Mazda Carol

The Mazda R360 Coupe of 1960 had sold on its price, but it was really a two-seater, and its simple air-cooled V-twin lacked the refinement a passenger car needed.source 2 Tōyō Kōgyō wanted a full four-seater to take on the Subaru 360.source 2source 3 It showed one first as a 700 cc saloon, the Mazda 700, at the Tokyo Motor Show of 1961, then launched it within the 360 cc limit of the kei rules, and production of the Carol began in February 1962 with a two-door.source 1source 2

Four cylinders in 358 cc

The engine was a water-cooled in-line four with overhead valves, all aluminium alloy, with a five-bearing crankshaft, hemispherical combustion chambers and crossflow valves. At 358 cc it was the smallest water-cooled four in the world, and the JSAE calls it the first all-aluminium engine in a kei passenger car.source 1source 2source 4 It gave 18 PS at 6,800 rpm.source 1 The block was drawn with room to grow to about 800 cc, so that it could be shared with the Familia small car that was coming; the Familia 800 of October 1964 did use an engine rich in light alloy.source 2source 4 The price of that plan was an engine big and heavy for 360 cc.source 2 From September 1963 it also went into the Mazda B360 truck, in place of its air-cooled V-twin.source 5

The engine sat across the tail, with its radiator beside it, fed by an engine-driven fan that drew air in from the side, and the noise of that fan is one of the Carol’s traits.source 2 With four water-cooled cylinders and rubber springs, the car was smooth and quiet, far better in that respect than the air-cooled twins.source 2

The cliff cut

The rear window, raked forward like that of the Ford Anglia 105E of 1959, was called the cliff cut. It gave the rear passengers headroom and left room for a large engine lid.source 1source 2 The JSAE lists three Japanese firsts on the Carol: the cliff-cut style, a four-door kei car, and rubber torsion springs at both ends, the independent Neidhart type. It had Alfin brakes too.source 1

Room was the problem. Inside the 1,300 mm width limit, with luggage in the nose and the engine in the tail, the cabin was very tight. At 525 kg (1,157 lb) the car was also about 150 kg heavier than the R360 or the Subaru 360, and it was short of performance from the start.source 1source 2

A Carol 600 and four doors

In November 1962 came the Carol 600, with a 586 cc engine, longer bumpers that made it 3,200 mm (126 in) long, and plusher trim; it was a registered small car, not a kei car, and it was sold with four doors before the 360 was.source 2source 6 On 9 March 1963 a Carol 600 became Mazda’s one-millionth vehicle.source 2 The 600 was dropped after about two years, when the 800 cc Familia saloon arrived.source 2 The four-door Carol 360 followed in 1963; Japanese Wikipedia gives the year twice, once for the four-door Deluxe and once for the facelift of September, which may be the same event.source 2 The Weiner museum mentions a convertible of 1964 that no other source confirms.source 7

At the second Japanese Grand Prix, at Suzuka in May 1964, a Carol 360 ran in the 400 cc class in the hands of the motorcycle star Katayama Yoshimi. Subaru 360s finished first and second, ahead of the Suzuki Suzulight and the Carol (more in racing and rallying).source 8source 9 From 1966 the Honda N360 and other newcomers left the Carol near the bottom of its class.source 2

The facelift of October 1966 gave 20 PS, a new grille and tail, new bumpers and synchromesh on every gear, and moved the spare wheel from the nose to the engine bay, which freed the front for luggage.source 2source 4source 6

The rotary that was refused

Tōyō Kōgyō was busy with its rotary engine and its larger small cars, and the Carol was never fully replaced.source 2 A single-rotor Wankel engine was tried in one. Rival makers objected to how its capacity would be counted under the kei rules, and the Ministry of Transport would not approve it. The single rotor also vibrated, drank fuel, and could even turn backwards under a reverse load.source 2 Production and sales of the Carol ended in August 1970.source 2 Its successor, two years later, was the front-engined Mazda Chantez.source 2 The Carol name came back in October 1989 on the Autozam Carol, a different car based on the Suzuki Alto.source 2source 6

Little is recorded of the Chantez in the sources read for this page. Japanese Wikipedia’s account of the Carol says only that its successor of 1972 had its engine at the front, and that it was meant to have the rotary engine but had to make do with the two-stroke twin of Mazda’s Porter Cab kei truck (see Mazda Porter).source 2 No specification, production figure or account of its end has been found.

No count of surviving Carols has been found. The JSAE’s landmark record notes a KPDA kept on static display by Mazda, and the Toyota Automobile Museum has a Carol 360 of 1969.source 1source 4 The photographs on this page show Carols in museums in Japan and in Limassol, Cyprus, at meetings in Japan and at Japan Classic Sunday in Gemert, and the one-millionth Mazda, the gold Carol 600, in the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima (see museums and meets).