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Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S
The S500/600/800 might have been Honda's first car, but the Mazda Cosmo was the world's first car with a truly viable rotary engine -- a twin-rotor. Its futuristic styling was the perfect complement to the Jetsons powerplant under the hood: a 110-hp thing of wonder not much larger than a basketball. Working under a development license from NSU, Mazda solved many of the rotary's problems before the Germans did, and the Cosmo beat NSU's own twin-rotor car to market.

Mazda built only 343 examples of the 1967 Cosmo. A mid-1968 update gave the car a 5.9-inch wheelbase stretch, vacuum-assisted brakes, a five-speed, and eighteen extra horsepower -- but only 1176 Series 2 units were built before production ended in 1972. Still, the white spaceship with the vertically mirrored jet-exhaust taillights was Mazda's Big Bang -- the first of more than two million rotary-engine cars that Mazda has sold since.

The Cosmo's tiny 982-cc engine produces twice as much torque as the frenetic Honda four-cylinder, but the twist is delivered effortlessly and without vibration even as the tach needle sweeps into the red zone. The Cosmo doesn't so much pull hard, it just never stops pulling. As a result, it's a lot faster than it feels. That could be a problem, except the Cosmo is so impressive in corners.

The steering is relatively slow, but the Mazda changes direction with immediate responses and astonishing agility. Having a diminutive engine mounted behind the front axle and no higher than your kneecaps pays dividends here just as it does in today's Subaru BRZ -- after two minutes of savoring the light, delicate controls, you will itch to drive this sports car on a racetrack. Once upon a time, the rotary engine was a common dream -- it was envisioned for use in Corvettes, De Loreans, Chryslers, and Citroens, among others -- but the only company that made that dream a long-standing reality is Mazda. It all began with the Cosmo.

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