1990 Mazda Cosmo

The 1990 Mazda Eunos Cosmo is a legendary, high-technology grand tourer. It represents the peak of Japans bubble economy automotive engineering. Sold exclusively in Japan through Mazdas luxury Eunos division, it remains one of the most technologically advanced and unique coupes ever built.
The 1990 Cosmo made automotive history with its choice of two highly advanced rotary engines:
- 20B-REW Triple-Rotor: The only production three-rotor engine ever offered in a passenger car. It officially produced 276 horsepower due to Japans gentlemens agreement (though actual output neared 300 hp) and 297 lb-ft of torque. It offers power delivery as smooth as a V12.
- 13B-RE Twin-Rotor: A smaller twin-rotor variant that also produced 276 horsepower but with slightly less torque.
- Sequential Twin Turbos: The Cosmo was the first production car to use a sequential twin-turbocharged system, eliminating turbo lag years before other sports cars popularized it.
- 4-Speed Automatic: Due to its luxury grand touring purpose---and because the automatic transmission couldnt handle the extreme RPMs of a 9,000-rpm manual rotary build---all Cosmos were paired with an electronically controlled 4-speed automatic.
The cabin was styled to resemble a high-end luxury lounge, wrapping passengers in an ultra-modern wrap-around dashboard. It introduced several landmark automotive technologies:
- Worlds First In-Car GPS: The Cosmo was the first mass-production vehicle equipped with built-in GPS navigation, developed alongside Mitsubishi Electric.
- Car Control System (CCS): High-end trims featured a color CRT touchscreen to manage the GPS, climate control, radio, and even a built-in NTSC television.
- Holographic Gauges: The analog dash instrument cluster used a floating, holographic style illusion that lit up dynamically when the ignition was turned on.
Mazda offered the vehicle in two distinct trim formulas:
- Type-E (Elegant): Tuned for supreme luxury with a softer suspension, full premium leather upholstery, and wood grain trim.
- Type-S: (Sport): Featured a much firmer, sportier suspension setup and cloth bucket seats.
Because the car exceeded Japanese vehicle dimension regulations, owners faced heavy annual road taxes, making production quite limited. Only 8,853 JC-generation Cosmos were ever produced between 1990 and 1995, with the 3-rotor 20B variants being the most highly prized by collectors today.
This original 20B Cosmo has been a part of the Duncan Imports collection since 2021.