The Ultimate Japanese Grand Tourer That Everyone Forgot About

Grand tourers; models that are designed for high-speed, luxurious, and comfortable driving. Throughout the history of the automotive world, some GTs have infiltrated both the performance car and luxury car markets, and today we are lucky enough to have an enormous collection of GTs that deliver everything they are designed for in spades.

From European models like the Aston Martin DB11, Mercedes-AMG S63 Coupe and the Ferrari F12 to American models like the Ford Mustang GT and the Chevy Camaro Z28, there are some extremely popular and well-known GTs out there. But, along with the most well-known models, comes the most overlooked and forgotten models that deserve more attention.

None more can be said about a model than this JDM model that has fallen through the cracksand is sorely overlooked compared to some of its counterparts. This is why we are taking a look at this Japanese GT and have found information about its performance credentials, how it stands out in the GT market, the comfort and luxury features that it helped to introduce to the segment, and how much you can buy one for today.

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The Forgotten Japanese GT: 1990-1995 Mazda Eunos Cosmo

1991 Mazda Eunos Cosmo badge

Boasting a sleek body, long hood, short rear deck, pointed front end, and low-to-the-ground stance, the 1990-1995 Mazda Eunos Cosmo grand tourer is the overlooked sports coupethat was the JDM model designed to take it to the European dominance of the market in the 1990s, and today makes for a rare and what should be a collectible importable model.

With a fully-loaded price that, in today's money, equates to over $60,000, the JC Series Cosmo was not a cheap model to buy in Japan, but it does boast an exceptional interior design, two potent powertrain options, a real air of sophistication that you'd expect from a plush GT, and oodles of tech that was way ahead of the game in the 1990s.

Mazda's High Stakes Luxury GT Gamble

Designed to go up against the best European sports cars of the 1990s, like the Lotus Esprit Series 4, the Mercedes-Benz SL500, and the BMW M8 (E31), the Cosmo was built and designed in a turbulent time during Japan's "Lost Decade", which saw the economy falter heavily, so a luxurious GT was a bit of gamble considering asset prices all over Japan, and Asia as a whole, were dropping. Nonetheless, Mazda strived on with what has become a standard-setting machine which boasts a winning combination of style, luxury, opulent comfort and high-spec technology.

Between 1990 and 1995, Mazda rolled out models with prices that ranged from ¥3.3 million to ¥5.5 million, and considering the average wage was somewhere in the ballpark of between ¥370,000 and ¥408,864 during the 1990s thanks to stagnant growth, the Eunos Cosmo was reserved for the deepest pockets. It is safe to say that not many were sold during its short run. From the records that were kept for sales, during the five model years, only 8,875 sales were made.

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The Eunos Cosmo Is A Powerhouse GT

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There is no doubt about it, the Eunos Cosmo fits the bill for being a well-received GT that wouldn't look out of place on European and American roads, even to this day - it is sharp-looking, it is built for speed, it is comfortable, and it has everything you need for a long trip. The original Cosmo can be considered one of the most important JDM models ever produced, but what the Eunos Cosmo brought to the market in terms of power, engineering prowess and technology is nothing short of outstanding, which is why it shouldn't be overlooked any longer.

Mazda Eunos Cosmo Performance Specifications

There are two engines available for the '90-'95 Cosmo; both are very powerful and both are legendary engines that Mazda is so famous for championing in some of their most iconic models, the Wankel Rotary engine.

Compared to other notable GTs of the 1990s, the Cosmo does a very good job of dashing to 60 MPH next to them, once again proving that cars rolled out of Japan can be just as useful and exciting as their American and European counterparts.

• 1995 Mercedes-Benz 500SL. Maximum Horsepower: 322 Horsepower. 0-60 MPH: 6.5 Seconds.
• 1992 Ford Mustang GT. Maximum Horsepower: 205 Horsepower. 0-60 MPH: 6.4 Seconds.
• 1996 BMW 850CSi. Maximum Horsepower: 375 Horsepower. 0-60 MPH: 5.9 Seconds.
• 1995 Dodge Viper. Maximum Horsepower: 400 Horsepower. 0-60 MPH: 4.5 Seconds.
• 1994 Lotus Esprit Series 4. Maximum Horsepower: 350 Horsepower. 0-60 MPH: 4.1 Seconds.

The Cosmo's most potent variant is sitting around mid-table compared to some of the most well-known grand tourers of the time in terms of sprints. It can't beat the Esprit or the Viper, but with a relatively light weight of between 3,285 pounds and 3,616 pounds (putting it around the same weight as the 3,375-pound Viper but much heavier than the 2,877-pound Esprit) paired with a torquey rotary mill makes it a real contender.

The Beastly Available Rotary Engines Under The Hood

Out of the two engine options, the least-powerful engine is a turbocharged twin-rotor 13B-RE rotary engine built with lightweight aluminum side housings to keep overall weight down while maintaining its strength. Each rotor utilized inside works in a trochoidal motion and runs inside a chrome-plated combustion chamber that is designed to reduce wear and tear on the rotor, meaning that, despite the rotary engine's reputation for high maintenance attention, it is relatively durable.

The apex seals that are equipped - crucial for keeping the 13B-RE's compression ratio of 9.0:1 - are reinforced to handle the boost pressure from the twin sequential turbos, and to ensure that the turbos are as efficient as possible, Mazda optimized the peripheral intake and exhaust ports - giving you smooth gas flow and reducing pressure loss.

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The 20B-REW rotary engine boasted in the most-powerful variants of the JC Cosmo is a different story altogether. Mazda made history by producing the Eunos Cosmo, the first car to boast a three-rotor engine and the only model to boast the 20B-REW mill - showing their intention for the Cosmo with full force. It is essentially a 13B-RE with an extra rotor and some added additions to make it a real weapon - namely higher power outputs.

Thanks to the two Hitachi turbos that it is mated with, which are good for around 10 PSI, the 20B-REW is not only a powerful beast, but it is highly regarded as being as smooth as some of the best V-12s out there. But just to top it off, the 20B-REW is the biggest displacement rotary engine that Mazda has ever offered, while both engines boasting twin-sequential turbos are the first Japanese-made models to do so, beating the 1992 RX-7 to the chase - Mazda really threw everything they could at the Cosmo.

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The Comso's Techy Features That Set It Apart

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Not only should the Eunos Cosmo be held in higher esteem for what it offers in terms of power and unique powertrain options, but for what it brought to the market's interior design and features game. You may already see why the Cosmo was rolled out at such high prices, but what it was available with when it was released would have been seen as the most cutting-edge and futuristic.

In Cabin Tech That Was Way Ahead Of Its Time And A First For Any Car

Depending on who you talk to, the techy features in modern-day cars are up there with some of the most important features they can have in making or breaking whether they are luxurious or not. If you speak to Mercedes-Benz they'll tell you that screens don't mean luxury, but with most modern cars boasting an all-encompassing touchscreen with a system that controls a lot of your convenience features, it had to have started somewhere. The origin: the Eunos Cosmo.

That's right, back in 1990, the Eunos Cosmo was rolled out as the first production car to feature a color touchscreen that lets you control everything from the air conditioning, music, and, probably the most significant, navigation. The Cosmo was the first production car to be produced with built-in GPS navigation, while also boasting a built-in TV and a phone, pre-running all other models in terms of tech, including the plushest and market-dominating European GTs.

Comfort Features That Should Make It A GT Rival

On top of the techy features that couldn't be found anywhere else at the time, the Cosmo also comes equipped with a host of comfort features that really show its worth as a luxury GT. Boasting full-leather center console upholstery, figure-hugging power-adjustable leather bucket seats, the already-mentioned air conditioning, plenty of up-front legroom, and an LCD instrument cluster, the Cosmo is as comfortable and well-equipped as some of the more popular grand tourers of the era, just without the famous moniker to match.

With two suspension packages available, the S (Sport) and the E (Elegant), when the Cosmo was released, you had a choice of stiffer suspension and more spirited steering credentials from the S, which boasts multi-link front and rear suspension and control, or softer suspension for a more relaxing long-distance cruise from the E package.

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A JDM GT That Deserves More Attention

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Despite the powerful engine options and high-tech options, the Cosmo was only ever produced with an auto box and was only produced for the Japanese market - mostly because the company that Mazda set up in the U.S.A. to sell the Cosmo - Amati - never got off the ground.

For everything we have talked about, the Cosmo is wrongly forgotten outside the JDM world, and what could have been a flagship model for the Japanese marque actually spelled the end of the Cosmo name, except for a strictly-concept version that was floated in 2002. The end of the Cosmo came during the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, and because this GT sports larger dimensions than a two-door sports car should have had in Japan, the tax was double that of a small passenger car.

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The original run of just under 9,000 models had a 60/40 split in sales between the 13B-RE- and 20B-REW-equipped models, making the more powerful flavor the rarer variant. Today, prices aren't exactly high compared to the eye-watering price that was fetched for the most expensive JDM model ever sold, but finding one is equally as hard because of the limited number that were sold and then subsequently imported over to us.

Finding A Mazda Eunos Cosmo Today

The Cosmo is now one of the classic JDM models we can now import into the U.S.A., but if you can find one roaming Japan in decent condition, the price of importing one is expensive - but it could be worth it if you are looking for a model that is seldom seen and something very different from the most popular American and European GTs that the plucky Cosmo was designed to go up against.

It is probably the fact that they need importing, and they don't hold the same iconic weight as something like the Nissan GT-R R32, that we see so few of them up for sale here in America, and in the last five years, a total of six 1990-1996 Mazda Eunos Cosmo examples have been sold via online auction. They are currently commanding an average auction price of $19,180, with the most expensive model being under the hammer for $27,218 and the cheapest example being sold for $10,500.