Like most Americans in 1973 my family was driving big cars, and my mother was no exception. Not that the '67 Impala 2-door was a bad car, it could easily hold the whole family, which included me and my two younger brothers, and the neighbors kids as well. But with the oil crisis in the news, she thought a smaller car would be the way to go.

A new dealership had opened just a couple of miles from us back then, and I remember going there with my mother to pick up the new ride. I was around 11 years old, and it just so happened the car she chose was a "fresh off the dock" RX3 Station Wagon (with fake woodgrain on the sides no less !).

Ever since then, I have had a certain affection for rotary powered Mazda cars. With a Rotary 13B being about the size of a 5-gallon bucket and making several hundred horsepower, I find it a fascinating little universal powerplant for a car.

In my adult life, I have always wanted a model of a Mazda RX3. While the chances of a wagon being issued by an injection-molding model company are pretty slim, I am willing to compromise my lust with a 2-door coupe. In this case, Fujimi's RX3 Savanna GT. While not available in the U.S at the time, a hobby shop in Asia ( Hobby Link in Japan) carried them, and that is where I bought the kit. (Actually, I bought two kits. More about that later).

This curbside (no engine) kit is 1/24 scale. Even then, it is still a small model car, and at first glance you might think it's 1/25. The body, two taillight assemblies, and nose piece are molded in white. The rest of the trees are molded in black, with a clear tree provided for the headlights, glass, and tail lenses. Four real rubber tires are included, with one set of factory stock rims. Only a right hand drive dash is provided.

As with most Fujimi models, the body and nose piece are crisp and clean. You would be hard pressed to even find a moldline anywhere. I would have preferred the grille not be molded in, it would have been better if it were open and you could see through it. I thought about trying to open it up in back by grinding it with a Dremel tool, as I have with other kits, but it appeared to be too thin to do so. The honeycomb grille insert is molded with a very fine detail.

The chassis is somewhat simple. The lower engine is represented with an oil pan, the driveshaft and exhaust are also molded in. Fortunately, the front and rear suspensions are made up of a few separate pieces, so if you wanted to say, change the rims and tires, you could probably do this with a minimum of modifications.