This Mid-engined, Rotary-powered Racer Is a Delightful Oddity The Diasio D962R is an ultra-light fiberglass track
car with a rotary engine. This one has a Porsche 962 replica livery. What more could you want?
The name of the Diasio D962R implies that it might be something like a scale replica of a Porsche 962. Unfortunately, it looks more like a Jaguar XJR-14 shot through a fisheye lens. While that is far from the car’s only drawback, it is the only drawback that is not itself a feature. The Diasio D962R is a fiberglass track day car, and a particularly odd one at that. Where other small-scale fiberglass racers might go for motorcycle engines or Honda K-series power, the Diasio uses a mid-mounted, turbocharged Mazda rotary engine, the 2-rotor 13B-REW. Official numbers on cars produced in such low volume are elusive, but one Diasio customer reported back in 2013 that his car made 240 horsepower at the wheels. That same owner claimed the car weighed just 1,578 lb. Including a driver. That makes the D962R an interesting prospect on any racing track in the world. The commitment to lightness, combined with reasonably modern aerodynamics, mid-engined balance, and more-than-adequate power, leaves a car that will be among the most capable at any track day, club race, or autocross it could ever grace. Add in the strange sounds and quirks associated with a rotary engine and it becomes the most unique, too.
This particular Diasio D962R is finished in the Miller High Life livery that a particularly notable 962C wore en route to the overall win at the 1989 24 Hours of Daytona. While it illustrates just how little this car actually looks like the legendary Porsche, it fits well on any mid-engined track car. The car is listed for sale on Bring A Trailer, where it is bid up to just $7800 with three days remaining. Another Diasio listed on the site sold for $37,000 earlier this year, still a relative performance bargain in comparison to any more traditional historic racing car. Disclaimer: Bring a Trailer is owned by Road & Track’s parent company, Hearst Auts.
The First-Generation Honda Civic Changed the World
It’s almost agonizingly small and looks dowdy to modern eyes, but the first-generation Honda Civic—like this one spotted in Santa Barbara, California—changed the world. The Civic wasn’t the first Honda car. The first Honda cars sold in America were barely cars. They had dinky 598cc, 36-horsepower two-cylinder engines that groaned on like overloaded rock polishers. And the S600 was super-tiny at only 125-inches over a 78.75-inch wheelbase while riding on tiny tires wrapped around 10-inch diameter wheels. There may be some nostalgia today for these misery machines, but back in 1969 when the first Honda S600 went on sale here as a 1970 model, it was immediately apparent that they were crap. The Civic wasn’t crap. “Honda is canceling out of the semicar market now.” C/D continued on first encountering the 1973 Civic. “As soon as the dealers roll their current supply of 600s out the door the transition will be complete. Because, waiting to take its place, is the new Civic, at $1973 P.O.E. a serious contender in the under-$2000 real car market. . . and, if the automotive price spiral continues, perhaps the only contender before long.” The Civic was obviously a big hit for Honda. Before it arrived in the United States, the best Honda could do was sell 20,000 total Honda 600 sedans and coupes. That was in 1972. After the Civic arrived for 1973, sales jumped to 36,957 Hondas during 1973. Then 43,119 in 1974. And sales just kept growing from there. During 1979, after the Accord went on sale in 1976 and the first-generation Civic line had expanded to include a small wagon alongside the sedan and hatchback, Honda sold 353,291 cars. All that was great for Honda, but the Civic meant
Toyota, Datsun (Nissan), and Mazda models of the early 1970s were all rear drives machines. Some of them, like the Datsun 240Z and rotary-powered Mazdas were even fun to drive. But it was the dinky Civic that truly showed the way forward for Japanese cars in America. The first front-drive Toyota Corolla, for instance, didn’t arrive until the 1984 model year. Front-drive’s advantages were such that soon virtually all Japanese cars sold in America for the mainstream market were front-drive. Yes, the first Civic had a few other innovations. That included the sweet natured, catalyst-free Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion (CVCC) engine which was introduced for the 1975 model year, displaced 1.5-liters, and was rated at 60 horsepower. This particular example, spotted in Santa Barbara, California while I wandered around with my new puppy waiting for my Tundra to be smogged, isn’t a CVCC. Instead it’s the base Civic with the 1.2-liter four. If it’s a 1974 model, as I suspect, then it’s engorged with a trembling 52-horsepower. That’s before 47 years of intrepid service. And it’s equipped with the lazy t wo-speed “Hondamatic” semi-automatic transmission. The last first generation Civic was produced for the 1979 model year. And the generation’s seven-year run remains the longest for a Civic over its now 11 generations. Keep in mind that means the 2022 Civic represents the 50th production year for this car.
something even greater to the market as a whole. The Civic was the first commercially successful front-drive Japanese car in North America. Subaru, for example, had been selling front-drivers in the United States for a few years, but only in dribbles. The Civic on other hand was a smash hit.
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