The One And Only Production Rotary Pickup Truck Kinda Sucks But You’ll Still Want It Anyway

Mazda used to be obsessed with the rotary engine, and I mean way more than it is today. There was a time when Mazda was so addicted to Wankel power that it shoved the spinning Dorito engine into anything it could get its hands on. The result was sports cars, family cars, and even a bus. Then there’s this, the one and only production rotary pickup truck in the world. The Mazda Rotary Pickup (or REPU, for Rotary Engined Pick Up) sort of sucks as a pickup truck, but you won’t care because you’ll want one in your driveway, anyway.

Pickup truck history is chock-full of wonderful attempts of being different. General Motors once fitted trucks with composite truck beds that couldn’t rust and don’t forget the weird Ford Midbox. The whole existence of the Chevrolet Avalanche and its beefy big block version is another pickup truck anomaly.

It’s not just recent history, either. Studebaker used to be a champion of the car-based pickup truck and Chevrolet even built some awesome trucks and vans out of the Corvair. Don’t forget about the Ford Durango or the Dodge Rampage, either. If you want something a bit different but still with a bed, there’s lots of truck history to love out there. Mazda’s mark on truck history is that of an automaker that built small, yet dependable workhorses. That is with one major exception. In the 1970s, right before diesel started taking off as a way to increase fuel economy, Mazda was in the middle of Wankel fever.

Mazda admits it went a bit crazy with rotaries in the 1970s, stating “Almost everything Mazda sold in North America featured the engine.” This was hilariously true. If you were an American car buyer in the 1970s, you could get the RX-2 economy car, the RX-3 micro pony car, the RX-4 family car, and the RX-7 all with Wankel power. And what Mazda rotary history would be complete without the historic Cosmo and the bonkers Mazda Parkway Rotary 26 transit bus? Mazda says that in 1972, it sold about 100,000 vehicles powered by a rotary engine in America. Mazda’s rotaries were so popular that by the time the 1970s were out, about half of every Mazda built had a rotary.

So, you’re an automaker obsessed with the work of Felix Wankel and have placed the engine in just about anything that moves. Where do you go next? A pickup truck, of course!

The Original Mazdas

Mazda says its automotive history is rooted in trucks. While the original firm was known for its cork manufacturing, today’s Mazda calls iself one of Japan’s earliest automakers. And it did it on the backs of three-wheeled trucks, from Mazda:

Mazda’s history as an automaker began in 1931 with the unveiling of a three-wheeled truck known as the Mazda-Go Type-DA. The company was aiming for class-leading performance and maximum loading capacity, domestic production of various parts including the engine, and the setting up of a consistent volume production system. The engine was built in-house and had a transmission with a reverse gear, a rear differential and other components patented by Mazda(then Toyo Kogyo). The introduction of the Mazda-Go was a pivotal moment in the history of Japan’s three-wheeled truck market.

Japan’s automotive history began with Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, Ltd. (currently Mitsubishi Motors) which commenced production of its Mitsubishi A Type passenger car in 1917. Nissan, in its previous form was established as an automaker in 1933, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. (currently Toyota) completed its A1 Type passenger car in 1935, and Honda was established later in 1946. In this historical context, Mazda was an early starter in automobile manufacturing compared with other Japanese companies.

The name Mazda came into existence with the production of the Company’s first three-wheeled trucks. Other candidates for a model name included Sumera-Go, Tenshi-Go and more. But these were swept aside when it was decided to name it in honor of the family name of then company president, Jujiro Matsuda. The name was also associated with Ahura Mazda (God of Light), with the hope that it would brighten the image of these compact vehicles. The Mazda lettering was used in combination with the corporate emblem of Mitsubishi, which was responsible for sales, to produce the Toyo Kogyo three-wheeled truck registered trademark.

Mazda says those three-wheeled trucks became a part of the backbone of the Japanese workforce. After World War II, those same three-wheeled trucks helped the nation get back on its feet. According to Mazda, three-wheeled trucks were so popular in Japan that by 1953, 72 percent of the trucks built in the nation had just three wheels.

 

However, as Japan’s economy spiked, truck buyers in the nation began to seek out more comfortable trucks with four wheels. Mazda had already been producing handfuls of four-wheeled trucks since 1950 (above), but the firm decided to pounce on the growing market. At the same time, something else was happening, from my previous retrospective:

In 1955, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) was on a mission to get the nation’s people on wheels. It started with the concept of a people’s car. Then, MITI realized that Japan’s post-World War II industries weren’t competitive on the global stage. MITI developed a plan to put Japan’s industries, especially the automotive industry, on the same level as the titans from America and Europe. In an effort to achieve this, MITI sought to condense Japan’s automotive industry. The logic was that fewer but larger automotive firms would be more competitive as opposed to a bunch of small companies trying to make it. Thus, smaller firms, including Toyo Kogyo, Mazda’s former name, were under the threat of being merged. Only the companies that offered something exceptional would be more likely to remain independent.

Mazda wanted to remain independent, but how would it do that? To prevent a forced merger, Mazda decided to do something none of the other Japanese automakers were doing by launching a moonshot engine experiment. Mazda would scoop up a license for Felix Wankel’s rotary engine, fix its critical reliability issues, and fit it into production vehicles.

As Mazda was working on securing its future, it was also working on getting Japanese workers in capable trucks. The Romper cabover truck was launched in 1958 and the D1100 followed the next year. These were capable trucks for their day. A Romper carried a metric tonne and was motivated by a twin-cylinder engine making 32.5 HP. The D1100 also carried a tonne, but ran with an advanced water-cooled four-cylinder engine good for 46 HP. Later came the 1.75 tonne D1500 with made 60 HP. Mazda says the D1100 was the most powerful truck in its class. That gives you a bit a glimpse into what Japanese trucks were like in 1959.

These truck successes were great for Mazda as it rose from just 4 percent of the Japanese truck market to 10 percent in just a single year. Japanese buyers lined up for these trucks and Mazda didn’t let off the gas, producing better and more powerful iterations. Eventually, Mazda realized it needed to cater to the light duty market, too, and in 1961 it produced the first of its B series, the B1500.

Today’s truck is based on its second generation, the Mazda Proceed of 1965. This truck was also sold as the B1500 and made it to America as the B1600 in 1972. Americans might know this B series better as the Ford Courier, which sold far better than the Mazda-badged unit.

The B1600 and the Courier reached America in response to the popularity of small pickups from Toyota and Datsun. To say the Mazda truck packed a punch would be an understatement. Sure, the engine under the hood was a small 1.6-liter four. And sure, that engine made just 64 HP and 78 lb-ft of torque. However, Mazda said these trucks could carry 1,200 pounds in its 6.16-foot bed. Hagerty claims that later on, the B1600 would be advertised with a chunky 2,250 pounds of payload.

The Ford Courier was a Mazda B series with a more American look and a 1.8-liter with 74 HP and 92 lb-ft of torque. For later Couriers, Ford would rob the Pinto of its 2.3-liter 90 HP four. Ford’s model also carried a nice 1,400-pound payload. As Hagerty writes, the Japanese truck manufacturers figured out a clever way to dodge the infamous Chicken Tax. The trucks would arrive as chassis cabs without beds, which meant they were subject to just a 4 percent tariff. The trucks would then get their beds fitted once the feds were no longer looking.

Rotary Power

Something fascinating is that Mazda did not market its B1600 in America as a compact, fuel-efficient pickup truck. Instead, Mazda went the route of pitching the B1600 as the pickup truck for the car enthusiast. In advertising for the 1972 model, Mazda boasts how one magazine said the B1600 felt more like a sports car than any other mini truck on sale in America at the time.

Mazda leaned into this, clipping words from magazine articles that described the 1.6-liter four as “perky.” The suspension also wasn’t described in the context of being a truck, either. Instead, Mazda said the heavy duty front coil spring suspension and 6-leaf packs in the rear were good for winding country roads. Sure, Mazda said you could carry 1,200 pounds in the bed, but it really wanted you to know that the B1600 had a four on the floor for fun.

According to Mazda, this led to one more development. It was Mazda’s opinion that American pickup trucks were crude and basic. Mazda wanted to prove that it didn’t have to be this way. How? It would bring sports car technology to the worker’s pickup truck by lowering 1.3-liter 13B Wankel from the RX-4 into the engine bay. This was the birth of the Rotary Engined Pick Up (REPU), also known as the Mazda Rotary Pickup, the sports car of pickup trucks.

Mazda did more than just give the Rotary Pickup a Wankel engine and a supposedly good suspension. To enhance that sports car feel, you were able to get your truck with a dash with fake wood accents, full carpet on the floor, and a luxurious tachometer. Road & Track notes that the REPU also got a 6-inch wider rear track and a 5-inch wider front track, plus flares to cover the bigger tires. You got all of that for $3,500, or $26,745 today.

The engine wasn’t a slouch, either. The twin-rotor 13B was good for 110 HP and 117 lb-ft of torque, which was pretty good for its day. The REPU also scored well in reviews. Take this from Road & Track:

Being thoroughly familiar with Mazda rotary engines—and generally well impressed with them—we were naturally curious as to how one would work in the pickup. The RX-4 unit, largest of the lot, works outstandingly well. It’s not as quiet in this vehicle as it is in the super-refined RX-4; a larger cooling fan sets up quite a howl even though it’s on a viscous-drive coupling. But the engine is reasonably quiet and, as usual, butter-smooth as it pulls strongly up through the gears or merely accelerates impressively in top gear. As with the passenger cars there’s a warning buzzer to keep you from overdoing it, coming on at something over 6000 rpm. We used 7000 rpm as a limit and found the pickup capable of 0-60 mph in 11 sec flat and the quarter-mile in 18.3: not as quick as the fastest American pickup, but peppy indeed.

Everyone who pays attention to such things has chuckled at bouncing people in little Japanese pickups, and the regular Mazda pickup with piston engine has been little different from the Datsun and Toyota in this regard. But we found the Rotary to ride relatively well for its type. Actually, the front end seems a little on the soft side, floating and oscillating on gentle bumps. The rear end is stiff, as you’d expect of a light mass sprung for 1400 lb more weight than it usually carries, and of course the ride improves markedly when you start adding cargo back there. One thing in particular struck us, though. Most of the passenger cars we drive these days have radial tires and our experience with bias tires is receding into the past. All the little pickups come with bias rubber, and the Rotary with what are actually rather large bias tires goes across those annoying lane-divider dots without a trace of harshness or rumble. Or rattles, for that matter; this pickup had fewer rattles and squeaks than any in our memory.

One doesn’t think of driving a pickup like a sports car. but we found the Rotary’s steering more precise than that of other little pickups and its handling response good enough to make brisk driving enjoyable. In the unloaded condition it understeers fairly strongly (surprisingly it isn’t very noseheavy) and begins to pick up its inside rear wheel as the cornering limit is reached. Naturally it’s not going to take to hard cornering on a bumpy road, but on a smooth one it has curve capability to equal some of the less expensive small sports sedans.

The people of Truck Trend had an even better time, somehow getting the REPU to 60 mph in 8.9 seconds. That wouldn’t be such a bad 60 mph sprint today, let alone in 1974.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure you can see the development of a problem, here. The Mazda Rotary Pickup’s engine, like many rotaries, has to be wrung out to really see that power. In other words, you have to drive it like a sports car rather than a truck, which comes at odds with a truck’s mission. Truck buyers want stump-pulling power down low, not near the top of the rev range.

Other issues came from the fact that the rotary returned 16.5 mpg in mixed driving testing and while a rotary has fewer moving parts than a piston engine, it was a novel engine with more complicated repairs. Other bad news came from poor timing on Mazda’s part. The REPU was sold only in North America, not even in Japan. Unfortunately, the American economy was struggling in the wake of an oil crisis, and a relatively thirsty sport truck wasn’t exactly what people were looking for.

Combine it all together and you have a quick small truck that isn’t that good at being a small truck. Perhaps that’s why Mazda sold about 15,000 of them between 1974 and 1977. Still, when you read retrospectives you’ll find REPU drivers talking about how the smooth and relatively quiet mini pickup felt like a rocket when you got that rotary singing.

The Mazda Rotary Pickup is also a piece of history. Mazda says it’s the first and the only production pickup truck with a rotary engine. Whether that’s good news or not is up to you. However, the REPU has plenty of fans willing to buy up a used truck if you don’t. It looks like you can get a REPU that runs well but isn’t cosmetically perfect for around $17,000. Rough ones get much cheaper and pristine ones get more expensive. I found just a few for sale currently.

This is another truck we’re unlikely to see ever again. This time it isn’t even because of the switch to EVs. Mazda discovered that a rotary pickup didn’t really work and never tried it again. But if you’re looking for a piece of rotary history that isn’t an RX-7, I doubt you could go wrong with a Mazda Rotary Pickup. You can even use it to bring home your Suzuki RE-5.

(Images: Mazda, unless otherwise noted.)