Mazda Motor Company celebrated its 100-year anniversary. To honor this important date, the company will start “Year of events” as a tribute to its history.
Founded as “Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd” on January 30, 1920, the Japanese company strives to “question the accepted practices and to invent new pathways in engineering and design that others deem impossible.” The journey of Mazda began with the production of machine tools, but then in 1931 the first vehicle of the company-the three-wheel “truck” Mazda-Go-DA was shown to the public. The working principle was primitive but effective – motorcycle with motor capacity 482 cc. and a trailer that are combined into one.
During 1960, the first car of the company – R360, which had a 365cc engine with air cooling and 16HP, was uncovered. But the real sensation happened a year later when Mazda signed an agreement to develop a wankel engine, together with the German company NSU.
In 1967, Cosmo Sport became the world’s first serial sports car powered by a rotary engine. His debut was at the Tokyo Motor Show, with six years of brutal and painful development finally paid off.
In the following years, the Mazda Motor Company (as officially renamed in 1984) became the first Japanese brand to win 24 hours of Le Mans in 1991. Thanks to the 787B – a monster car with a four-rotor 2.6-litre aggregate, low weight and incredible sound that is hard to forget. The RX-7 (one of the most popular sports cars to this day) helps to promote more sales of cars with this type of drive.
The legendary MX-5/Miata, which was unveiled in 1989, is the lightest two-seater car that remains the best-selling roadster so far, as in 2016 (already in its fourth generation) surpasses the bar of 1 million cars produced.
