Das 929 Koupe Begs for Kraftwerk Mix Tape


I submit to you this – the most 1980s vehicle to grace this crazy globe we call Earth. It’s managed to survive these past 28 years without turning into a roughly rectangular oxide sculpture, and is currently enjoying an extended run of salad days in Deutschland, of all places. Grab some louvered glasses and a pocket calculator, and make the jump for more.

Watch this video to get in the mood.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn2zHKbKDKo[/youtube]
The Berlin Wall’s still up, perestroika wouldn’t be a glimmer in Gorbachev’s eye for another three years, and Isuzu still makes cars. You’re a young, successful chap in West Germany looking to get a car that’ll make Easterners want to defect. It needs to be as forward-looking as you – a car that will invoke the distant 1990s! Ach! What about a Mazda 929 Coupe?

Money must have been a concern for the first purchaser, because unfortunately this 929 isn’t equipped with the highest capitalist-spec 2 liter turbo motor, making do with the 90 horsepower MA engine. That’s not to say you couldn’t cruise in technophile style, with a digital dashboard and an array of futuristic buttons that made your Atari console look like an archaic relic. This amazing survivor is unrestored, wearing original paint, and might be the most cherry ’83 Mazda 929 still in existence. Click through to the Japanese Nostalgic Car forums for more photos.
JNC Forums

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37 responses to “Das 929 Koupe Begs for Kraftwerk Mix Tape”

  1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
    Peter Tanshanomi

    Most '80s vehicle? The Subaru XT laughs at you.
    <img src="http://forum.avtoindex.com/foto/data/media/71/XT_4WD_Turbo_1986_30.jpg&quot; width="500">

    1. Thrashy Avatar

      Confession time: I desperately want one of these.

      1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
        Peter Tanshanomi

        Of course. We all do.

        1. fede Avatar
          fede

          i see one of those quite often, never knew they were from the 80s… they look quite different to anything else on the street.

    2. tonyola Avatar
      tonyola

      Especially if it had the cute digital zooming-to-the-distance dash.
      <img src="http://www.doubleyoudigital.nl/imgsold/digidash_subaruxt.jpg&quot; width=400>

      1. JayP Avatar
        JayP

        Ohhh! Night Driver by Atari!

      2. omg_grip Avatar
        omg_grip

        didnt they also have a funky 1 spoke steering wheel with a bunch of buttons all over it? I cant find a picture, but I believe the spoke was off to one side.

        1. Lotte Avatar
          Lotte

          It looks like a pistol…aimed in the general direction of your passenger…
          <img src="http://www.carlustblog.com/images/2008/03/14/subaruxt3.jpg&quot; width="300">

          1. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
            Peter Tanshanomi

            And don't forget the "floating" button pods that stuck out from the sides of the steering column! To me, it ranks right up there with the Edsel for über-awesome dashboard weirdness.

    3. Black Steelies Avatar

      I can barely tell the difference, but I love them both nonetheless!

      1. texlenin Avatar
        texlenin

        Ah, the XT. Mom's last(in a long line of) Seew-bah-roo. So aerodynamically slick she left a 48oz styrofoam
        glass of tea on the rear plate insert and drove from 635/75 to Grayson County and it never moved!
        So impressed she did it again the next night to see if it was a fluke- it wasn't! 9yrs, 300k, 100usd trade-in value.
        Desperately tried to get her to get the SVX, but her Inner Hoon cried out for the hi-po Ferd GT.
        Praise be to Murilee.
        (nibbles ate the 1st attempt at this post)

    4. facelvega Avatar
      facelvega

      I see the Mazda as somewhere halfway between the Subaru XT and the mid-eighties Audi 80/90, which I guess were both still years away when this car was built. Did any later eighties car inherit the mazda's awesomeful wheel covers though?

    5. tristanp Avatar
      tristanp

      subaru Alcyone was the 6 cyl sleeper, i still see the odd one here in NZ

  2. RichardKopf Avatar
    RichardKopf

    Genau!

  3. engineerd Avatar

    Ich liebe diese Überlebenden. Es erstaunt mich immer wieder, wenn es eine untere Spezifikation Überlebende ist. Warum würden Sie halten eine geringe Spezifikation Modell in so gutem Zustand? Weil Sie lieben Ihr Auto.

    1. longrooffan Avatar

      Show off!

      1. engineerd Avatar

        Well, to be honest, there were a few words I wasn't sure of, so I put the whole thing in the Borg Google Translator.

  4. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    I know this breaks my personal rule about no (more) cars with slushboxes and double-digit horsepower, but I still might be content to buy it, and sit in the driveway looking at it.

  5. dwegmull Avatar
    dwegmull

    We are the robots. We are the robots. I'll have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thank you.
    Anyway, thanks for posting about a car I had no idea existed. Is that second window between the B and C pilars or is it an opera window? I can't figure out how a car could rack up over 90000km and be in such a nice shape…

  6. longrooffan Avatar

    Yeah this one is sufficiently Hoonable even though the roof is to short. As an aside, did Mazda bring this bodystyle 929 Stateside? It seems to me the first one I remember was the bigger, rounder one. But I could be wrong though.

    1. tonyola Avatar
      tonyola

      Not this generation, but a Wankel version was brought over in the mid-'70s for a couple of years as the RX-5 Cosmo. It wasn't a success and none of the later Cosmos were imported.
      <img src="http://priuschat.com/forums/attachments/freds-house-pancakes/18749d1253285492-game-called-cars-rx5-4.jpg&quot; width="500/">

      1. Mad_Hungarian Avatar
        Mad_Hungarian

        ok, so it's not coincidental that the 929 carries on a version of that weird centrally located opera window.

        1. tonyola Avatar
          tonyola

          I don't know about the later car, but the little central window on the '70s job could actually be rolled down.

      2. tristan Avatar
        tristan

        i had one of these with the 13b and manual box with a park gear..weirdest thing ever

      3. LTDScott Avatar

        For some reason, I really love the RX-5 Cosmos. I would love to stuff a 5.0 in one.

  7. scroggzilla Avatar
    scroggzilla

    Hey, fun boys, get a room!

    1. Alex Kierstein Avatar
      Alex Kierstein

      You win at the internet.

      1. scroggzilla Avatar
        scroggzilla

        It was the first thing that popped into my head.
        This was the second…..played the crap out of this record at the old college radio station.
        [youtube MBjhHq6qp-k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBjhHq6qp-k youtube]

  8. Black Steelies Avatar

    Cheese grater hubcaps and a clear glass b-pillar, slick.

  9. lilwillie Avatar

    I don't recall ever seeing one of these before. This likely being one of the few times I've seen a picture of one. Wonderfully cool little car. I learned something today, so my day is done. Brefass scotch time.

  10. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    "unfortunately this 929 isn’t equipped with the highest capitalist-spec 2 liter turbo motor, making do with the 90 horsepower MA engine"
    The highest spec motor in these 929s didn't have pistons. It was the 12a turbo engine, later seen in the Japanese-only RX-7 turbo (you'd call them the last of the FB-series in the 'States — the ones that came as the GSL-SE with the 13b atmo engine).
    These 929s are still around in Australia and are available for beer money, though not usually a nice as that one.

    1. Alex Kierstein Avatar
      Alex Kierstein

      Yes, but didn't they call those Cosmos?

      1. Ben Avatar
        Ben

        Mazda naming in Japan is… inscrutable, at least to me.
        This one may have been a Luce in Japan, but you could also get a Luce with the rotary.

  11. Maxichamp Avatar
    Maxichamp

    Didn't someone try to convert one of these into a Ferrari 400/412?

  12. dustin_driver Avatar
    dustin_driver

    My family owned a '78 GLC, an NA Miata, a '93 Protege, an '89 626, a '96 626, a 929 sedan, a 323 sedan, two different MPVs, an '03 Protege5, and a 2011 Mazda5. We're Mazda crazy. Yet I've never, ever, heard of this. Weird.

  13. longrooffan Avatar

    Our fellow Hoon, and the blogger I met in Naples last week for lunch, spotted one of these, although a few years newer and sans opera window, while in South America last month. Check out his cool, latest V.I.S.I.T.'s here.
    http://karakullake.blogspot.com/2011/01/south-lim
    I'll be following along as he chronicles his month long trip through that region. I think some of my fellow Hoons will enjoy the ride also.