Show Car Sunday Returns!

Silver Wasp

 I was mighty surprised to see this little beauty on the streets of Brooklyn! A 1971-1973 Mazda Rx-2 RE 2-door coupe. These have been rare since new, rust very easily, and were built with a completely unconventional motor, so to say they are currently scarce is an understatement.

First of all I just love the overall shape of this little car! Something about the sporty Japanese designs from this era remind me of the European greats from the '50s and '60s, such as Maserati and Ferrari.

 The color to me looks like either Grace Grey or Galac Silver Metallic, but it could really be any old silver from NYC too. The condition is tremendous.

The "Rx" designation means that this is powered by the Wankel Rotary Engine; a unique design that has no pistons and revs very high. They got lousy gas mileage and were sluggish off the line, but once they were moving could blow much more powerful cars away with their surprisingly high top speed. When the engine was really winding up it had a buzzing sound like no other; hence the Wasp nickname.

 I'm guessing the RE badge on the grill stands for Rotary Engine. Check out that little stylized letter m in the center chrome badge.

 This shot shows off the strange double hood bulge with faux vent/louver lines.

The taillight treatment continues with the Ferrari-like theme. In fact, many of the Ferraris from this era on through the end of the '80s had an extremely similar setup consisting of 4 large round lights in the back.

Well there we have it; a very late Show Car Sunday post. Tomorrow we'll kick off the week with some domestic iron.