Tackling Bavaria’s country roads in the Mazda Classic Challenge

The rotary engine is such an intrinsically Japanese powertrain that you’d be forgiven into thinking that when asked to head out on a classic Mazda heritage drive, we’d be heading out to Hiroshima, or maybe even Tokyo. But no – Germany’s Bavaria is where we’d be jetting off to.

In fact, it’s not as odd as it first appears. You see Felix Wankel (no sniggering, please), the designer of the rotary engine, was German — and it was his invention which was refined by Mazda and used in the very car we’d be getting behind the wheel of. So you see, there’s a German connection after all.

That car is a 1984 Mazda RX-7. Designed to take on rivals such as Porsche at the sports car game, the RX-7 packed a compact 1.3-litre engine with just shy of 115bhp, capable of pushing it to 60mph in around 8.2 seconds and on to a top speed of 125mph – pretty decent performance figures for the time.

We start off in a little convoy across the start line, accompanied by a bright blue RX-3 and drop-dead gorgeous Cosmo – all three chattering eagerly to get away, with the former making ever so slightly more of a racket thanks to a straight-through exhaust.

We pootle our way out of the city, getting used to the brakes and gears which, despite being over 30 years old, feel remarkably modern. The feedback through the wheel is enlivening, and we even – after spending around 25 minutes looking for the button – manage to activate the powered aerial, and gain access to some quality Bavarian local radio.

A series of challenges have been dotted along the course of the route too, involving counting how many ping-pong balls are stored in an MX-5’s boot, and a couple of maths question. Owing to the fact that maths isn’t our strong suit, we stay relatively clear of the latter.

Back in the car, we begin to dot our way through a myriad of strictly maintained German villages. All beautiful, yes – but often completely deserted. We’re travelling through on a Saturday, but each time we go through a new habitation you’d think Germany was in the World Cup Final and down to penalties. On the plus side, we have few people to annoy as we warble through the narrow lanes.

We head towards the Mickhausen hillclimb — a historic piece of public road which is perfect for exploiting the balance of the RX-7. The Mazda gained a huge amount of praise when it was first released and we can see why – it’s a delicate car to drive, but feels poised and eager to get going at all times. The hill climb section is a bit of a giggle to drive in it and is a welcome change to the short stints in between villages.

We paused for a short while to take photos by a roadside barn, and before long the entire rally is pulling up, expecting a challenge of some sort. We wave them off, with many a stern Germanic face meeting our hopeless attempts to divert the traffic away.

Pictures taken, it’s on to the road once more. By now we’ve fallen behind the bulk of the rally, with only a smattering of slower cars dotted along our path. We make quick time; the little Cosmo makes decent – if smoky – progress, while the RX-3 sounds more like a superbike each and every time we get close to it. Thankfully, neither have any faults – and we expected the same of the far newer RX-7.

Thinking it to be a momentary blip, we carry on. But then, it happens again. And again. At one point we get stuck outside a supermarket, waved on by friendly locals to re-join the traffic – only being forced to wave back at them in attempt to make them realise that we can’t actually move. It’s a little disconcerting, and soon my co-driver and I devise a method to avoid the engine shutting down – him using the handbrake to bring the car to a stop, while I manage the throttle and clutch to keep the revs up. We do this for some time, and then realise that the car has fixed itself.

According to the Mazda technician accompanying us, it’s just one of the quirks that the car has. It is called the Mazda Challenge, after all. We’re thankful that the problem has resolved itself as we head back into Augsburg – the stop-start traffic isn’t friendly to cars with dodgy idles, after all.