its a 1990 Cosmo that was imported by Duncan Imports in VA. Car has 62k KM, or roughly 38k miles. They used to have two locations, one in TN and VA but the TN location closed down a year or two ago. All of their stock was moved from TN to VA so the car disappeared for a bit and then came back up for sale. I paid $26,800 out the door.. I never really expected to spend this much on a car but they lowered their price by a few thousands and after looking at some financing it worked out to where one or two side jobs a month covers the cost of the car. With that I was able to convince the wife to let me get another toy haha. And in the long run, for FD money I can have an engine that'll never "lose" value.

We had a bit of an adventure getting the car home. The temps were like 12* F with wind in the 20MPH range bringing the real feel down to 0*F or less. It was about 360 miles one way, and originally my wife didn't want to do any driving so the plan was to take a rental down there, grab the car and drop the rental off at the Roanoke airport then squeeze the 3 of us and tools in the car and head home. After receiving an inspection on the car we found out that the front tires from 2012 were extremely dry rotted and unsafe to drive on. The rears were from 2018 and still good. We did some quick math and figured the FC's wheels would fit so we planned on bringing two wheels down. I made a checklist and packed up a metric socket set, a short and long ratchet, spark plugs, a jump pack, some 2 cycle, impact gun, gloves and screw drivers. If this is anything like other Mazda's that should cover about 80% of the car. Now if you're an avid Youtube watcher you've probably come across Vice Grip Garage. He takes cars that have been off the road for 20 years, gets em running and then road trips them hundreds or thousands of miles back to his house. Slow form content but I find it enjoyable. Anyway after watching his content for a long time I felt pretty confident I could handle anything that crept up along the way.

I did a quick oil change in their warehouse to make sure it had fresh oil, who knows how long its been sitting...and then we attempted to swap the wheels. Our first challenge of the trip was wheel locks that werent accounted for. No wheel lock was found in the car so we took way too much time hammering on a socket to get it off. I'm grateful they weren't over torqued, they came off pretty easily. Once we got the wheels swapped we filled the trunk with what we could fit and pulled the car outside to go fill it up. The gas station was like half a mile from the dealership so we pulled up and I went to pop the trunk to get my 2 cycle...and the trunk wouldnt pop open...great...After a few seconds I realized the battery was dead. Okay..well we did jump it at the dealership, I'll get a battery I guess...So we quick ran down the road and grabbed a battery...came back and the trunk STILL wouldn't open...great. Well what should we do now that I cant access tools? this is a huge issue for trying to cannonball this home. At this point my wife reluctantly agreed she would drive the rental home. With no trunk access or tools we headed north to a half way point to see her grandmom. Funny enough, same grand parents we spent the night with when I picked up my original FC. The car drove really well, no issues. I didnt dare romp on it for fear of something happening. We tootled 150 miles at 55-60mph to our meeting point and had lunch. After lunch it didnt start again....okay not good. we're in the middle of nowhere west virginia. what the heck do we do now? We drove off leaving the car behind...and about 15 minutes down the road I remembered that not everything made its way into the back of the Cosmo. Luckily a small box with the jump box was still in the rental! So we drove back to the car and I popped the hood to find.......a loose battery terminal. I guess the terminal was a little loose and worn. I was able to push it down and the car started just fine. We then headed to grandmoms house and proceeded to get stuck in the driveway for half an hour thanks to the summer tires. UGH! And that was the extent of the excitement. The last 150 miles home were smooth sailing. I got a couple double takes from drivers, one guy passed, slowed down and gave a thumbs up before speeding off. And its already been called a Nissan twice. I'll try and post some more pics later.

Edit: I forgot to add ...the trunk not popping open was a tiny switch found in the glove box that disables trunk access...it must have been bumped when we put the registration in the glove box. WHOOPS.

 

Here are some of the photos from Duncan

 

That's one hell of a story and a great find! Can't wait to see it at one of the local cars & coffees.

 

Will it make it to DGRR and back?

 

Maybe. It had a questionable hot start when I got in it after a trip to the gym. I should compression. Test it. And it has an oil leak by the oil pedestal. I hope it's the orings and not the dowel oring.

 

I've got an RCT 5.2 compression tester if you need one for the compression test, shoot me a txt if you need a hand.

If the car sat around for a long time, the oil leak is more likely to be dried out pedestal O-rings. Or you might be really lucky and it's just left over oil slop from prior oil filter changes. Clean it up real good so you can see what your dealing with.

 

Congrats, that's a sweet car and it's in amazing shape!

 

In typical Delaware fashion, the DMV and rotaries never seem to mix. Even when I buy a bone stock example they find something to complain about. So they complained it had no side marker lights. And then it was the fact that it doesn't have a 3rd brake light. Then it doesn't meet emissions standards....now I'm gonna share a Delaware DMV link so you can read it and tell me what you think. https://dmv.de.gov/VehicleServices/uniquevehicles/

Sure does sound like the Cosmo fits this description. But they still wouldn't do it.

 

Delaware can be a PITA, going to that FAQ link, this paragraph (pasted below) really bothers me - it's a bunch of contradictory circular logic & double-speak.

Does my Unique Vehicle have to pass inspection to be driven on the roadways?

Yes, per 21 Del.C. § 2198 (c), a Unique Vehicle is subject to initial inspection in which the Division of Motor Vehicles may title and register a unique vehicle for operation on the roads of the State which does not meet the Division’s standards for inspection or emissions performance only when it is modified to meet all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) safety and equipment requirements and Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s (DNREC’s) emissions inspection requirements under 7 DE Admin. Code 1126 or 1131 which are in effect at the time of the initial application for titling or registering of the vehicle. A unique vehicle may be titled and registered with restrictions as determined by the Division to be in the best interest of highway safety.

^My take on the middle sentence (bold/italics) part is they'll let it pass inspection & give you a title/registration after you do all the crap they claim it needs done to meet the FMVSS. Does DE have private shops that do state inspections? If so, you might want to shop around for one that will just let you pay & give you an easy pass, or take it to one of the DE DMV state places in slower/lower DE - they are less likely to be douche bags there.

MD is SO much easier - if it's 25 years old, and you title & register with historic plates, you don't need ANY inspections!

 

All of Delaware is serviced by 3 different state run lanes so there's no private shops to go to. I'll probably try the other statio and see how it goes...the one closest to me is closed due to a gun violence event that happened before Christmas. An officer lost his life unfortunately.

Worst case Ill hook up some of those truck style button lights and stick them between the fender and bumper. Maybe that'll appease them.

 

Cars and covfefe

 

super jelly, that Cosmo is beautiful!

 

Gonna try and make deals gap next year. Maybe that will be there.

 

I'd love to see it, and maybe my FD will be ready by then and can give your cosmo some 20B company!