1970 Mazda RX-500

In 1970, heads turned at the 17th Tokyo Motor Show as the Mazda RX-500 showed up on the scene, the type of car that young kids dreamed of as they doodled in their sketch pads. A completely futuristic crazy car, the RX-500 stood apart from the crowd.

Developed by the research and design staff at the Toyo Kogyo Company and was a 'mobile testbed for high-speed safety.' The Mazda RX-500 only weighed a mere 1100 lbs, and the entire body was constructed from plastic, which helped keep the weight down. Capable of hitting 125mph, the RX 500 featured a rotary engine that was mounted forward of the rear axles. The car also had multi-colored lights at the back end, which indicated whether the car was speeding up, braking, or even running at a constant speed. The green lights at the top would be lit up when you were accelerating, and when you were cruising, the yellow lights would come on, and the red brake lights came on progressively depending on how hard you braked.

The RX 500 was the ultimate dream supercar that struck awe in the hearts of a multitude of car fans around the world in the 1970s. The RX 500 was an innovative futuristic, mid-engine rotary concept that was a proper working prototype with interesting mechanicals.

The Mazda RX-500 concept was a 247-hp, 1,873lb rotary-powered supercar that featured forward-swinging butterfly-wing passenger doors as well as gullwing engine-access doors on the breadvan truck.

The engine was heralded as being a production 12A, probably because the 12A engine was having its introduction in the Capella that same year. The RX-500 joined a 250hp 10A from a Familia race car and the front-wheel-drive's RX-87 Luce transaxles. The engine was not a production version, but a racing unit that was fed by a large downdraught Weber with a pair of equally huge velocity stacks. The engine is a 250hp peripheral ported 10A from the Familia racing program joined to an RX87 Luce transaxle.

Following the 1970 Show, much in the fashion of concept cars, the RX-500 was packed away and nearly forgotten. Until July of 2008, thirty years later, where the restoration was completed recently and went on exhibit in August at the Hiroshima City Transport Museum. Hisahiro Akimasa approached Mazda and received its blessing to restore and exhibit the RX500. Not an easy task by far, the restoration work was carried out at a garage in Hiroshima. The purpose was to 'reflect the forty years of history in the car'.

By Jessica Donaldson