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

Discussion in 'Cars in General' started by GTPNewsWire, Sep 24, 2020.

  1. GTPNewsWire

    GTPNewsWire Contributing Writer

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    Sep 24, 2020
    #1
  2. Famine

    Famine Administrator

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    #2
    Who here has sat on a rotary-engined bus?

    Me. Me has.
     
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  3. Joey D

    Joey D Premium

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    #3
    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.
     
  4. Eunos_Cosmo

    Eunos_Cosmo Premium

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    #4
    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.
     
    Joey D likes this.
  5. Divaldo

    Divaldo

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    #5
    The Mazda Cosmos was born in the Space Race era :lol:
     
  6. TheCracker

    TheCracker Premium

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    #6
    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.
     
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  7. TexRex

    TexRex Premium

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    #7
    I sort of figured it has something to do with the male organ of love.
     
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  8. Famine

    Famine Administrator

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    #8
    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.
     
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  9. Nismonath5

    Nismonath5 Premium

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    #9
    How can they call it a museum when they're missing the most iconic of all the Mazdas? :p

    images.jpeg
     
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  10. Coquico

    Coquico

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    Sep 24, 2020
    #10
    An mx3! I used to have one! :sly:
     
  11. Famine

    Famine Administrator

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    #11
    I still do. Three, in fact :D
    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.
     
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  12. TexRex

    TexRex Premium

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    #12
    And the motor from a fourth that's been re-homed in a different chassis...if memory serves?
     
  13. Famine

    Famine Administrator

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    #13
    Not quite. The engine from something else has gone into one of the three (and its engine has gone to power a kit car).
     
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  14. Stoop Solo

    Stoop Solo

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    Sep 25, 2020
    #14
    The MX-5 NB Coupe looks surprisingly contemporary.
     
  15. RandomCarGuy17

    RandomCarGuy17

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    #15
    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:
    [​IMG]

    The 121 here reminds me of the Suzuki X90 for some reason.
     
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  16. 05XR8

    05XR8

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    #16
    Probably the best article written in :gtpflag:

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

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

    DemioXDTourng

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    Oct 24, 2020
    #17
    Ahem.
     
  18. CLowndes888

    CLowndes888 Premium

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    #18
    I wouldn't say that Mazda is a weird car brand. They are quite mainstream to be honest.