Old Concept Cars: Mazda RX-500

The Mazda RX-500 Concept was presented at the Tokyo auto show in 1970. It had a weight of just 850 kilos and mechanically it was wearing a 491 ml rotary engine mounted in the center, which yielded 250 hp at 14,000 rpm, that enabled it to have a top speed that exceeded 200 km/h, with Mazda declaring bck then that the RX-500 had managed to reach a top speed of 241 km/h on a test track.

On the back besides the classic lights, it had two more, a green light that was lit when the driver accelerated and a yellow that was lit when the driver slowed down, with the intensity of the red lights depending on how hard the driver was pressing the brake pedal.

Only one RX-500 Concept was built by Mazda, even thought there are photos of the car in silver, yellow and green color. The concept’s color was changed during the process of restoration. The first happened in 2008 and it was placed in the Hiroshima City Transport museum, followed by other two appearances, one in 2009 at the Tokyo auto shpe and one in 2014 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.