Mazda's Frey Museum is a Celebration of the World's Weirdest Car Brand

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Mazda's Frey Museum is a Celebration of the World's Weirdest Car Brand

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on September 24th, 2020 in the Car Culture category.

 

[Famine]

Who here has sat on a rotary-engined bus?

Me. Me has.

 

[Joey D]

How would a rotary engine tow truck work? Unless I'm mistaken, doesn't the REPU use a 13B which has like zero low-end torque? I've never been in a REPU so I don't know, but that just seems like a weird combination.

Also, someone please call about Pickles, I really need to know the story.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

How would a rotary engine tow truck work? Unless I'm mistaken, doesn't the REPU use a 13B which has like zero low-end torque? I've never been in a REPU so I don't know, but that just seems like a weird combination.

Also, someone please call about Pickles, I really need to know the story.

According to JNC, the 13b-powered bus had a 5.37:1 first gear and an incredible 6.67:1 final drive ratio. That's a 35:1 total reduction (a brief google search tells me that 10-15:1 is fairly typical of a first gear combined ratio in most cars). So while the 13b has very little low-end torque, it does have "decent" power and some RPM to work with.

 

[Divaldo]

The Mazda Cosmos was born in the Space Race era

 

[TheCracker]

How would a rotary engine tow truck work? Unless I'm mistaken, doesn't the REPU use a 13B which has like zero low-end torque? I've never been in a REPU so I don't know, but that just seems like a weird combination.

It also weighed 2800+kgs when empty. Add another 1400+kgs worth of driver and passengers and that 102 lbft torque is going to struggle. I hope it was flat where it was operated.

 

[TexRex]

Also, someone please call about Pickles, I really need to know the story.

I sort of figured it has something to do with the male organ of love.

 

[Famine]

Also, someone please call about Pickles, I really need to know the story.

I sort of figured it has something to do with the male organ of love.

It's to do with the Soviets and the canteen in Hiroshima.

Every car in there has a strange story - mostly personal to the Freys. That's part of what makes it such an interesting place.

 

[Nismonath5]

How can they call it a museum when they're missing the most iconic of all the Mazdas?

 

[Coquico]

An mx3! I used to have one!

 

[Famine]

An mx3! I used to have one!

I still do. Three, in fact

How can they call it a museum when they're missing the most iconic of all the Mazdas?

View attachment 960311

There are roughly 140 cars in the collection and 50 in the exhibit. I don't actually remember seeing a Demio on either visit or the super secret downstairs room; there may be one in the warehouse - there's not many modern Mazdas in the Frey collection (the NB Coupe was the newest the first time I was there, but they have a 6 MPS and a 3 MPS now too) - but I don't know for sure.


I also should elaborate on the story about Jujiro Matsuda surviving the nuclear strike on Hiroshima. A rarely mentioned story states that Matsuda was going to his favorite barber on his birthday for a traditional birthday haircut, and seeing someone about to get there before him he sped up to nip in first for the 7.30am opening appointment - during an air raid warning, no less.

He'd finished and got a car back to Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) in Fuchu three miles away when the bomb detonated just before 8.16am, 1,900ft above Shima Hospital - off-target from the Aloi Bridge. Little Boy wasn't actually that big a device, and the area of total devastation was around a mile radius, but three miles is still well within a overpressure region. By sheer fluke, a small mountain called Hijiyama sits between the hypocentre and what's now the Mazda main factory, and this shielded the factory from the worst of it - though Matsuda and his driver were both knocked off their feet, the factory was essentially unscathed.

Matsuda's barber was 50 yards from the hypocentre and obliterated. Fine margins.

 

[TexRex]

I still do. Three, in fact

And the motor from a fourth that's been re-homed in a different chassis...if memory serves?

 

[Famine]

And the motor from a fourth that's been re-homed in a different chassis...if memory serves?

Not quite. The engine from something else has gone into one of the three (and its engine has gone to power a kit car).

 

[Stoop Solo]

The MX-5 NB Coupe looks surprisingly contemporary.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

There's some pretty neat and excellent cars on display in that exhibit. A few of my favorite ones include the RX-7 Rally Car, the 323 Rally Car, that Luce R130, Savanna RX-3, and that NB MX-5 Coupe.

Also, one random thing from me to point out:

The 121 here reminds me of the Suzuki X90 for some reason.

 

[05XR8]

Probably the best article written in

I have a silver 323 Astina, but it ain't named Pickles.

Have another Mazda in the Family, by way of my Nephew's Efini.

 

[DemioXDTourng]

How can they call it a museum when they're missing the most iconic of all the Mazdas?

View attachment 960311

Ahem.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I wouldn't say that Mazda is a weird car brand. They are quite mainstream to be honest.

 

[05XR8]

These will be at a different museum
https://mzracing.jp/en/news/6560

 

[05XR8]