Mazda made the Cosmo Sport, the Japanese automaker’s pioneering rotary-engine sports car. First shown as a prototype in 1964, it entered production in 1967 as the Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S in export markets.
The car used Mazda’s 10A two-rotor Wankel engine, with a compact 982 cc displacement and output of about 110 horsepower. Mazda had licensed rotary-engine technology from Germany’s NSU, but its engineers solved major durability and sealing challenges to make the engine suitable for everyday production. The Cosmo became a high-profile demonstration of that work.
Its sleek two-seat design and unusual powertrain gave Mazda a distinctive identity at a time when most cars used conventional piston engines. Mazda also tested the Cosmo in the demanding 84-hour Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring in 1968, where one entered car finished fourth overall.
The answer is sometimes confused with NSU because NSU pioneered production rotary cars, or with Mazda’s later RX-7. The Cosmo Sport, however, was Mazda’s landmark rotary model.