Mazda RX-7 Coloring Page: Free Printable PDF Sheet

Mazda RX-7: History & Fun Facts

A Rotary Sports Car Line Since 1978

Mazda launched the first RX-7, code-named SA22C, in 1978 as a purpose-built sports coupe wrapped around the compact rotary engine the brand had championed since the 1960s, giving buyers a lighter, lower nose than any comparable piston-engine coupe of the era. The RX-7 name grew out of Mazda's earlier RX-badged rotary cars, and its arrival gave the company a dedicated sports coupe instead of a rotary engine simply dropped into an existing sedan body.

The Wankel Rotary Engine at Its Core

Instead of pistons moving up and down, the RX-7's Wankel rotary engine spins a triangular rotor inside an oval housing, a design that packs surprising power into a very small, light engine bay and lets the hood traced in this outline sit lower than a piston-powered rival could manage. That compact engine also spins more smoothly at high speed than a typical piston engine, giving the RX-7 a distinctive high-pitched engine note enthusiasts still describe as one of the car's signature traits.

Three Generations, Ending With the FD

Mazda built three RX-7 generations: the original SA22C and FB from 1978 to 1985, the FC from 1985 to 1991, and the FD3S from 1991 to 2002, the sleek pop-up-headlight generation most enthusiasts picture first and the shape this artwork is inspired by. Each generation grew slightly wider and more powerful than the last, moving from a simple naturally aspirated rotary in the first cars to increasingly sophisticated turbocharged setups by the final FD years.

A Twin-Turbo Engine on the Final Generation

The FD-era RX-7 used a sequential twin-turbocharger system on its small rotary engine, feeding one turbo at low speed and both at higher speed, an unusual setup engineered to avoid the lag that made earlier turbocharged cars feel slow to respond off the line. Mazda tuned that system to deliver power smoothly across the rev range, which is part of why the FD earned a reputation as one of the most balanced-handling Japanese sports cars of its decade.

Styling Credited to a Young American Designer

Mazda's design studio gave the FD RX-7's smooth, curved bodywork to a young American stylist, and the result became one of the most widely praised shapes of 1990s Japanese sports cars, with almost no hard creases breaking up the flowing surfaces this outline keeps open for coloring. The car's low nose, high rear haunches, and near-symmetrical proportions were shaped in a wind tunnel as much as a design studio, since Mazda wanted the shape to cut through the air as cleanly as it looked.

A Screen and Video Game Icon

The FD RX-7's low, curved silhouette turned up in racing video games, anime, and film car culture through the 1990s and 2000s, cementing pop-up headlights and a rotary badge as instantly recognizable shorthand for Japanese sports cars of that decade. Mazda officially ended RX-7 sales in most markets in the early 2000s, but the rotary badge lived on afterward in a later coupe, keeping the idea of a small rotary sports car alive for another generation of fans.