80-Year-Old Woman Sells Beloved Daily Driver: a Mazda RX-7 FD

Human interest stories are not too hard to come by in the automotive space, as so many of us enthusiasts are exactly that because of the bonds we’ve forged with our local car communities, motorsports, and the machines parked in our own garages. On the same token, there’s no shortage of anecdotes concluding with a driver and their cherished daily parting ways (we’d bet a fair number of you have one of your very own). But every now and again, one of these tales stands out among the rest because of the car, the person, the circumstances or perhaps all three.

Today’s story is about Naoko Nishimoto, an 80-year-old resident of Nagasaki, Japan, who recently elected to give up her driver’s license and sell her daily driver of 25 years: a Mazda RX-7 FD, the third generation of Mazda’s rotary-powered sports car.

In a video with the Japanese YouTube Channel “Boys and Wheels,” Nishimoto described her quarter century with the FD and her reason for choosing it in the first place: Initial D. Yep, that anime series with the tofu delivery boy in the panda-colored Toyota AE86 stomping every spec’d-out JDM performance machine who dared challenge him on the downhill. And the first of those rivals was Keisuke Takahashi, second in ranks of the Akagi RedSuns racing team and the driver of a yellow RX-7 FD.

Amidst deciding what her next vehicle ought to be, Nishimoto says seeing Takahashi’s RX-7 in action was love at first sight, enough so to convince her to visit the local Mazda dealership and snag one for herself, albeit silver instead of yellow. Picking up the FD was no issue, as she claims to have been driving manual cars for “nearly 60 years,” and judging by her skills behind the wheel and her “countless” drives of local mountain passes, we believe her.

Alas, after 25 years and nearly 50,000 miles, Nishimoto decided to give up her FD and her license entirely. In fact, the decision to relinquish both her license and beloved daily was decided when she was 78.

“I’ve enjoyed driving every day since then,” Nishimoto said. “I feel no sadness or regrets.” 

And of all the potential buyers of the FD, it was none other than Mazda that put up the winning offer. At a special ceremony held at one of their dealerships, Nishimoto handed the keys off to Mazda, to be retained by the company and used for promotional purposes. Nishimoto was given her license plate and a letter from Mazda CEO and President Masahiro Moro.

The Mazda RX-7 is regarded as one of Japan’s all-time greats, a truly revolutionary sports car that American buyers were fortunate to receive, unlike so many other Japanese performance machines, even if only for a short while. The FD’s stateside run ended after just a few years in 1995, the RX line picking back up with the RX-8 following the turn of the century.

What makes the RX-7 stand out is its power plant, a rotary engine. The FD we tested was powered by Mazda’s famed 13B rotary, a 1.3-liter twin-rotor design featuring sequential turbochargers and brapping out 255 horsepower. That may seem flat compared to modern standards, especially considering a 2024 Toyota GR86 punches at 228 HP, but an observed 5.4 second 0-60 time in our testing and the high-revving nature of the rotary is still plenty lean. And truthfully, the FD’s athleticism isn’t stacked in brawn, but agility. According to Mazda, management at the time decided the Wankel rotary was “the most interesting and efficient way to achieve the swift performance and deft handling” desired from the platform. The Wankel rotary is inherently compact and lightweight, keeping the FD under 3,000 lbs., and allowing for better weight distribution and balance.

A car with staying power, spotting a Mazda RX-7 FD at a car show or, better yet, being driven is still an event for many Japanese car enthusiasts. As for acquiring one yourself, you likely won’t find one at your local Mazda dealership, but examples can be found more easily online, including right-hand drive models imported from Japan. In either case, FDs aren’t exactly the cheapest of enthusiast classics to procure, but deals can be found. And should you ever stumble across one cared for as well as Nishimoto’s, it might just be worth whatever they’re asking.