Two Mazda-powered ‘Holden Kingswoods’ sell at auction in Japan

A rare pair of Mazda Roadpacer APs – the rotary-powered sedan based on Australia’s iconic Holden Premier and Kingswood – have sold for less than $30,000 each at auction in Japan, or close to the same price as V8-powered examples of the same car in Australia.

Spotted by a Japan-to-Australia import company and uploaded to Facebook, the red and purple Roadpacers sold for 2.565 million Yen ($AU26,950) and 2 million Yen ($AU21,000) each at auction last week – about one million Yen below their pre-inflation prices when new.

While the Mazda Roadpacer AP looks like a relatively common mid-1970s Holden, the story of why they were sold in Japan – and how the project failed – is often forgotten.

In the 1970s, Mazda did not have a large sedan to take on the likes of the Toyota Century, Nissan President, and Mitsubishi Debonair – so it formed a partnership with Holden’s parent company, US giant General Motors, who were keen to understand more about the Japanese marque’s revolutionary rotary engines.

At the time, Mazda had recently started to fit its rotary engines in the RX-2, RX-3, RX-4 and RX-5, while the engine would later become famous in the RX-7 sports car.

In exchange, General Motors supplied Mazda with knock-down kits of the HJ- and HX-generation Holden Premier, which was a more luxurious version of the popular Kingswood.

The result was the Mazda Roadpacer AP (for Anti-Pollution), which traded the Premier’s straight six-cylinder engine for one of its own ‘13B’ rotaries. And that’s where the problems started.

While Holden’s 3.3-litre six-cylinder ‘red’ motor and Mazda’s 1.3-litre two-rotor engine produced about the same power (96kW-101kW vs 97kW), the unique Japanese design had almost half the torque of its conventional Australian counterpart – developing just 138Nm compared to the Holden engine’s 260Nm.

This, combined with the Roadpacer’s kerb weight of almost 1600kg, meant the Mazda consumed almost 26 litres of fuel per 100km and had a top speed of only 166km/h – both of which were worse figures than those achieved by its standard engines.

To add salt to the wound, the Mazda Roadpacer AP cost Japanese buyers 3.835 million Yen in 1975 – equivalent to $AU9750 (almost $80,000 now) at a time when the HJ Premier was priced from $2400 to $4070 in Australia.

Just two years after the Roadpacer arrived in Japan, Mazda killed it, having reportedly sold approximately 800 examples.

For context, Holden built more than 176,000 HJ-generation models – which included the Belmont, Kingswood, Premier and Monaro – and approximately 110,000 HXs.

A rival Japanese car import company – J-Spec Imports – currently lists a 1975 Mazda Roadpacer for sale, claiming it could be landed and complied with Australian standards for less than $19,500.

MORE: A brief history of Mazda’s Kingswood
MORE: The Aussie-built Japanese limousine

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