Five years on, Mazda was dominating the rather niche world of the rotary, although at that point NSU, the originator of the automotive Wankel, was still proffering its Ro80 saloon and seemed finally to have made it quite reliable. Mazda, by contrast, had come quite a way from its first rotary-powered machine, the Cosmo sports car, and was now into saloons and coupés that would seem mainstream were it not for the strange little engines under their bonnets.
Ever since I could read I had devoured Motor magazine, which reached the end of its road in 1988 when arch-rival Autocar took it over. I was on the staff of Motor at the time and wrote the magazine's last-ever words, but that's another story. I mention Motor now because in 1972 it disappeared from the newsagents' shelves from September to December thanks to a printing dispute, during which time the staff gave the magazine a major overhaul. On its re-appearance on December 6th, its revamped road test – new star ratings and all – featured Mazda's rotary-powered RX3 Coupé. And now, 45 years later, I've been driving one. At and around Goodwood, as it happens.
It belongs to Mazda UK, which has been accumulating several historic rotary-engined cars including a super-rare Cosmo (not that the RX3 is exactly abundant, especially in the UK). As you can see, it has been lightly 'enhanced' in the spirit of its age; Mazda UK may yet un-enhance it if the right parts can be found. The wide wheels add to the look of a miniaturised American muscle car, and the big-bore exhaust ensures the rotary engine's distinctive voice can be heard to the full. Not that this twin-rotor motor generates quite as much volume as Mazda's four-rotor Le Mans prototypes did, though. Those were proper eardrum-shredders – one of them speedy and robust enough to win in 1991.
Motor considered the RX3 'too heavily decorated'. Time, however, has been surprisingly kind to the particular school of adornment that Japan applied to its cars back then. The hexagon-mesh front grille is right on trend in 2017, and you have to love the badge in the middle shaped like the rotary's rotor. Then there's the proud 'Super De Luxe' badge on the rear pillar, and the racy black interior with its deeply-cowled dials and crackly AM radio.