Mazda-mania just happened over the weekend, with a record setting 683 Miatas parading in Lelystad, Netherlands. The sight of so many Mazda enthusiasts jogged our foggy memories, and helped us to remember our own personal connections with the brand, as well as some of the greatest Mazda’s of all time.
Perhaps best known for the MX-5 Miata, Mazda has done a lot more than make small roadsters. In an era when many said the small Japanese automaker would have to partner with a bigger industry player, Mazda (as usual) took the road less traveled, engineering new chassis, new engines and an attractive new design language. Combined, it has surprised with an excellent new lineup of vehicles, like the 2014 Mazda6 and CX-5.
Much of that same philosophy and attitude has led Mazda to offer up some impressive models over the years, making the world stand up and take notice. Take a look at this top 10 of the greatest Mazdas over the years, and be sure to pipe in with your own favorites.
An icon to some, to many more it’s an utter unknown. The Mazda 323 GTX is an homologation car, built in limited quantities in order for Mazda to compete in Group A rallying.
It’s not a romantic story, but the car that was offered to the public could make car fans swoon thanks to its all-wheel drive setup and turbocharged 1.6L engine which made 132 hp, and could put the little hatch into 60 mph territory in about 8 seconds – not bad for a car from the 1980s.
Due to its rarity and turbocharged engine, the GTX became an underground icon amongst tuners.
Perhaps Mazda will some day repeat this wild package, delivering a more traction-friendly version of its popular Mazdaspeed3 in honor of the rally special 323 GTX. There’s always hope!
Modern Mazdas have an unmistakable design, and truly stand out from the pack. Look at the Mazda6 for example, which has a cohesive, sculpted look as if the car was made with a single, malleable piece of sheetmetal.
At a time where so many family sedans look so similar, the Mazda6 looks sharp and classy. It’s the Shinari concept that set up this design language, showcasing the look of the current crop of Mazdas way back in 2010.
It was the first time we heard about the “Kodo” style from Mazda. Translated to the soul of motion, the Shinari concept set up the mindset for the new era of Mazda, shying away from the smiley, friendly look of past models and looking far more aggressive and luxurious.
Didn’t expect to see a Ford here? Look closely and you’ll see a lot of the familiar Mazda Protégé sitting beneath the sheetmetal of that Ford.
In an era when domestic automakers couldn’t build a compact car any more than they could turn down a pay raise for unionized labor, the Ford took the “if you can’t beam ’em join ’em” approach. Or to be more precise, if you can’t beat ’em, invest heavily in them and tell them what to do.
A followup to the Pinto (a car so bad it could literally kill you), the Escort was a solid product and a genuine rival to offerings from Honda and Toyota. To date, it’s the best selling Ford car of all time with 20 million units sold throughout the world.
Never afraid to be different, or to flex its engineering might, Mazda launched the Mazdaspeed3 in 2007 taking the sport compact segment by storm.
Mazdaspeed, the brand’s in house tuning and racing division, knows a thing or two about going fast, and outfitted the Mazda3 compact with a turbocharged 2.3L motor. Making 263 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque, the Mazdaspeed3 was known for two things: going fast, and torque-steer.
But it turns out, that’s just what the sport compact buyers wanted. To date, little has been done to the formula of the Mazdaspeed3, and many find it to be an absolute performance bargain.
Thanks to a controlling share held by Ford Motor Company, Mazda couldn’t always do things their way when it came to the Mazda6. That is, until now. Free of the shackles of the American automaker, the Mazda6 has bloomed into one of the most gorgeous and best driving vehicles in its class.
Unmistakable on the road, the Mazda6 is the flagship of the modern day Mazda, with its emphasis on bold styling, impressive driving dynamics, fuel economy and value. The company’s devotion to innovation is also present, as a diesel model is expected to come stateside by the end of the year, making it the first diesel passenger vehicle from a Japanese automaker available in North America.
Easily a rival to the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, the Mazda6 has earned its spot among the very best in the mid-sized sedan segment, something very few automakers can claim.
History has painted Mazda as fierce competitor in the world of motorsports. Helping to fulfill those notions in 2007, Mazda revealed the Furai concept car, a vehicle that embodies the motorsport heritage that is alive and well at Mazda.
Essentially a stylized body on a prototype race car it uses the unique and successful rotary engine and is said to make 450 hp thanks to the use of E100 ethanol fuel.
Wearing #55 like the winning Le Mans car from 1991, the Furai could have been just as successful as the past Mazda racecars… or even inspired an amazing new sports car for the street. Sadly, we’ll never know. The design language is now outdated, and with the concept being almost seven years old, Mazda has retired the project as we haven’t heard anything about Furai for some time.
You’ve heard of the Skyline right? It was the ultimate example of automotive excellence, where Nissan spared no expense to put its Japanese competition to shame. It worked on Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and practically everyone. Mazda on the other hand, made this impressive flagship coupe: the Eunos Cosmo.
You’ll be excused if you haven’t heard of the Eunos Cosmo. American fans had to appreciate the 300 hp, turbocharged rotary engine two-door from afar. The closest thing to driving it came from the Gran Turismo video games. Using a bigger version of the RX-7’s rotary engine, the Eunos Cosmo featured the largest displacement rotary engine sold by Mazda.
Three-hundred horsepower was something to celebrate back in 1990, but so was the color touch-screen, mobile phone, GPS and an honest to goodness TV in the car. Yes, the Eunos Cosmo was something else back in 1990, and it was proof that Mazda could run with the giants like Godzilla.
Mazda gave Le Mans a knockout performance in 1991. No Japanese automaker had ever won the endurance classic before. And none has won it since.
The rotary-powered 787B Race Car outlasted rivals from Mercedes and Jaguar, and took the number one spot with just 2 hours left in the grueling race.
With its success at Le Mans, Mazda is immortalized alongside other great automakers like Audi, Porsche, Ford, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, BMW and McLaren.
More evidence that Mazda can take on the world’s biggest and best automakers, with a win at Le Mans the brand’s racing pedigree is unquestioned.
Many automakers have their niches. Porsche has the rear-engine layout, Subaru loves their flat motors and an Audi is incomplete without AWD. Until recently, Mazda had its own unique factor with its rotary engine, which reached its zenith in the RX-7.
While Mazda developed the rotary engine for quite some time, it’s the last generation RX-7 that really showed what the engine technology was capable of.
Produced between 1992 and 2002, the RX-7 weighed just about 2,500 lbs (not far off from the current MX-5) but had an arc reactor of a powerplant. Two turbos were outfitted to the 13B rotary engine to make 276 hp, working sequentially to deliver responsiveness at low rpm and plenty of power higher in the rev range.
The third generation RX-7 is the car many think of when it comes to rotary engines, and is one of the sports cars that truly defined Mazda in the modern era, cementing its place on this list. While another “RX” sports car hit the scene in 2004, the RX-8 was too mainstream, too practical, and lost the zany turbochargers which made the RX-7 such a blast. With the last RX vehicle produced in 2012, the story of the rotary powered Mazda’s have come to a halt. While rumors point to a new RX-sports car in development, nothing has been set in stone just yet.
The Miata might be a small car, but it’s a Goliath in the automotive world. Derived from the European philosophy of small, light weight and roofless, the Miata made many automotive enthusiasts forget about cars like the Triumph Spitfire, MGB, Fiat 124 Spider and Lotus Elan.
It also introduced the idea of a small roadster to a whole new market and demographic, is an icon when it comes to top-down motoring and the go-to car for wannabe race car drivers.
Sitting at just 2,100 lbs in 1990, the Miata soon became the MX-5, but hasn’t lost its way. Now in 2013, an MX-5 weighs about 2,500 lbs, but still maintains its brilliant 50-50 weight balance and is also now outfitted with a 2.0L four-cylinder engine making 167-hp.
Over 23 years it has lost very little of the personality that made it such a success in the first place. Look for a return to its roots when the fourth-generation Miata hits the market soon.