Japanese police once used the Mazda Cosmo Sport

Lucky policemen in some countries have had sportscars to use for their duties and in Japan in the 1970s, the police force had the Mazda Cosmo Sport which had a Wankel rotary engine.

Mazda Cosmo Sport police car [1971]

The Cosmo Sport’s 982 cc engine had an output of 128 bhp/140 Nm, giving the car a top speed of 193 km/h.

The police cars were from a total production batch of 1,176 units which were made at the rate of one per day between May 1967 and September 1972.

High performance police cars
Before Japan had its own high-performance models like the Mazda Cosmo Sport and RX-7, and the Datsun Fairlady, the Japanese police also used Ford Mustangs (the Mach 1) for a while as well as acquired a Porsche 911SC in 1978. It was mainly used to patrol the Hokuriku Expressway which was one of the early expressways in Japan.

Mazda Savanna RX-7 [1979]
Mazda RX-7, also powered by a rotary engine, was used from the late 1970s.
Datsun Fairlady 240ZG [1972]
The Datsun 240ZG Fairlady was also one of the early sportscars used by the Japanese police. With its high performance, it was used mainly on the expressways.

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