MAKING HISTORY
The Mazda Classic Automobile Museum Frey in Augsburg, Germany is an astonishing testament to the limitless passion and painstaking labours of one German family, the Freys
Seventy-two-year-old Walter Frey, along with his sons Markus and Joachim, has amassed a collection of more than 120 Mazdas, and a third of these are now housed in a beautifully restored former tramshed, forming a stunning concours-quality display that’s open to the visiting public.
With immaculate examples from every era of post-war Mazdas, this priceless gathering of vehicles distils the history of the marque into one handy 500-square-metre area. You can chart the evolution of three-wheeled workhorses and minicars from the 1950s and 1960s; marvel at the blossoming of the Mazda rotary engine and the various models that made it so successful in the 1960s and 1970s, and trace the numerous technical innovations of the 1980s and 1990s.
There are rugged utility vehicles, path-breaking sports cars, a rotary-engined 26-seater bus, the Parkway, even the 1984 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE, which Mazda gave to Felix Wankel as a gift. Rarely seen Mazda models — the little two-stroke-engined 1972 Chantez; a 1975 Mazda Roadpacer AP — a luxury sedan of which only 800 models were ever built; a cabriolet version of a 1987 323 Familia; a 1993 626 with four-wheel-steering; a tow-truck version of the 1974 REPU pickup — flank the marque’s more familiar legends, such as the pioneering 1968 Cosmo Sport.
This cornucopia is laced with a variety of memorabilia: from period advertising posters and watercolour sketches by former Mazda designer Mikio Nakajima, to a cutaway model of a rotary engine and die-cast scale models of Japanese police RX-7s.
Walter began his journey to automotive mania —and he is unarguably the highest degree of car nut, owning more than 200 cars of all marques, and not just rotary cars but also rotary motorcycles and even an aircraft — as a dealer of Russian Ladas, back in 1971.
He was soon persuaded to take on the franchise of a quirky but fast-rising Japanese brand called Mazda, and has never looked back…
But why open a museum, and why now? “When I bought this tramshed five years ago I just wanted somewhere to gather my collection in one place, to be able to look at it,” admits Walter. But once Mazda got on board, his initial idea evolved into this carefully curated, customer-facing display. “I love that it has become a museum for everyone to enjoy. But above everything, it’s my baby, and it gives me joy.”
Mazda R130 Coupe
Mazda Type GB
Mazda R360 Coupe
Mazda Pathfinder XV-1
Mazda R130 Coupe
Year: 1969
Engine: 2 x 655cc twin rotor
Power: 126 hp (93 kW)
The Bertone-penned RX-87 entered production as the R130 Coupe. The Freys say it is one of their favourite cars, and one can see why. The head-turning lines, all sleek elegance and taut muscularity, are a winner. But it was its powerful twin-rotor engine, driving the front wheels and capable of delivering a 190km/h top speed, which helped earn the R130 the name ‘the lord of the road’ in Japan.
Mazda Type GB
Year: 1950
Engine: 700cc air-cooled single-cylinder
Power: 15.2 hp (11 kW)
One of the oldest Mazdas in the museum is this superbly restored Type GB. From the first Type DA (Mazda-Go) in 1931, Mazda’s three-wheelers proved to be an economical, practical and extremely successful transport solution that played an especially vital role in Japan’s post-War recovery. The three-wheeler family eventually spawned 30 different variants, from a simple 9.5 hp (7 kW) model to ones with a two-ton payload.
Mazda R360 Coupe
Year: 1962
Engine: 356cc 2-cylinder
Power: 16 hp (12 kW)
This little 380kg (840 lb) marvel —Mazda’s first-ever four-wheel passenger car — was one of the new breed of tax-exempt sub-360cc ‘kei’ cars that kicked off Japan’s city-car revolution. Taking 65% of the market, it made Mazda a household name. Illustrating the rarity of this specimen, Walter describes how its Australian seller advertised it as the ‘best R360 you can buy’. It turned out to be a junkheap. When questioned, the seller calmly replied, “Well, have you seen a better R360 for sale anywhere?”
Mazda Pathfinder XV-1
Year: 1972
Engine: 2000cc 4-cylinder
Power: 90 hp (66kW)
Could this be one of the rarest Mazdas ever? This multi-purpose 4x4 utility vehicle was built in Myanmar in the 1970s, primarily for that country’s government, military and police forces. With their no-frills design and tough build, examples served well into the 2000s. This particular car somehow found its way to Hamburg, where it lay abandoned for years before Walter bought it and gave it a new lease of life. Alas, its engine was simply beyond repair, so it now runs a 929’s power unit.
Walter Frey and his sons Joachim (left) and Markus (right)
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