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The Cosmo was actually produced as far back as 1963, and was debuted at the following year's Tokyo Motor Show. The company spent the following three years tweaking the all-new chassis before tooling up for mass production, and what hit showroom floors in 1967 was a genuinely confused vehicle. The advantages of the day's Wankel engines (and drawbacks: poor fuel economy, increased emissions, excessive heat and oil consumption...) meant they were better suited for sports car applications than daily driven economy cars. The bare bones '67 Cosmo was billed as a GT, featured a carbureted 110hp 10A Wankel rotary engine, lightweight and balanced chassis, front-independent suspension with antiroll bar, and came almost completely devoid of power anything. It was a small car-often compared to the Triumph and MG-and was hailed as hugely responsive, and "driver oriented". But that's where the fun ended. The '67 Cosmo also featured rear-drum brakes (not power assisted), a limiting four-speed manual gearbox, small 14-inch steelies-and our favorite-a solid rear axle, held in place with...gasp... leaf springs! Its interior was cramped, the car was excessively long for its wheelbase, and was often criticized for not having been offered with a retractable soft top.

Despite the Cosmo's structural shortcomings, the advantages of its rotary engine shone through, as Mazda successfully raced one of the cars to a Fourth Place finish in Nurburgring's Marathon de la Route 84-hour endurance race. It was the first and last racing effort for the Cosmo-future generations of the car were built bigger and more luxurious, and sold as large family cars-but Mazda's rotary racing effort lived on in the sportier Familia (R100) and other R-badged vehicles, which eventually led to the development of the RX-7 and today's RX-8.

Only 343 Cosmos were built in the car's first year of production (only 1,176 for the entire '67-'72 run), all were white, and export models were sold with the badge "110S" in very, very limited numbers for the U.S. We've heard of only one. Still, Mazda claims over a dozen OG Cosmos roam the garages and showrooms of American collectors state-side, and every once in a while one goes on sale-expect to pay a scant $25,000-$30,000 for one in excellent condition.