Trivia question
 

What company built Mazda cars until the 1970's? (not Mazda)

ferrari?

Toyo Cork Kogyo Company, Limited

Well, I never heard of "Cork", but Toyo Kogyo, Ltd. of Hiroshima, Japan was the answer I was looking for. I have a brochure from 1972, and it mentions that Toyo Kogyo was celebrating their 50th anniversary that year.

2 more questions:

What year did Mazda begin research and development of the rotary engine?

What year did Mazda begin mass production of the rotary engine?

What is this, Jeopardy?
The first Mazda rotary engine was the 40A, developed in the early 60s. It was mainly used as a testbed. The first rotary to be in a vehicle was the L8A, which appeared in the '63-'64 Cosmo prototype. Never put into production. The first production rotary from Mazda was the 10A (0810). It was used in the '65-'67 Cosmo prototype and in the production version of the '67-'68 Cosmo (the L10A).

HAHA, I just did I research paper on this. The company started as Toyo Cork Kogyo in 1920, when they made machine parts. After they started making cars in the 1931, they just called themselves Toyo Kogyo. It's actually a very interesting history if you need material to write a research paper on.

According to the brochure, Mazda began research and development of the rotary engine in 1961, and they began mass production of the rotary engine in 1967.

Today, I was talking to the service guy at my Mazda dealer, and he said that among other things, Toyo Kogyo made cork. I bought my first Mazda in 1972, and have had 10 Mazdas, and thought I knew a lot about the history, but I never heard of this. But, apparently, the original name was indeed Toyo Cork Kogyo.

Nice little write up.... http://www.fc3s.org/miscellaneous/mr_felix_wankel.html
to bad the link on the page doesn't work. It is a great rotary site...