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Mazda 110S (L10B) Cosmo Sports detailed write-up.
Following on from my Honda 1300 Coupe 9S write-up, I now bring a write-up of another special Japanese classic car, the Mazda 110S (L10B) also known as the Cosmo Sports in Japan, the 110S name was used for the export versions.
GT4 contains 2 of these cars, the L10A and the L10B, these codes refer to the engine fitted in each.
The Mazda 110S was officially launched in 1967, and it has the honour of being the first twin rotor wankel engined production car, by beating its nearest rival, the NSU Ro80, by over 3 months to production, even though the Mazda engine was produced under license of NSU, which can be seen by Mazda rotor housings having "NSU License" cast into them.
I will concentrate on the L10B, as for the purposes of GT4 it is the better car, the L10B engine (which both the engine and car shares its name) is a twin rotor rotary wankel engine, with a total displacement of 2 x 491cc, yep under 1 litre!!, although they actual rate this engine in the 2 litre bracket due to the way the Wankel engine works, the L10B engine was a slightly tuned version of the L10A, and in its "B" form produced 128bhp at 7000rpm as opposed to the "A"'s 110bhp, and 103 lb/ft of torque compared to the 96 lb/ft of torque in the "A".
The other major differences between the 2 models are the fact that the "B" has a 5-speed gearbox where the "A" has a 4 speed unit, and the "B" is both longer and heavier.
The factory quoted speed figures show a standing 1/4 of 15.8 seconds and a top speed of 220km/h (136mph), the GT4 standing 1/4 is a fair bit slower than factory specs at 17.1, and the top speed is slightly greater at 143mph on the test track.
I couldnt find any realife roadtests anywhere to compare the GT4 version too, so I will just go on how the GT4 version performs.
Rotary engines are always a bit of a mystery, although they are very smooth and powerful they also have the downsides of poor fuel consumption (which of course doesnt effect the GT4 driver), and they sound like a 2-stroke moped.
The sound of the 110S is the same whiney 2-stroke style sound, which I guess some people would like, but to me it abuses my ears!!, that said, the engine is very willing to pull, and actually needs to be thrashed, this is one engine you really should force through the redline all the way till you can't go no more!!.
Driving the 110S is an interesting experience, it can be fairly tame if you dont push it too hard, but it will show a nasty habit of producing some lift-off and under-braking oversteer, although this is reasonably controllable in the hands of a skilled driver , it could catch out the unwary driver.
It can also show a slight bit of power-on understeer when accelerating through corners, but this is not a major flaw and is easily cured by reducing the amount of throttle you apply through the corners.
As the engine is rather "torque-less", it needs to be kept on the "buzz", and really pushed hard in every gear, but keeping it in the right rev range gives the 110S a good turn of speed.
Using my default test track, Tsukuba circuit, the Mazda 110S performs quite well for an old car, it is quite possible to lap this circuit, using N2 tyres, in the low 1.14's, which even by todays standards is not slow.
As always, the looks can be rather subjective, but I like its quirkiness, in fact I like it so much I am currently building a 1/20 plastic model of one
, I like the side vents behind the front wheels, the "half" wheel arches at the rear, and the strange looking rear-end, which doesnt look a million miles away from the Porsche Boxster rear-end.
Infact, the look and style of the old 110S has recently been re-visted, at the Tokyo Auto show in 2002 an MX-5 (or Miata as it is known in some territories) was styled to be a 21st century replacement for the 110S with a 110S style bodykit and an RX8 engine, it was called the Mazda Cosmo 21.
Overall, I like this car, its reasonably quick, and handles pretty well, although as I said previously the oversteer can be a little hairy at times, that said it deserves some inspection for it being one of the first rotary production cars.
As always, these cars are worth a drive, and now you have some information and background, you may enjoy it all the more
Dan.
Following on from my Honda 1300 Coupe 9S write-up, I now bring a write-up of another special Japanese classic car, the Mazda 110S (L10B) also known as the Cosmo Sports in Japan, the 110S name was used for the export versions.
GT4 contains 2 of these cars, the L10A and the L10B, these codes refer to the engine fitted in each.
The Mazda 110S was officially launched in 1967, and it has the honour of being the first twin rotor wankel engined production car, by beating its nearest rival, the NSU Ro80, by over 3 months to production, even though the Mazda engine was produced under license of NSU, which can be seen by Mazda rotor housings having "NSU License" cast into them.
I will concentrate on the L10B, as for the purposes of GT4 it is the better car, the L10B engine (which both the engine and car shares its name) is a twin rotor rotary wankel engine, with a total displacement of 2 x 491cc, yep under 1 litre!!, although they actual rate this engine in the 2 litre bracket due to the way the Wankel engine works, the L10B engine was a slightly tuned version of the L10A, and in its "B" form produced 128bhp at 7000rpm as opposed to the "A"'s 110bhp, and 103 lb/ft of torque compared to the 96 lb/ft of torque in the "A".
The other major differences between the 2 models are the fact that the "B" has a 5-speed gearbox where the "A" has a 4 speed unit, and the "B" is both longer and heavier.
The factory quoted speed figures show a standing 1/4 of 15.8 seconds and a top speed of 220km/h (136mph), the GT4 standing 1/4 is a fair bit slower than factory specs at 17.1, and the top speed is slightly greater at 143mph on the test track.
I couldnt find any realife roadtests anywhere to compare the GT4 version too, so I will just go on how the GT4 version performs.
Rotary engines are always a bit of a mystery, although they are very smooth and powerful they also have the downsides of poor fuel consumption (which of course doesnt effect the GT4 driver), and they sound like a 2-stroke moped.
The sound of the 110S is the same whiney 2-stroke style sound, which I guess some people would like, but to me it abuses my ears!!, that said, the engine is very willing to pull, and actually needs to be thrashed, this is one engine you really should force through the redline all the way till you can't go no more!!.
Driving the 110S is an interesting experience, it can be fairly tame if you dont push it too hard, but it will show a nasty habit of producing some lift-off and under-braking oversteer, although this is reasonably controllable in the hands of a skilled driver , it could catch out the unwary driver.
It can also show a slight bit of power-on understeer when accelerating through corners, but this is not a major flaw and is easily cured by reducing the amount of throttle you apply through the corners.
As the engine is rather "torque-less", it needs to be kept on the "buzz", and really pushed hard in every gear, but keeping it in the right rev range gives the 110S a good turn of speed.
Using my default test track, Tsukuba circuit, the Mazda 110S performs quite well for an old car, it is quite possible to lap this circuit, using N2 tyres, in the low 1.14's, which even by todays standards is not slow.
As always, the looks can be rather subjective, but I like its quirkiness, in fact I like it so much I am currently building a 1/20 plastic model of one
, I like the side vents behind the front wheels, the "half" wheel arches at the rear, and the strange looking rear-end, which doesnt look a million miles away from the Porsche Boxster rear-end.Infact, the look and style of the old 110S has recently been re-visted, at the Tokyo Auto show in 2002 an MX-5 (or Miata as it is known in some territories) was styled to be a 21st century replacement for the 110S with a 110S style bodykit and an RX8 engine, it was called the Mazda Cosmo 21.
Overall, I like this car, its reasonably quick, and handles pretty well, although as I said previously the oversteer can be a little hairy at times, that said it deserves some inspection for it being one of the first rotary production cars.
As always, these cars are worth a drive, and now you have some information and background, you may enjoy it all the more
Dan.
