The photograph of a Mazda Cosmo Sports 110 below looks like any other ordinary photograph from someone’s family album. However, if you look at the date scribbled in the right bottom corner your eyebrows will be raised! The Mazda Cosmo Sport 110 was only first sold in 1967, so how can this be?
The Mazda Cosmo Sport 110 prototype was unveiled at the 1964 Tokyo Motor Show. The motor show was held from the 26th of September till the 9th of October. That means this photograph was taken even before the unveiling of the Cosmo!
By now you must have realized the man pictured in the photograph is no other than Takaharu Kobayakawa, the man who has become synonymous with the Mazda rotary engine. Kobayakawa was one of the engineers in the rotary engine research team. Together with this team, he managed to crack the Wankel design and make it production-worthy. Not only that, they improved the design of the apex seals and made the engines more durable!
In the photos pictured here, Kobayakawa and the team were testing the Cosmo prototype on a long-distance run between Hiroshima and Shimonoseki. Nowadays this is a trip of a mere 200 kilometres on the highway, but imagine in 1964 there was no such thing yet. The Cosmo performed beautifully and many photos were taken during the trip. These snapshots are certainly photos I’d keep in my family albums!
You can read more about the Shimonoseki trip and other travels Kobayakawa and the Cosmo Sports 110 did here.
Leave a Reply