Search for a rotary one and give it a mechanical tune-up that makes a pleasant sound

Hiro fell in love at first sight with the looks of the Mazda RX-4 Luce, which resembles an American muscle car. He was looking for a car with a rotary engine, but when he came across it, it was in a rusty, worm-eaten state. From there, he has been restoring it and giving it a mechanical tune-up to make it a car that he is proud of. Let’s take a closer look.

It gained popularity with its American muscle car-like form

Currently, unprecedented enthusiasm is being focused on Showa cars due to their unique car design. Among these, Mazda’s rotary-engine cars, which pursue uniqueness, are attracting the most attention in the market. The rotary-engine-equipped Mazda vehicles are diverse, ranging from the Familia to the Capella to the Savannah. In the past, Mazda was the only manufacturer in the world to successfully commercialize the rotary engine, and there was a time when almost all of its models were equipped with rotary engines. The styling of these rotary engine vehicles of the Showa period was often said to be characterized by European taste. However, among such series, there was only one model in the past that gained popularity with its American muscle car-like form.

That model was the Mazda RX-4, the second-generation LA33 Luce. Hiro, a resident of Tokushima Prefecture, told us the story of how he fell in love with the car’s styling at first sight and sought out a rare car to add to his car collection.

Because the RX-4 Luce is famous for being a rare car with very few bodies in existence, it was very difficult to find one, and he had to go through a series of hardships. And even when they finally found one, the engine was naturally damaged and the body was badly damaged. The RX-4 Luce that “Hiro” finally found was still in very bad shape, but since he had originally planned to restore it, he decided that even if the body was a little damaged, it was fine. The emphasis was on having as many genuine parts as possible.

At any rate, the price of genuine parts has skyrocketed in recent years due to the old car boom. And there are many parts that are difficult to obtain. Therefore, he started his car search by selecting a car with as few genuine parts as possible and spent a considerable amount of time before he found a car that met his criteria.

The car was brought back from a rusty, worm-eaten state

A review of the history of the RX-4 Luce reveals that production ran from 1972 to 1978, and there were three body variations: a four-door sedan, a two-door hardtop, and a wagon. In addition to the rotary engine model, a reciprocating engine model was also available at the end of the model year as a choice at that time.

“Hiro”‘s favorite car is a late model 1975 2-door hardtop. The engine is a 12A rotary-powered car that he is particular about, and he says that he had no interest in the reciprocating model. He did all the restoration work on the body and engine himself, and as he proceeded with the restoration, he added genuine + α customization to create the RX-4 Luce he had envisioned.

The body had rusty, worm-eaten fenders, as was common with Showa cars of the time, so new steel plates were prepared and fender arches were fabricated. In order to create a more massive and cool form, the front and rear fenders were widened based on the stock arches. Especially, the rear fenders were widened to give it a more American muscle car style.

Although the front face is the same as the factory one, a chin spoiler for the Savanna Works was added to the lower front spoiler to give it a custom look and impact. Furthermore, utilizing the stock radiator duct, a horizontal stock oil cooler for FC3S was installed to show a glimpse of the stock oil cooler.

translated by DeepL