"A Day Late And A Bratwurst and Apex Seal Short." 
Germany and Japan, both have history of collaborating efforts, some of it good and some of it ended up getting blitzed by the Allies.
Happily for them, today there's only one Brit in this review and that's yours truly.
The car representing 'Ze Germans' today is the Mercedes E55 AMG 02' and from Japan is the rotary powered Mazda RX-7 Type R Bathurst R 01'.
These two couldn't be more polar opposites if they tried, the E55 has a piston engine and the RX-7 has a Rotary engine.
The E55 is Supercharged whilst the RX-7 is turbocharged, the E55 is a heavy 4 door super saloon and the RX-7 is a light 2 door sports car.
We'll start with the Mercedes, with 500+Hp after an oil change, it'll get up and going quicker than you would think and given enough space and a tow, will hit over 225 Mph.
Now AMG's from around the time this car was made were very prone to shredding the rear tyres ( still do even today
) and were quite comfortable with it.
It definitely likes it more than if you tried driving it like a precision tool as it understeers when you do so.
For the most part, it does hide its near 2 ton curbweight quite well, but under braking you'll definitely feel it.
It's a good car to hoon about in as it'll go sideways all day without much coaxing.
Whilst it is unfortunately a Beater because of its understeer and weight, I'll argue its nowhere near as bad as the Vectra as you can still go fast and go sideways in the E55.
That and the comeback at Spa was quite something.
Verdict: Beater 👎 ( but not terrible )
Moving on...
The Rotary engine that would go on to be made famous by Mazda was designed by Felix Wankel, ( stop laughing at the back
) a German engineer ( see what I mean about good collaborations?
) who built the piston-less engine for the Germans and was also a member of multiple radical right wing organisations back in the early 1920's.
I could mention what other groups he was associated with
(and let's just say they aren't all sun shine and lollipops.
) but let's continue with his creation.
The Rotary engines strong points were, simplicity, smoothness, high revving, compact and light weight etc.
It's those traits that have made the Rotary popular in chainsaws, go- karts, snowmobiles, aircraft and APU's (Auxiliary Power Units).
The Wankel Rotary made its public debut in a road car in the form of the NSU Spider in 1964, 3 years before Mazda made its first Rotary car, the Cosmo 110S.
From then on, the Rotary started showing up all over the place, rallying, IMSA, the first place podium of the 1991 Le Mans 24HR race.
Fast forward ten years from then and here we are with the RX-7 Barthust, a twin turboed 2 Rotor motor making around 280 - 290 Hp.
With a low weight of 1,260kg, balanced perfectly with 50-50 weight distribution, it handles like you would expect, brilliantly.
It's no beater, but it's not a sleeper either.
Why? Because its reputation as a good drivers car is very well known so it couldn't really slip under the radar as a sleeper.
What it is though, is a damn good sports car.
Even though emissions laws would eventually kill off the RX-7 and the Renesis powered RX-8, Mazda hasn't given up on the Rotary engine.
Could it make a comeback in today's climate?
One can dream that it could.
Verdict: Neutral ( but a damn good one 👍)
I'll drift anything as long as it isn't FF.
