduction. Its quad-rotor race engine made 700 horsepower.
Unique Luxury
The Eunos Cosmo’s triple-rotor engine was more tame, making 276 horsepower. That was the output limit agreed upon by Japanese manufacturers at the time. Twin sequential turbos boosted the inherently smooth and powerful engine, delivering a luxury experience unlike anything else.
Inside, it featured a wraparound cabin with two deep bucket seats in the second row. Mazda also made dual-rotor Cosmos cars paired with a four-speed automatic. To understand what the Cosmo was up against, contemporary competitors would have included the Toyota Soarer and Nissan Leopard, known in the US as the Lexus SC and Infiniti M30.
The car for sale on eBay shows the equivalent of 82,000 miles on the odometer. It wears aftermarket wheels and a Kenwood car stereo. The seller states it won an award at the Amelia Island Festival of Speed, a small hint of this car’s historical value.
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