You could write a thousand words about a person’s car, and without a thought for the driver, the entire piece could end up hollow inside. As much as I think about different cars, there’s a role left for whoever’s meant to drive them and fill up the rest of the story. That’s why a human-centric story is completely different.
It’s great to learn about a driver who has been committed to their car for as long as they’ve had it, growing and changing alongside it. Mazda has explored this bond to a great extent, especially as the Miata roadster has been marketed with the phrase “Jinba ittai,” which refers to the horse and rider being one, like a car and its driver would. For a true bond to form between a car and a car person, the car needs to respond well to inputs and communicate about the road underneath. It also helps if the car looks as great as the third-generation RX-7. A year ago, Mazda created a documentary called “Goodbye RX-7: Saying Farewell To A Dear Friend,” telling the story of a long-time owner letting go of her cherished rotary sports car. The ten-minute short film has now won a coveted award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Naoko Nishimoto bought her Mazda RX-7 some twenty-five years ago. She lives in Nagasaki, and when she got her licence in the mid-1960s, she took her first car to the roads near the Mount Unzen volcano every weekend to zoom up and down the mountain passes. Mazda doesn’t emphasize it in the documentary, but her first cars were Toyotas, a tiny Publica 800 at first and a Corona coupe later.
At 55, she happened to be watching Initial D, the well-known Japanese anime series, and like many other gearheads, she was transfixed by the RX-7 featured in the show. “That’s it”, she said: she knew which car to get next. “That’s the car I want.” It’s a silver FD RX-7 from the final facelift production run from 1998 to 2002, and over the years she accumulated nearly 50,000 miles in the car, going everywhere with it. It also cements the idea that sports cars and driving enjoyment are for everyone, and big wings and spoilers aren’t just for Touge heroes seen on the show.
In the documentary, she lights up when talking about driving the RX-7, how it feels to shift the gears, and what it sounded like when she first got it. She lovingly refers to the car as the “7,” and the licence plate also had just the one number on it.
As she was nearing 80, she thought she should give up driving. “I know my limits, I’ve grown old. Time to hand in my keys”, she said. “If I kept the car, I wouldn’t be able to drive it, and cars need to be driven to stay in shape.” Isn’t that the truth.
In an interview for a local TV channel, she mentioned she would be willing to let the car go. And while one would think that a car like that could easily find a respectful owner that would continue the sort of upkeep that the RX-7 deserved, she was contacted by over 400 people trying to buy the car off her. But in reality, there could only be one logical next step for her and the car: it would need to go back to Mazda, and Naoko soon decided the manufacturer could have it. They wouldn’t mothball it but put it into promotional use, which would also mean it would get driven. And then again, it’s difficult to think of anyone else that would find the right parts so easily for the RX-7 when it needed them.
After the decision was made, Naoko’s son arranged to go on roadtrips together, so they could get photos of her and the car, at harbours and rice paddies, mountains and valleys, to show the time she’s had together with the car. With 50,000 miles on the clock, the Mazda hasn’t been a garage queen, despite looking absolutely flawless in the photos and the film. (Watch here if you don’t see the embed below).
As well as 1.2 million views on YouTube, the documentary received a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year.
It’s a feel-good story, and despite being just ten minutes long, it tugs the same heartstrings as Drive My Car, the three-hour 2021 film based on Haruki Murakami’s short story about a Saab and its owner. Cars play roles in people’s lives, and sometimes those roles deserve awards and recognition. Hey, you can’t spell Oscar without “car”, can you?
Images: Mazda
This is what happened to Kyoko Iwase…Don’t think too hard about how the ages would line up, just go with it.
She’s a lot better adjusted than I am. I’m pretty sure the day I hand in my license will be the day before I die. I know it happens to us all, but honestly, I dread the thought of it.
Keep an interesting car and hire a driver.
Probably find volunteers if others like the car.
I bet she’s had some other interesting cars in her time. With purple hair and fondly talking of shifting gears, she definitely cared about driving experience and stepped to her own beat.
Thank you for this article. I’ve never really understood the attraction to Japanese cars, but then again, I haven’t really driven them. I live in far northern Wisconsin. Everybody drives F*rds, Chevrolets, GMCs, and RAMs. While there are a handful of Toyotas around, I do not personally know anyone who owns one. Due to the 6-months of winter, there are also some Subarus around but again, I had an Outback once for a rental car about 18 years ago, but that’s my only experience.
I did once ride in an RX-8 back around 2007-ish. I remember it having a high redline and a high center tunnel and shifter.
This is interesting to me; I am the inverse of you. My since graduating almost 20 years ago, my vehicles have been Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Mazda, Mazda, Kia (not Japanese, but close enough to not be a combo breaker to me). Only exception has been a Pacifica for my wife, and that was only because I find them better looking than Siennas.
I feel absolutely no attraction to the American makes. Maybe its because the whole “Murica” thing is a huge turn off, maybe its because I generally don’t like generic, boring cars. Who knows?
Where I grew up and where I live now, it’s not so much ‘Murica, but rather that’s the stealerships we have around here. We get a lot of snow, and people love their 4X4 trucks and SUVs. Where I lived from 1980 until 2010, all there was were the ‘Big-3’. Where I live now, there is a Toyota stealership, and a lot of the seniors go there for their vehicles, but from what I’ve heard, they’re terrible to deal with and have even worse customer service if you didn’t buy your Toyota from them. But we do have two GM, one Dodge/RAM, and two F*rd stealerships within 15 miles.
If you want anything else, you’re driving 1.5 – 2 hours or buying on the Internet.
That makes sense. More domestic dealers means more domestic used cars means lower chance that anyone would bother driving farther for something else, even used. That wouldn’t stop me personally, as I usually drive a couple hundred miles to get the specific cars I’m looking for.
My parents got so fed up with the Toyota dealership in their area that they started taking their car to the Mazda dealership I bought my car from, even for warranty work. It was also where they serviced their Subaru from day 1 until the company that owned the Toyota and Subaru dealership bought the Mazda one out and it became just as shitty.
for me it’s been Ford, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Toyota, Subaru, Mazda, Honda, Mazda, Mazda, Acura, Audi, Mazda, GMC, Lexus, Mazda, Lexus. Every non-Japanese car other than the 8.1L GMT800 Yukon XL 2500 I used for towing made me regret not buying a Japanese car again. I hated driving it, but it was the last vehicle sold in ‘Murica that can both tow ~10K and also fit INSIDE a garage, so it’s kind of special in that way.
Most “Japanese” cars in the US are basically American cars with a Japanese badge.
Tacoma, Camry, Accord, Tundra, etc. are all either designed by the American HQ or designed with US consumers in mind.
The closest thing to a Japanese car the way it’s designed for Japan that you’d have easy access to is the Civic hatchback hybrid.
I had to look up the Civic hatchback, as I’ve never seen one, and it didn’t look bad in photos, especially in blue, but it was a 4-door. If I were ever going to drive 100+ miles to a Honda stealership, I think I’d rather test drive the Prelude hybrid. At least that’s still a sporty-ish 2-door.
There’s something incredibly poetic about an old woman from Nagasaki driving a car built in Hiroshima. From such devastation to such accomplishment in a single generation.
I’ve owned about 15 street cars, including 2 Miatas, an FB, and a gorgeous FD RX7 (but only for a month, I bought it on behalf of a friend that was about to move back to the country), but for some reason the car that I fell in love with and still can’t imagine living without is my RX8 I preordered to exactly my specification. (must be painted an actual color, have HID lights, electronic brake bias control, stability control, and torsen diff, must not have Bose audio, leather, navigation, heated seats, a sunroof, or be grayscale)
It wasn’t even my first choice. I went to Nissan with the intention of driving home in a 350Z but was underwhelmed on the test drive. IS300 was a bit lukewarm and pricy for what you got, and while I expected a WRX to end up being my car I decided to put down the 500 refundable deposit and wait it out 3 more months until the car showed up. To this day I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that is both as comfortable on a 15 hour road trip while begging you to push it harder through the next turn, and once I put Ohlins suspension on it it’s even better than most dedicated track cars on track, while keeping that Cadillac ride on the highway.
It’s been stupidly reliable too, however I’ve had both the engine and transmission replaced by Mazda in my opinion unnecessarily. Only things to go wrong in the last 23 years are the heater control knob stopped working, eccentric shaft position sensor, and maybe the fuel pump was getting worn out or I was being paranoid about it not quite sounding right above 8K RPM. Transmission was replaced at around 40K just under 2 years since I got the car only because I told the dealership that I’ve been tracking the car a lot and it sometimes grinds between 2nd and 3rd gear and just wanted a recommendation on what fluid to use instead. Mazda decided that they’d rather keep and tear down this transmission and instead got me a new one full of Amsoil fluid. Engine got replaced at 80K, for some mysterious reason, after taking the car to the Mazda dealership for an alignment (I can’t go to firestone and specify anything but the factory specs, but if the dealership takes it there they’ll do whatever specs you want for the same price on the same firestone printout) and commented that now that I’ve moneyshifted the car 3 times going from 3rd to 2nd instead of 4th, aka 15000 RPM, it’s very hard to start when it’s warm. I just wanted them to confirm my theory that the apex seals now probably look like a crescent moon and there’s not enough compression when the oil thins out. I was really looking forward to rebuilding it as I got 25% done with rebuilding the FB engine with 190K on it when a working 60K mile engine was offered to me for 20% the cost of the parts needed to rebuild it. But alas, no. Even though the car was out of warranty, 7 years old, and driven hard, Mazda got me a new engine and would not let me keep the old one even after I offered 2K for it.
This car was one of my first big post college adult purchases, and the 10 or so cars and projects I’ve had since just don’t have the same magic. I guess I’m tragically in love with my specific RX8. I’ve had 3 since to use as race cars but they all felt off compared to mine. The shifter had more travel, the car didn’t feel as rigid, something about the brake bias is off, stability control kicks in too aggressively post 05, etc.
Mazda racing support was fantastic for a long time.
Made them an easy choice.
I wish I still had my RX2.
Great interior detail.
Liked the article and enjoyed the video about the owner of the Mazda RX-7. Thanks for writing and posting.
She mentioned the driving enjoyment though I don’t recall her talking about the independence or freedom to be alone or go places that I more appreciated during my early years driving. “Cars” have different meaning for each of us, and still influence our lives in significant, yet different, ways.
What a great story and incredible owner/driver.
Awesome story. I remember first hearing about this well over a year ago on japanesenostalgiccar.com.
https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/mazda-rx7-fd3s-owned-by-80-year-old-japanese-grandmother/
Queen
The FD RX7 is just gorgeous, and it has that stupid loveable engine in it.
I miss my FCs.
Aww. This is why we love cars. It’s the connection. If that ends up being a slow Citroën 2CV or a 200 mph Corvette, we still build connections with our vehicles, and they tell a story about us.
Well this sounds delightful and I look forward to watching it on my lunch break. Thanks for sharing!
Having now watched it… I’m not crying, you’re crying!
I am definitely crying.
(Naoko reminds me of my mum, although my mum isn’t interested in cars much).