It's astonishing to think that this 1972 clip was only 27 years or so after the end of WW2, and yet it was more than 45 years ago (in 2018)... That car has a very nice, deep lustre to the paintwork.
Good point. You’d actually be actually amazed how often one number can be actually closer to another number than another number. Take 43 for example. To a layman that can seem like quite a high number, but in fact it is actually closer to zero than it is to a hundred. I could go on but I can tell by the look on your face that you need time to process this.
I was growing up in the '90 in Poland, and this "Thames" intro brings me good vibes. It was played before "Count Duckula", wich was my best cartoon when i was young :)
IIRC, Count Duckulla was a spin off from Dangermouse as Terry Scott, voice of Penfold, had died. Duckulla appeared in an episode of Dangermouse as a villain before he got his own TV series.
And lets not forget that they're so quiet that scores of people fall asleep behind the wheel and, at the same time, pedestrians think you are an optical illusion and step out into the road in front of you.
Well, it really is a silly design oversight. Why have an ash tray when you can't use it whenever the driver has his belt on? It would've been smarter just to skip the ash tray.
For a new car it was surprising to see seat belts not designed into them, at the time cars designed in the early 60s such as the Austin 1100 and Hunter it was clear that Seat Belts were an afterthought (although they still done better than this), cars designed at the end of the 60s, Avenger, Marina etc had them engineered into the design. We need to note that by this time Volvo had had three point seat belts for standard for 13 years!
Its a fact rear seat passengers outlived all front seat riders.........................although they were likely to be kids so passive smoking got them in the end lol !
My second ever car was an RX3 coupe, bought back in 1983. I used it for 12 car events (night navigation rallies) and it was brilliant. Quicker than mk2 RS2000's at the time. Loved it.
He's not complaining about built quality. In fact, he states that the floor is galvanized to prevent rust. He simply points out that the rear suspension is kind of dated and that the body dimensions are not taken full advantage of.
I remember my father having an NSU with rear rotary engine. The car was tiny, and he didn't have it for long. Just something I remember from my childhood, 45 years ago
hi mate, yeh the Mazda rotary scene here is massive, circuit cars, drift, drag race, super quick street cars etc, here is a link to some of our crazy rotary powered drag/street cars if interested, i'm sure Mazda would have never imagined that their little rotary engine would be doing this half a century later, there are a few RX3 Mazdas running 6 sec quarter miles with the 2 rotor engine which would have been unimaginable in 1972 ua-cam.com/video/N2mp9d9Enng/v-deo.html
Can you imagine how folks would’ve reacted if they’d heard that one day there would be INTERMITTENT wipers??? Just goes to show you how much we take such things for granted here in 2022…
The Land Crab was actually a good car - better still with the 2200 six. In terms of comfort and interior space, the Austin, Morris (or better still Wolseley) was a gorgeous thing to be in. The Mazda just sort of looked like any Datsun (as it was then) or Toyota. Lots of black plastic and.... lots more black plastic.
The marvellous things about Wankel engines is the massive torque, the supreme efficiency (it uses no fuel nor oil) and the fact they will last a thousand years or them million miles (whichever comes last). Amazing.....
I used to own the standard 1300cc piston engined version of this car. It is was called the Mazda 808. My girlfriend at the time did end up purchasing a Rotary engined Mazda RX7 sports car a few years later.
20 MPG was probably a lot better than it would have done with American smog controls. The Chevrolet Vega , Chevy Monza and AMC Pacer were designed with hopes of using rotary engines to save space, but after the 1973 oil embargo, GM gave up on the engine leaving all 3 cars with engines that were either under powered or too heavy for the front tires.
Beautifully preserved videotape. Much better job than how we do it in Australia. Thames must be meticulous in how they store it. Videotape is actually a terrible medium for long term archiving, especially if not kept in the right conditions.
Displacement deactivation of one of the two rotors would probably sort the fuel usage issues because the bsfc is so poor at part throttle but actually the same as an n/a piston car at fuller openings. And it would be seemless because its so smooth anyway.
He noted the horse cart springs at the back, whereas the Avenger he refers to of course was using coil springs all round. But Ford carried on plugging away at those obsolete leaf springs for another 10 years!
Dave Krieger Yes I believe the Marina had leaf springs too. The handling of the Avenger was ahead of pretty much anything else in its class, whereas the Marina, well... was at the other end of the scale.
The Hilliman Avenger was sold by Chrysler here in the states. It was sold as the Plymouth Cricket. Sold from 1971-1973. Car rusted away in the states and Chrysler Plymouth dealers dealers bad attitude and indiffrent workmanship killed it by 73. I think I remember reading about problems in getting parts due to strikes in the UK and Scotland. It think it was built in Scotland.
The mention of rotary and quiet in the same sentence makes me giggle. This is obviously before the obligatory "bridge port", down draft weber and big assed exhaust mods are performed.
We used to take those out and put them in toyotas or mini trucks of some variety. Ported and polished , fuel injected you can double the horsepower. But its a trade off .
I could balance a coin on the top of my '79 Mini 850's engine when it was running too. With modern oil, good plugs, the carb and timing properly adjusted it was super smooth. It couldn't get to 60 in 10 seconds though, maybe 10 minutes, and with its drum brakes all round it wouldn't stop from 60 either... Fun though.
And to know that here in Australia some "wankels" are asking $20k for a shell and a boxes of parts. Hope whoever buys one at that price they don't have any passengers that want to smoke when they sit in the back..
eufogia it was on the road untill 1985? Some of these stopped running in the US by 1980. About 15 years ago I found one of these in a salvage yard. It was a 1972 model. The plate and the registration expired July 3 1st 1977. The rotary engine failed and no one wanted to fix it.
The wasted space could have been a response to NSU Ro80 owners having to insert a Ford V4 engine after having gone through so many Wankel engines. There is a story that NSU Ro80 owners greet each other by the number of fingers they hold up. Five fingers=five engines they had to replace. Mazda was probably afraid of premature rotor-seal wear that the NSU Ro80 had. NSU had a generous warranty plan, that's why NSU went broke and Volkswagen bought out Audi and NSU. There were two companies: Auto Union GmbH and NSU Motorenwerke AG before becoming Audi NSU Auto Union AG.
Alex Willis in the old UK system of rating leaded petrol, "2-star" was 92 RON and would have been the common lower grade at the time. They used these star ratings (also in Ireland) up until the ban on leaded petrol in 2000 - I remember a lot of petrol stations in the 90's would have the choice of either "4-star" (98 RON leaded) or "unleaded" (95 RON) petrol.
In the 70s you had 2,3,4 and briefly 5 star petrol. It was all to do with octane ratings. 2 star was the cheapest and was basically p*ss water, like what you’d put in a lawnmower. 3 star was like U.S Regular, 4 star was like U.S premium. 5 star was the most expensive ,100 octane for high compression performance engines but that disappeared by the mid 70s.all these fuels were leaded. These days you either have regular unleaded or super unleaded and that’s it.
It's astonishing to think that this 1972 clip was only 27 years or so after the end of WW2, and yet it was more than 45 years ago (in 2018)... That car has a very nice, deep lustre to the paintwork.
Yeah it's a Mazda that paint after a year would be overcome by rust.
Good point. You’d actually be actually amazed how often one number can be actually closer to another number than another number. Take 43 for example. To a layman that can seem like quite a high number, but in fact it is actually closer to zero than it is to a hundred. I could go on but I can tell by the look on your face that you need time to process this.
BloomingOnion
Play the ball, not the man.
Thanks. I feel old, now !! (55)
@@herrfister1477 Well, you got a chuckle from me, so thanks for that
I was growing up in the '90 in Poland, and this "Thames" intro brings me good vibes.
It was played before "Count Duckula", wich was my best cartoon when i was young :)
They would play the Thames intro before Dangermouse too!
Dave Krieger that's what I associate it with too.
I'd forgotten all about count duckulla, thanks
IIRC, Count Duckulla was a spin off from Dangermouse as Terry Scott, voice of Penfold, had died.
Duckulla appeared in an episode of Dangermouse as a villain before he got his own TV series.
Benny Hill show also used the intro
Sadly most of these cars were ruined by 50p coins getting stuck in the alternator belt.
Finally someone will talk about the truth.
Also many accidents due to hands getting stuck on the steering wheel and gearshift lever
And lets not forget that they're so quiet that scores of people fall asleep behind the wheel and, at the same time, pedestrians think you are an optical illusion and step out into the road in front of you.
Compaining that the seat belt interferes with the operation of the ashtray - how 70's.
Well, it really is a silly design oversight. Why have an ash tray when you can't use it whenever the driver has his belt on? It would've been smarter just to skip the ash tray.
For a new car it was surprising to see seat belts not designed into them, at the time cars designed in the early 60s such as the Austin 1100 and Hunter it was clear that Seat Belts were an afterthought (although they still done better than this), cars designed at the end of the 60s, Avenger, Marina etc had them engineered into the design.
We need to note that by this time Volvo had had three point seat belts for standard for 13 years!
In the Peugeot 404 you cannot reach the handbrake when you have the seatbelt on, some designs out there...
@Andrew_koala WTF? Are you drunk, stupid or both?
Its a fact rear seat passengers outlived all front seat riders.........................although they were likely to be kids so passive smoking got them in the end lol !
That guy don’t know what he’s talking about. That body shape was awesome!
jorge campos yep and your GF has buck teeth and a lazy eye....
While it doesn’t look bad, I think the Savanna RX-3 (the coupe) was a much better design.
"Listen how quietly she runs"
Something all rotary owners set about fixing obviously !
yeah, terrible sound, but man can they rev.
You can always tell if a rotary is original or not by listening to how quiet it is. No need to open the hood!
A leyland wedge Princess 2200 HLS was also super quiet!
My second ever car was an RX3 coupe, bought back in 1983. I used it for 12 car events (night navigation rallies) and it was brilliant. Quicker than mk2 RS2000's at the time. Loved it.
I bought an RX7 new the year my son was born and drove it until he was 18, then I gave it to him. Not great gas mileage, but always reliable.
This car did 110 mph almost half a century ago and costed around 15,000 GBP in today's money - that's amazing.
My dad was doing 130mph on the autobahns in Germany.
Basically, he says its crap but gives it a five-star rating...OK.
That's exactly what I was thinking, ha!
Lol
It might be out of 10, a BMW in one of their other videos was rated at 6 stars.
What would Tony Bastable have to say though? That's what I would like to know.
I miss cars like these.
People are currently asking over 40,000 pounds for these in Australia. Thanks for sharing.
Club 1 Fan
Well. They can ask....
and they sell. I'm in New Zealand and these cars are fetching good coin these days.
I'd be surprised if there's a single example left in the u.k. They rusted very badly and the godawful fuel consumption was big turn off here.
owen lewis hah. We have one. It’s in immaculate original condition
Must be a recent import!
He's so colour-coordinated with the motorcar. That's so amazing. It's like you would think he did that on purpose or something.
Build quality was perfect for the time he overlooked it completely.
He's not complaining about built quality. In fact, he states that the floor is galvanized to prevent rust. He simply points out that the rear suspension is kind of dated and that the body dimensions are not taken full advantage of.
FKN 125L was last taxed in 1984. Not bad.
FUKIN' ELL!
Shoulda been FKN 115L (if it was a 12A model... 1,146cc)
Did not think it would last that long, thanks for checking.
Had one, brilliant engine. 80mph was nothing, no vibration. Rusted like an Italian lancia though
I remember my father having an NSU with rear rotary engine. The car was tiny, and he didn't have it for long. Just something I remember from my childhood, 45 years ago
03:25 That's not the clock ticking, that's the 50p coin you left in the engine bouncing around!
2 years or 24.000 miles warranty on a rotary engine :)
Thanks for uploading these videos, they give a nice viwe into the tht car era...
Yes, because that's roughly how long it would last
Quite a few things in this video made my jaw drop. But the craziest thing was the rear ashtray being blocked by the front seat belts 😂😂unreal.
Awesome video. Such a blast from the past. These RX-3s are still on the racing circuit down in Australia I think. Thanks for sharing!
hi mate, yeh the Mazda rotary scene here is massive, circuit cars, drift, drag race, super quick street cars etc, here is a link to some of our crazy rotary powered drag/street cars if interested, i'm sure Mazda would have never imagined that their little rotary engine would be doing this half a century later, there are a few RX3 Mazdas running 6 sec quarter miles with the 2 rotor engine which would have been unimaginable in 1972 ua-cam.com/video/N2mp9d9Enng/v-deo.html
yes they are. its the most popular car to restore in oz too
Bloody Oath they still race em, especially RX3's. lightest of the Rotas, but most these days are 808's converted
In New Zealand you know a girl in a rotang is good to go..
Wait.....TWO windshield speeds??? Well that is a game changer
Can you imagine how folks would’ve reacted if they’d heard that one day there would be INTERMITTENT wipers??? Just goes to show you how much we take such things for granted here in 2022…
"For the same price you could have an Austin 2200" So, a Mazda Rotary or a Land Crab. Hmmm, decisions, decisions!
The Land Crab was actually a good car - better still with the 2200 six. In terms of comfort and interior space, the Austin, Morris (or better still Wolseley) was a gorgeous thing to be in.
The Mazda just sort of looked like any Datsun (as it was then) or Toyota. Lots of black plastic and.... lots more black plastic.
@@BanjoLuke1 We had a Wolesley 2200 when I was a nipper. It seemed as grand as a Roller to my ten year old eyes!
The marvellous things about Wankel engines is the massive torque, the supreme efficiency (it uses no fuel nor oil) and the fact they will last a thousand years or them million miles (whichever comes last).
Amazing.....
And if you believe that bollox you'll believe anything
He was being ironic, mate.
I know, I don't know why I said that
Lol
Great car.....wish I'd kept mine now!
Very cool thing, considering it's nearly 50 years since they were designed 👍😊
I used to own the standard 1300cc piston engined version of this car. It is was called the Mazda 808. My girlfriend at the time did end up purchasing a Rotary engined Mazda RX7 sports car a few years later.
Thought I recognised him! He was on the cover of the 1975 Burtons catalogue.
I wish I had bought fifteen of those back in the day and put them in storage. Price a mint RX3 today, if you can find one.
Dav Dave my mother had a brand new RX2 and an RX3 coupe, I like to remind her what they are worth today lol
You could have spent a fortune meanwhile preserving those cars for 40+ years.
2 years ...or 24,000 miles. That did make me chuckle...
How was the actual reliability of these first rotary engines in these Mazda? Similar to the reliability of standard engines of that period?
20 MPG was probably a lot better than it would have done with American smog controls. The Chevrolet Vega , Chevy Monza and AMC Pacer were designed with hopes of using rotary engines to save space, but after the 1973 oil embargo, GM gave up on the engine leaving all 3 cars with engines that were either under powered or too heavy for the front tires.
The UK gallon is larger than the US gallon, thus 20 UK MPG is less than 17 US MPG.
"Listen how quietly she runs" - Yea not for long boi!
Ha ha... true a few weeks later the 10A should have been popping flames..!!!
Hahaha fucken oath.
Braaap brappa brappa brappa Braaap brappa brappa brappa
Nasty sticky feel of the woodgrain steering wheel:) LOL! That is what you get when you play with your wankel and don't wash your hands!
Great engine and an even better name.
He forgot to lift out his 50p!
hahhhhahha
Don't worry it's still sat there... perfectly balanced...
What a beautiful car
This guy is the most British thing ever
Fantastic! Keep these videos coming, thanks.
I've driven a Wankel engined Mazda. It was turbine smooth. It sounded a buzzer, if it over-revved (because you wouldn't know, otherwise)
The best car of its time!
Love the microphone......
Beautifully preserved videotape. Much better job than how we do it in Australia. Thames must be meticulous in how they store it. Videotape is actually a terrible medium for long term archiving, especially if not kept in the right conditions.
it looks to have started off as film stock, guessing 72 was before they moved entirely to tape.
@@amojak The trails at 0:44 suggest it was videotaped using a tubes camera.
How do the pistons go again? :D
Boing boing boing. But Mazda goes Hhhhhhhmmm.
21 mpg just before the fuel crises - the writing was on the wall.
Is there any chance you could upload complete Drive In episodes if they are still available in your archive?
^^what he said.
These clips are good but why not just put up whole programmes?
AlabamaShrimp because he isn’t the copyright owner
I totally agree, please upload complete episodes.
spankysmagicpiano i
Displacement deactivation of one of the two rotors would probably sort the fuel usage issues because the bsfc is so poor at part throttle but actually the same as an n/a piston car at fuller openings. And it would be seemless because its so smooth anyway.
He noted the horse cart springs at the back, whereas the Avenger he refers to of course was using coil springs all round. But Ford carried on plugging away at those obsolete leaf springs for another 10 years!
video99.co.uk didn't the Morris Marina have rear leaf springs too?
Dave Krieger Yes I believe the Marina had leaf springs too. The handling of the Avenger was ahead of pretty much anything else in its class, whereas the Marina, well... was at the other end of the scale.
The Hilliman Avenger was sold by Chrysler here in the states. It was sold as the Plymouth Cricket. Sold from 1971-1973. Car rusted away in the states and Chrysler Plymouth dealers dealers bad attitude and indiffrent workmanship killed it by 73. I think I remember reading about problems in getting parts due to strikes in the UK and Scotland. It think it was built in Scotland.
Thames .. will you be uploading the follow up ‘ Drive In ‘ video to this ??
From a side view, it looks rather like the beautiful Mk 1 Escort.
Bullshit, it looks a lot better than a shitty escort.
back when ten seconds to sixty was quick.
The mention of rotary and quiet in the same sentence makes me giggle. This is obviously before the obligatory "bridge port", down draft weber and big assed exhaust mods are performed.
20,000 miles, sounds about right for a wankel and mazda rust.
There better than those shit box ladas or skodas that you guys drive.
@@yusuf.alajnabi nope
@@GetToHellOut ahh yes
Did he leave the 50p inside the engine??
We used to take those out and put them in toyotas or mini trucks of some variety. Ported and polished , fuel injected you can double the horsepower. But its a trade off .
Came to comments to find this one!
I wish we could have seen how rotary engines would have evolved had they gotten the same amount of R&D as piston engines have had.
Especially with all of the computers nowadays. I think that a rotary engine assisted by computers could work.
Besides the right hand drive on Japanese and British cars would Britian have regulations for Toyotas and Hondas etc. to that country?
We like: Lack of Torque steer, We Don’t Like: Lack of Torque
I would buy the Mazda :)
He enjoyed using the word Wankel it was the closest you could get to swearing on TV in those days.
Good idea to Discourage smoking in the car blocking off the rear ashtray with the seatbelt anchors
"Beautifully quiet" haha how things have changed
must refrain from smutty jokes, I must
Bloody wankel.
Pistons going up and down
Comedy genius
Strange choice of upper garment in that heat!
It's the UK, weather can change at any moment. Too bad he didn't bring his umbrella along.
Mazda are introducing the rotary next year as range-extender in a hybrid. At constant speeds they excel.
Whats he trying to demonstrate at 2.15 again..?
Good job
Its the spinning Dorito of death!!!!
The Rotor Show LOL! Marverous
The 50 p seemed kind of supported to me))
Wankel engines and hand gestures half way through! 😂
Grant Muir my thought too
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha
same here hahhahaha
Wow, "60 in 10 seconds". Sign me up! 😂👍🤣👌😁😂
Hi. You realise it’s 60mph?
Only a 24000 mile warranty... that’s saying something right there lol
For those days that was generous. Most only gave you a 12 month warranty
The car body turned to rust well before that anyway
Chrysler and Ford of the era here in the United States were only 12 month/12,000 miles .
A 2 year warranty on the engine. In the 70s you replaced your engine more than you replaced your car.
In the 2000s you'll still do the same with an 8
Not if it rusted away first.
Top Gear 1970s clearer version, my bad, Top Gear didn't exists around until it introduced in 1979.
Those safety belt sockets... How tolerant customers were then.
I could balance a coin on the top of my '79 Mini 850's engine when it was running too. With modern oil, good plugs, the carb and timing properly adjusted it was super smooth. It couldn't get to 60 in 10 seconds though, maybe 10 minutes, and with its drum brakes all round it wouldn't stop from 60 either... Fun though.
Haha, the letters in the car reg say "fucking hell".
Bought an RX-3? You just been Wankeled!
And to know that here in Australia some "wankels" are asking $20k for a shell and a boxes of parts.
Hope whoever buys one at that price they don't have any passengers that want to smoke when they sit in the back..
tax was due on this rx-3 june 1985, better get paying boys
eufogia it was on the road untill 1985? Some of these stopped running in the US by 1980. About 15 years ago I found one of these in a salvage yard. It was a 1972 model. The plate and the registration expired July 3 1st 1977. The rotary engine failed and no one wanted to fix it.
'masses of wasted space.' my God do I miss that about modern cars
The wasted space could have been a response to NSU Ro80 owners having to insert a Ford V4 engine after having gone through so many Wankel engines. There is a story that NSU Ro80 owners greet each other by the number of fingers they hold up. Five fingers=five engines they had to replace. Mazda was probably afraid of premature rotor-seal wear that the NSU Ro80 had. NSU had a generous warranty plan, that's why NSU went broke and Volkswagen bought out Audi and NSU. There were two companies: Auto Union GmbH and NSU Motorenwerke AG before becoming Audi NSU Auto Union AG.
Everyone loves their rotary engine until it's time to service the apex seals.
These things are worth a fortune now
"Mezda" LOL 😁🤣😂👍😘
how would you say?
Filmed outside the 4 Horseshoes Pub Chobham Surrey.
From outside it does not look significantly different, than 818 Familia/Mizer/Savanna.
Can't see it taking off myself...
+Stevie Wonder I _see_ what you did there.
What the hell is 2-star petrol?
Alex Willis in the old UK system of rating leaded petrol, "2-star" was 92 RON and would have been the common lower grade at the time. They used these star ratings (also in Ireland) up until the ban on leaded petrol in 2000 - I remember a lot of petrol stations in the 90's would have the choice of either "4-star" (98 RON leaded) or "unleaded" (95 RON) petrol.
Thanks Aaron. I was being slightly facetious as I had heard of it. I remember 4-star, but not quite old enough to remember 2-star.
They had 5 star at one point, for high compression performance cars
I am from the United States I would need the star system of petrol explained to me.
In the 70s you had 2,3,4 and briefly 5 star petrol. It was all to do with octane ratings. 2 star was the cheapest and was basically p*ss water, like what you’d put in a lawnmower. 3 star was like U.S Regular, 4 star was like U.S premium. 5 star was the most expensive ,100 octane for high compression performance engines but that disappeared by the mid 70s.all these fuels were leaded. These days you either have regular unleaded or super unleaded and that’s it.
What went wrong?
Horrible gas mileage, awful reliability, etc. Poor engine design. Go read up about the recent RX-8
@@LearnAboutFlow True
This is like an Amazon review. "Terrible, five stars."
I would rate Amazon as "terrific" with *zero* stars, because they really are a turrible organisation, just downright turrible.
Engine guaranteed for a whole 24K!
if only they knew what these were worth now...
Fuckall compared to an RS2000
And can you demonstrate the piston movement again with your hand . I've told you already , stop giggling at the back .
Did he mention the mpg?? Nope, I had an rx8 and 18-22mpg for 230bhp 🙄
Where is the turbo...
Piston engine goes "boing-boing-boing,-boing-boing-boing-boing", but the Mazda goes "HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM"
Surely it's pronounced 'Vankel'?
2:16. He should have done that up and down hand movement while saying Wankel!
simpler times.....