Weekly Motor Fix: Mazda RX-3 coupe

5 May, 2015

Are Japanese cars from the early ’70s destined to become the next big thing when it comes to classic car collectability?

A few years ago the down-under classic-car market went crazy for Ford Falcon GT-HOs. Prices skyrocketed from a few hundred thousand to around a million dollars in just a few crazy months, as cash-rich baby boomers climbed into the market with a view to realizing the automotive dreams of their youth.

Are we now seeing a similar trend with Japanese cars of the early ’70s?

A few months ago (New Zealand Classic Car Issue No. 290) Greg Price put together a feature on his son’s all-original 1974 Mazda 808 coupe and, in passing, Greg also made mention of the 808’s rotary-powered cousin, the RX-3.

Once upon a time these rather stylish Japanese coupes could be picked up for tuppence-ha’penny — quite simply, with petrol prices going stratospheric, nobody wanted a gas-guzzling rotor-motor.

However, as the years passed, younger enthusiasts picked up on these cars and began tuning and customizing them — we’d arrived at the dawn of the Japanese-import performance-car boom, and Mazda’s RX-series cars were at the head of the line-up.

More recently, monitoring the older car market both here and in Australia, it seems that ’70s Japanese cars are experiencing something of a renaissance, and prices for original, unmolested cars are on the move upwards.

With that in mind, we recently spotted this beautifully restored 1973 RX-3 coupe in Hamilton, and, unlike many of the rotor-motor rebuilds we’ve seen or heard about over the last decade, this example has been restored back to original condition. So, no bridge-porting, no outrageous bodykit, no ‘harlequin’ metallic paint, no drainpipe-sized exhaust pipe, no massive alloy wheels, and absolutely no Day-Glo vinyl interior. In fact, this example has been meticulously restored to original condition and is owned by an enthusiast with a real passion for these cars. Indeed, the RX-3 is still fitted with its original 10A twin-distributor rotary engine rather than having been swapped out for a later 12A or 13B unit.

A numbers-matching car, painted in its original Flare Yellow colour, this is probably the most original and complete Mazda RX-3 coupe in New Zealand.

The present owner of this RX-3 is also keeping a keen eye on the market for these cars and tells us that prices are going crazy at the moment with original, early-Mazda rotary-powered cars really starting to take off. He’s seen a few RX-3s for sale in Australia for $55,000 plus, while another has been listed for as much as $88,000. More amazingly, the cars appear to be genuinely selling for those prices! He also told us of an unrestored RX-3 coupe that was recently purchased by Mazda Australia from a local online auction site for $42,500 — this car being destined for a complete restoration and eventual inclusion in the company’s local car collection.

What do you think? Are all-original Japanese cars from the ’70s worthy of all this collectors’ car interest? We think they are — and we’re planning to feature this RX-3 coupe in a future edition of the magazine.

1975 Suzuki RE5

Suzuki had high hopes for its RE5 Wankel-engined bike launched in 1975. It had started looking at the Wankel engine in the mid-60s and bought the licence to the concept in 1970.
Apparently all of the big four Japanese makers experimented with the design, Yamaha even showing a rotary-engined bike at a motor show in 1972. But Suzuki was the only one of the big four to go into production. Like many others at the time, Suzuki believed that the light, compact, free-revving Wankel design would consign piston engines — with their complex, multiple, whirring valves and pistons, which (can you believe it?) had to reverse direction all the time — to history.

Westside story

For the young Dave Blyth, the Sandman was always the coolest car and he finally got one when he was 50. “I have always had a rule. When you turn 50, you buy or can afford to buy the car you lusted after when you were 20. I was 20 in 1979 and the HZ Sandman came out in 1978. It was the coolest of the cool — I just wanted one,” he says. “Back then a Sandman cost $4500 new and a house was worth about $20,000. I made about $30 a week so it was an impossible dream then.”
Dave was heavily influenced by the panel van culture of the time. “I started with an Escort panel van and upgraded to a Holden HD panel van with a 186ci six cylinder. I started a van club, Avon City Vans.