1976 Mazda 808 '13B Enhanced' Sedan

Description

Mazda’s Grand Familia range of pushrod and rotary powered cars were produced by Toyo Kogyo between 1971 and 1978 in various guises, ranging from affordable family sedans through to high performance rotary models - the latter wearing Savanna badges in Japan and sold as the RX-3 elsewhere. The pushrod variants were sold as 808s in certain export markets (including Australia and New Zealand) and the 818 in others to avoid confusion with Peugeot’s convention of using triple digit numbers with a zero in the middle. The RX-3 was Initially powered by a 10A version of the Wankel rotary, American RX-3 customers got the more powerful 12A unit from the RX-2. Shortly after its release, Mazda came up with a new process called Transplant Coating Process (TCP) for the revolutionary Wankel-designed engine utilising a sprayed-on steel to coat the notorious fast-wearing engine rotor tips with chrome, greatly increasing engine life. All Mazdas then had their die-cast rotor housings coated with this new process. The rotary engine had financial advantages to Japanese consumers because the smaller engine displacement (below 1.5 litres) meant significantly reduced annual road tax, at the same time delivering more power than the traditional in-line engines. The RX-3’s rotary engine was upgraded to the larger 12A rotary in the GT model introduced in September 1972 and eventually this became the standard engine across the entire model range. Attractive and practical, the RX-3 coupe was the hero of the Australian range and became a staple in Touring Car racing here at the time. With values of original RX-3s sky high, many rotary fans have converted pushrod 808s, usually with the more powerful and widely available 13B units and these have become a staple of the drag scene for decades now.