Kenichi Yamamoto, the man behind Mazda’s rotary engine, passed away Dec. 20, 2017, at the age of 95, according to reports.

Yamamoto is best known for leading Mazda’s development of the rotary engine in the 1960s, later becoming the company’s president in 1985 and chairman in 1987. However, his story along the way is what turned him into a legend.

Born in Hiroshima in 1922, he earned a mechanical engineering degree from Tokyo University but was entangled in World War II until he came home to Hiroshima after the atomic bombing to find his sister dead and home destroyed. Yamamoto found a job on Toyo Kogyo’s (predecessor of Mazda) assembly line, putting together transmissions to support his family.

Mazda won the 24 Hours of Le Mans under Yamamoto with the 787B rotary powered race car. The manufacturer remains the only Japanese car company to win Le Mans. Mazda

In his free time, Yamamoto analyzed the specs and tolerances on the transmission components he was assembling, and he ended up getting promoted to an actual engineering position for his diligence. At the age of 25, Yamamoto designed Mazda’s first overhead valve engine, which opened even more opportunities for him.

The president of Toyo Kogyo entrusted him to develop a rotary engine in 1961 with a specially chosen group of 47 others known now as the 47 Ronin (47 Samurai). By 1963, Mazda showed a prototype of the Cosmo Sport with a twin-rotor engine that persuaded Japan’s government to let Toyo Kogyo make cars. Previous to that, Japan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry had determined that Toyota, Nissan and Isuzu would be the country’s sole carmakers. The Cosmo Sport saw production in 1967, which kick-started Mazda’s romance with the Wankel-style engine.

Yamamoto continued development of the rotary engine, and it really caught on when Mazda released the RX-7 to the U.S. in 1978.

"Rather than profit, we went after an identity and independence," Yamamoto told Automotive News in 1993. "More than 30 companies worked on the rotary engine initially. But Mazda was unique. We stuck to it with persistence. Why? Other companies considered the rotary a source of revenue, and if there was no profit, they gave up."

Mazda sold the RX-7 in the U.S. through 1995 before pulling the car from the U.S. market due to cost concerns and low sales -- it continued to be sold in foreign markets through 2002. The rotary came back to the U.S. in 2003 in the form of the RX-8 – an evolution from the RX-7, but still very different. While not regarded as highly as the legendary FD RX-7, the RX-8 was an enthusiast-aimed sports car and the last of its kind. Yamamoto’s involvement with Mazda was only as an adviser beyond 1993, and the RX-8 ceased production in 2012.

The Mazda RX-8 was the last rotary engine car Mazda built. There's no telling whether Mazda will bring a new version of the rotary back to production. Mazda

In addition to the rotary, we can thank Yamamoto for greenlighting the Miata project for production as president of the company. Yamamoto was the man who defined Mazda, and it’s safe to say the manufacturer wouldn’t be the same today if it weren’t for his influence. Even though the rotary engine is no longer in production, Mazda keeps a small team of engineers researching this engine type at all times. His legacy of making engaging and unique cars lives on at Mazda, and for that, we thank him.

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