Mazda RX-7 FD

Keep scrolling down the power table and the Mazda RX-7 FD keeps appearing in an unexpected place. It sits 523rd out of 600 cars for power, 471st for 0 to 100 km/h and 410th for top speed, figures that would hardly dominate a catalogue built around headline numbers. Yet none of those rankings explains why it commands the highest used price of any rotary car here, at around GBP 55,000, or why it becomes difficult to compare with almost anything else once you look beyond the usual metrics.

The explanation lies in rarity of engineering rather than outright output. Only two cars in this catalogue use a rotary engine. Only two combine that layout with rear wheel drive. Just one pairs a rotary with twin turbocharging. That makes the RX-7 FD the catalogue's sole example of a twin turbocharged rotary sports car, a distinction that no amount of extra horsepower elsewhere can replicate. Its 2.6 litre rotary produces 276 bhp and 314 Nm, enough for 0 to 100 km/h in 5 seconds and a top speed of 255 km/h, but those figures work here as supporting evidence rather than the headline. The numbers are competent. The configuration is the story.

That perspective also changes how the price looks. A cost of roughly GBP 199 per bhp is not justified by a climb up the performance rankings because there is no such climb to point to. Instead, the value sits in occupying a technical corner of the catalogue that almost no other car reaches. Out of 600 choices, this is the only twin turbocharged rotary, and the most expensive rotary available. Within Mazda's own seven entries, it stands apart through that combination alone. It also represents one of 48 Japanese cars in the collection, adding another layer of identity without needing to rely on sheer output.

A collection built only around the quickest or most powerful cars can become surprisingly predictable. This two seat fixed head coupé asks the collector to accept lower positions in the acceleration and power tables in exchange for something genuinely uncommon within the catalogue itself. The trade is clear. You leave a little statistical advantage behind, but you gain the one rotary, twin turbocharged, rear wheel drive experience that nothing else in this selection can provide.