Mazda — All Car History Volume4
Mazda began as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co. Ltd founded in Japan in 1920 manufacturing machine tools. In 1927 it was renamed Toyo Kogyo Co. Ltd. and shortly after started manufacturing vehicles the first being a threewheel truck the Mazdago in 1931.
Mazda’s first car the Mazda R360 Coupe twodoor passenger vehicle came out in 1960 with the fourdoor Mazda Carol appearing in 1962. The next year Mazda’s car production topped one million. During the 1970s Mazda successfully entered the North American market and financial difficulties during the 1990s saw Ford take a controlling interest in Mazda in 1999.
Mazda cars have a reputation for looking and feeling different from the mainstream thanks in part to their use of Wankel or rotary engines in certain models. During the 1960s Mazda cooperated with NSU’s Felix Wankel who gave his name to the engine in Germany to introduce rotarypowered vehicles and this continues to the present day with the RX8.
The company claims that: “Everything we do is daring ingenious and fun. Our cars all have that extraspecial ‘ZoomZoom’ factor: sportsinspired design and motoring in their soul”. This is reflected through the full range of current cars from the allnew Mazda2 supermini to the Mazda BT50 pickup.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Mazda’s factory at Hiroshima is one of the largest singlesite automobile plants in the world with an annual production capacity of about 480000 cars.
- Mazda is the only manufacturer in the world that makes petrol diesel and rotary internal combustion engines.
- The Mazda 787B won the Le Mans 24Hour race in 1991. This was the first and only time a rotary engine has ever won the race also marking the first victory for a Japanese car manufacturer.
- The name Mazda stems from Ahura Mazda the highest Zoroastrian God of reason who granted wisdom and united man nature and the other gods.
MAZDA FACTS
- Type: Public; partial subsidiary of Ford Motor Company
- Founded: 1920
- Headquarters: Fuchu Aki Hiroshima Japan
- Key People: Jujiro Matsuda founder Kazuhide Watanabe Chairman Hisakazu Imaki CEO
- Industry: Automotive
About the writer: Auto Trader World of Cars
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