Cosmo Company Car

Sports & Exotic Car readers and blog regulars will recognize Basil McLaren’s name, as I’ve profiled two of his Mazdas and his Opel over the years. The South Africa native started his career with Opel as a teenager, then moved over to Mazda, where he was the equivalent of a regional service manager, before coming to America for GM. Distributor Illings Mazda Pty. Ltd. was his employer, and naturally, he had company cars (the Luce was one).  One of his jobs was to drive special Mazdas off the boat; because of that, he drove every single car in the country of certain models. One day around 1970, Basil took his company B1600 down to the docks to unload what many of us would call the most interesting Mazda ever made, the Cosmo. He parked his B-series, with snappy Illings “i,” next to the Wankel sportster, took a few photos, and made the Cosmo his new company car.

Not only did the car survive, but Basil knows where it is today (still in South Africa). Knowing Basil, I’d be surprised if he didn’t have some idea about getting it back someday. I wouldn’t kick the B1600 out of bed for eating crackers, either.