Mazda · R360 Coupé

Mazda R360 Coupé 1st generation (KRBB/KRBC)

Years: 1960–1969
Chassis: KRBB/KRBC
Drivetrain: RR

Story

Priced as low as 300,000 yen, it was very popular at first, and it was the first kei car offered with a torque-converter automatic, making it easier for people with physical disabilities to drive. Effectively a two-seater, it handed the role of main model to the four-seat Carol.

Stories

From steel springs to rubber

With the R360 Coupé, Yamamoto tried something no manufacturer had attempted. Until then suspension springs were steel; that was fine with four people aboard, but with one person they were hard and made your backside sore. So Yamamoto developed a suspension using rubber, and it won acclaim. He himself recalled that company president Tsuneji Matsuda, watching how Yamamoto put his life into everything he did, probably got the idea of entrusting him with developing the world's first rotary engine.

Kenichi Yamamoto

Chassis

Front

Trailing arm

Rear

Trailing arm

Curb weight: 380kg

Production plants

Hiroshima Plant
Fuchu, Aki, Hiroshima

US import eligibility

Earliest cars: Eligible since May 198525 years after sales began in May 1960
Last cars: Eligible since 199425 years after sales ended in 1969 (month not recorded)

Eligibility depends on each car's month of manufacture on its build plate, not on the sale dates shown here (NHTSA).

Japanese cars by US import year →

Engineers

Heiji Kobayashi

Car designer at Toyo Kogyo (now Mazda). He handled the design of the first Cosmo Sport and the R360 Coupe, and after leaving Mazda moved to GK Design.

Jiro Kosugi

Hometown: Takinogawa Ward, Tokyo City

A Japanese industrial designer. He designed passenger cars and trucks for Toyo Kogyo (now Mazda), sewing machines for Janome Sewing Machine and other products, and is regarded as a leading figure of the first generation of Japanese industrial designers. He was inducted into the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame.

Kenichi Yamamoto

Hometown: Kumamoto Prefecture

An automotive engineer and former navy engineering officer who joined Toyo Kogyo, now Mazda, after the war and, as development leader, succeeded in putting the rotary engine into practical use for the first time in the world. He set up the Rotary Engine Research Department and became its head, and the Cosmo Sport, the car powered by the engine, went on sale. He later served as the company's president and representative director and as its supreme adviser, among other posts.