Mazda R100 Coupe

If you've ever driven a rotary engine car, you know that it is quite special.  Smooth, light, great acceleration with an appetite for gasoline and oil.  Mazda appeared on the scene just as pollution standards began to choke American V8 engines and the BMW 2002 and Datsun 510 were starting the sport compact trend.  The rotary engine Mazdas were perfectly placed to capitalize on market trends and they did very well. Americans were just beginning to move from the Beetle to Japanese cars, and although Datsun and Toyota had been around for a decade there was a good chance that Mazda would become the dominant marque.  There were clouds on the horizon but in 1970, everything was coming up rotaries.

The 2nd gen R100 / Familia was the smallest of US Mazdas and could be had in coupe and sedan forms.  It lasted in the US through 1972 before the company decided to have the larger RX-3 platform anchor the bottom of the range.  Subsequent Familia generations pressed on in Europe and other countries up through 2003.