The Mazda Parkway Rotary Bus

Did you know Mazda once built a rotary-powered bus?

In the mid-1970s, when Mazda was still known as Toyo Kogyo, its engineers believed the rotary engine was about more than speed. They saw it as a symbol of smoothness and modern design. So they asked a bold question: could that same engine make a bus feel refined?

The answer was the Mazda Parkway Rotary 26, a 26-passenger minibus powered by a 13B two-rotor rotary engine, the same family of engine used in Mazda’s sporty road cars.

What made it special wasn’t performance. It was the experience. Compared to diesel buses of the era, the Parkway was quiet, low in vibration, and surprisingly smooth, making it ideal for hotels and resort shuttles that wanted something more elegant than a typical city bus.

It was built from 1974 to 1976, just after the oil crisis, which meant fuel efficiency quickly became more important than refinement. Only about 44 rotary-powered units were ever made.

Today, none are in regular service. A few survive in museums and private collections, including one preserved in the Mazda Classic Car Museum in Germany.

The Parkway Rotary 26 is remembered as a moment when Mazda’s rotary ambition reached beyond sports cars and into everyday life, even if only for a brief, fascinating chapter.

Learn more about the rotary engine at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum's special exhibit on the Wankel Rotary Engine.