Car brands are generally fond of their history. They like to pull out a popular model name from the past to stick it on a totally unrelated crossover. And whenever they can, they’ll pull in a win from an obscure endurance race as a special edition. While Mazda likes to mention its 1990 Le Mans victory here and there, there are also parts of the brand history that they would rather leave alone. For example, the Amati adventure and the accompanying W12 engine.
At the end of the eighties, as a Japanese car manufacturer, you only really belonged with a luxury brand for the American market. Honda had Acura, Toyota had Lexus, but Mazda was a bit grumpy with its Wankel engine in his hands. They did have the luxury brand Eunos for the Japanese market, but the ambitions were greater. Thus began the plans for Amati. Mazda’s luxury branch was supposed to start in the mid-1990s with the Amati 300, Amati 500 and Amati 1000.
Mazda’s W12 got 280 hp, according to the gentlemen’s agreement
Japan was in an economic bubble and all brands threw in hefty sums. With these budgets, for example, the Nissan Skyline and the Toyota Supra were developed. Although Mazda had not made any announcements yet, they suddenly showed a 4.0-liter W12 engine at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1989.
Mazda was on some next level shit with this W12. It’s like a 1/4 of a radial engine.
3 banks, 4 cylinders per bank, all specially made for a developing luxury brand of Mazda that never happened. Amati cars pic.twitter.com/VLqIMwpNn7— ΛXΣL (@VHS_FOX) April 12, 2019
Mazda’s W12 had a magnesium oil pan, magnesium heads, an aluminum block and ceramic-coated valves and pistons. The twelve-cylinder had no turbos. According to the specifications, the engine would produce 280 hp, although that figure is probably on the conservative side. Officially, all cars in Japan were limited to 280 hp, but in practice the power was often higher.
Only one twelve-cylinder came from Japan
There were twelve cylinders on the market at that time, but they were quite rare. Especially in Japan. Even today, the Toyota Century is the only Japanese car to ever come on the market with a V12. Mazda’s W12 was a special thing to see, as if they had mashed three four-cylinder together. Where a V12 is as long as a six-in-line, this W12 was about as long as a four-cylinder. He was a lot bigger though.
For a long time it was assumed that the W12 engine was intended for a future Amati. It was not until years later that the then product manager Bob Hall would jalopnik say that the W12 engine on the Tokyo show floor was not intended for Amati at all. The engine was probably a demonstration of what Mazda was technically capable of. Or perhaps the brand found out halfway through that it was not such a practical design after all. A V12 was developed for Amati that consisted of two 1.8-liter V6 engines (because yes, Mazda had those at the time). According to Hall, Amati’s prototypes with this engine sounded like Ferraris.
The bubble imploded and Amati was killed
Unfortunately, the economic bubble burst spectacularly in 1992 and suddenly the hand had to be squeezed. Mazda had already invested more than 400 million euros in the new brand, but was about 45 million euros short to actually start production. The project was not only scrapped, it was covered up. Even today, you can hardly find anything on Mazda’s website or in the brand’s museums. Amati is only mentioned once in a timeline on the American site.
By the way, Amati still delivered something. In Europe we got the Mazda Xedos 6 and Xedos 9. These would have been the Amati 300 and 500. The Amati 1000 with the V12 never came. There are rumors that Audi would have bought the W12 from Mazda, but looking at the designs of the two engines, this seems very strong. The good news is that Mazda is now busy with Wankel engines again.
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