Mazda RX2

Introduction

The Mazda RX2 is credited with being the first "normal" car to be fitted with a rotary engine. Available as a 4 door sedan or 2 door coupe, the RX2 quickly gained a reputation for good performance and poor petrol economy. The RX2 was fitted with the new 12A rotary engine, and such was the popularity of the model that it survived from 1970 until 1978.

Capella Rotary / RX2

An optional Mazda Wankel engine was offered and known as the Capella Rotary in Japan or the Mazda RX-2 for export. In Japan, the installation of a rotary engine gave Japanese buyers a financial advantage when it came time to pay the annual road tax in that they bought a car that was more powerful than a traditional inline engine, but without having the penalty for having an engine in the higher 1.5-litre tax bracket. This was the only generation that had the rotary engine offered.

The RX-2 was assembled under contract in New Zealand from 1972 for Mazda New Zealand by Motor Industries International in Otahuhu, South Auckland. It was the first and only rotary-engined car ever to be assembled in the country and was made as both a sedan, with manual or automatic transmission and a manual-only coupé. The 616 was also built but was much less popular. In South Africa, where the Capella was assembled first by Illings and then by Sigma, it was available with the 1600 or 1800 reciprocal engines as well as the rotary.

The rotary claimed 97 kW (132 PS; 130 hp) SAE in South Africa. The facelift version arrived two years late there, in mid-1976. At the end of that year, the Capella RS was introduced - this lowered version with Rostyle wheels was limited to 20 cars per month. South African production of the Capella Rotary continued into 1979, since Sigma had taken the decision not to build the second-generation Capella there but to focus on the Colt Galant instead.