Video - Crazy Mazda Driver

When the evolutionary version of the Cosmo Sport was launched, another sensational vehicle was also introduced to the market in July 1968. Mazda developed a brand-new Familia Rotary Coupe based on the design study model, the Mazda RX-85, which was first unveiled in front of the public during the Tokyo Motor Show the previous year. The Familia Rotary Coupe featured an identical rotary unit to that powering the Cosmo and, at the same time, offered cabin comfort comparable to a family vehicle. The company also took this high-performance touring car to the racetrack. In the Grand Prix of Singapore,...

The RX-8 departs far from the sports coupe norm in passenger accommodation. The genre is notorious for rear seats that are better-suited to suitcases than humans over the age of 10. The RX-8 is different. With no central ``B'' pillar, access is easy for all four passengers. If four six-footers aren't quite in the design spec, a five-eight person can fit comfortably behind a six-foot front passenger. All four seats are comfortably-padded and bolstered for support in spirited driving - and check out the Wankel-rotor shaped inserts in the front headrests. A rear-facing child seat can...

While Mazda continues to develop its fascinating gas/hydrogen-powered rotary RX-8 (it should be available in Japan in 2006), it showed something even more advanced at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show, a rotary hybrid version of the latest Mazda 5.