TG’s guide to concepts: Mazda RX-500

Distilled awesome. Otherwise known as the Mazda RX-500; a concept car that was first shown in 1970 at the 17th Tokyo Motor Show to an audience that thought they were looking at the actual future. And quite futuristic it was.

A Ferrari 250 Breadvan, perhaps? Mercedes C111? Dr. Emmett Brown's family wagon? Whatever it reminds you of this thing is cool as you like. Childishly proportioned with Miura like front slats, gaping vents and a rear end with holes for days. And it needs all that airiness out back to keep what’s running it cool.

The future! Only joking. There’s a 982cc twin-rotor 10A Wankel engine (the crazy high revving engines with triangles thrumming around) that was mounted behind the two front seats but forward of the rear axles. It revved round to a screaming 15,000rpm (that’s superbike territory) and produced 247 hp. Which is monstrous for that kind of capacity. God bless rotary, eh? And only weighing 850kg thanks to extensive use of lightweight plastics, it was good for 150mph.

Course it does. No concept car is complete without funky doors. Especially one from the seventies. So, entry into the RX-500 is via forward-swinging butterfly-wing doors while the engine is accessed via gullwing doors. But the pièce de résistance is the innovative taillights at the back.

Developed by the research and design staff at the Toyo Kogyo Company, the RX-500 was a ‘mobile test bed for high-speed safety'. However, the only feature that justifies this claim are the rear taillights. Unlike traditional, boring taillights. These are funky disco taillights. it’s like an upside-down traffic light, with green at the top, amber below and red at the bottom. When the car is accelerating, the green lights will illuminate. When cruising, the amber ones would flash. And while braking the – you guessed – red ones would light up. Neato.

Well, following the 1970 motor show the RX-500 was packed away and forgotten about at the back of the Mazda facility. Until July of 2008, thirty years later, where a full restoration was completed so it could be displayed permanently at the Hiroshima City Transport Museum.

It was. In 2014 where the good folks at Goodwood flew it over to sit on Lord March’s lawn for the Cartier Style et Luxe – where hundreds of sunburnt Brits dropped their ice creams on the floor and gawped at it relentlessly. Probably because of the doors and those taillights.

Ah! We forgot to mention that the original concept car was green before being resprayed silver to make it look like Mazda produced twice as many RX-500s than they actually did. As to why it’s parked in the undergrowth? We have no idea. Because Japan, we guess.