√Icons of the Road: Mazda RX-3 | Drive Flashback

Mazda’s powerhouse rotary-powered coupe was a legend-in-waiting when it was released in Australia in 1972.

Story by Pete McKay originally published in Drive on 19 August, 2000

An ambitious design, the Mazda RX-3 will be remembered for one thing long after the last model has disappeared and is recycled into steel girders and shiny Kit-E-Kat cans.

Its rotary engine.

For fans, it was an engine made to rev. If the tacho warning buzzer wasn’t screaming along with the T-Rex eight-track cartridge (this was 1973 remember), then you just weren’t driving it properly.

With ads telling us to buy only “if you can take the excitement of being the standout on any road”, the RX-3 was always meant to be different. Having factory lilac paint with blue pin-striping, it didn’t have much of a choice.

Perhaps this was the RX-3’s Achilles’ heel. It had a hard time living up to the hype of some wild advertising claims.

With brochures spruiking the marvels of its new engine having “a quick surge like a waltz in a jet stream”, a “wonder-wand” (what they imaginatively called the lights/windscreen washer column), and space-age instrumentation – “you may need this to see if your super-quiet rotary engine is running” – the RX-3 just had too much reputation to live up to.

But the topper of all toppers was the Wankel automatic version, where their catchcry was “give your hand a rest”.

Geez, after all that, they should talk.

So, what happened next?

While Mazda made the RX-3 in multiple variants – sedan. wagon and coupe – it’s the pretty little coupe which today has attained halo status amongst aficionados.

Revered, then as now, for its free-revving 982cc 10A rotary engine, the RX-3 (or Savanna as it was named in its native Japan), remained in production from 1971 to ’78. Thanks to its pretty silhouette, the RX-3 coupe accounted for over half of total sales for the model over its lifespan.

The RX-3 was uprated with Mazda’s bigger 12A rotary engine in 1972, initially for the sportier GT model but eventually the bigger 1.1-litre made its way into the broader range, including the Series II we got here in Australia.

Today, the RX-3 enjoys a cult-like status and remains a favourite with restorers and performance modifiers. Consequently, prices for good examples have soared.

A quick scan of a popular classifieds site reveals prices in excess of $100,000 and as high as $199,500 for a 1974 Super Deluxe with a manual transmission. All are modified and performance enhanced.