Mazda Cosmo

It was 50 years ago today that Mazda unveiled its first rotary-powered car to the world. The car was the Cosmo 110S sports car which made its debut at the 1967 Tokyo auto show. It was Mazda’s first sports car, and all the more newsworthy because the automaker up till then had only been known for econo cars and commercial vehicles. But Mazda wasn’t the originator of the rotary engine design. That honor goes to German engineer Felix Wankel whose design was developed by German automaker NSU during the 1950s. NSU was later merged with the Auto Union which later became Audi. Mazda...