Once the press preview days at the Tokyo Motor Show closed and the public started coming through the door, Mazda invited journalists to visit their international headquarters in Hiroshima, home of the automaker’s main manufacturing facility and the home of their own automotive museum.
The Mazda Museum is open to the public by appointment and offers prime specimens from throughout the car builder’s history.
Also: 2015 Tokyo Motor Show: Designing the Mazda RX Vision
From the first three-wheeled truck built in the early 1940s to the immensely popular MX-5, the museum offers visitors a chance to examine not just Mazda’s most popular models, but also cars that sold well in Japan and elsewhere without finding their way into the U.S.
The venue also documents the creation and evolution of Mazda’s once signature power plant, the Rotary Engine. Abandoning the piston system to create internal combustion, the Wankle system uses a central, offset, three corner rotor that created the classic “suck, squeeze, bang, blow” process of driving an engine.
Gearhead visitors can spend a pleasant couple of hours at the Mazda Museum. If you join them, make sure you make it through while the gift shop is still open.
If you can’t make it 20,000 miles or so over to Japan, you can check out some highlights from the museum below.
All photos by John Scott Lewinski
Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
Inside the Mazda headquarters and factory in Hiroshima, the automaker's museum holds the history of its cars and the rotary engine.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The Type TCS three-wheeled truck was the first vehicle built by Mazda in the 1940s.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The gorgeous 1967 Cosmo was Mazda's first sports car.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The Mazda Museum explains the evolution of the Wankle Rotary Engine.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The 1963 Carol 600 sold well for Mazda, and this was the 1,000,000th car the aut0maker built.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The Mazda RX-7 was the company's most popular car until the arrival of the MX-5.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The 1991 RX-7 Enfini offers a specially tuned Rotary Engine.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The 1992 AZ-1 offer gull-wing doors and plastic side panels.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
The 1992 Cosmo Type S offered the first three rotor Rotary Engine.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
This Mazda racer was the first Rotary Engine car to win the great 24 Hours of Le Mans Race.
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Mazda Museum, Hiroshima
This Mazda 6 was the 10,000,000th car built at the Hiroshima HQ plant.
