PLACE: A Visit to the Mazda Classic Museum Frey in Augsburg

Over the last days, my job led me to visit the bavarian area of Germany by car. It was a 4,5 hour roadtrip each way and while planning my route, i figoured out i’m driving by Augsburg. Suddenly i remembered that lately there opened a Mazda museeum in Augsburg. So a bit of googling and a little detour on my way home and finally i was there:

The building is a former Tram-depot in the middle of the city, beautifully restored and worth a visit itself. But inside is where all the glory is going on 🙂

Mr. Frey, who was one of the first to Import mazda to germany, and now including his two sons, has one of worlds largest private collections of Mazdas and rotary-machines. And as it seems he’s pretty into historic mazdas, sportier mazdas and everything rotary. The lady at the entrance told mey they have 140+ cars. While the exhibition only shows about 50 of them, the cars on display will change every now and then. next time in Spring 2018.

When you enter first you’re greeted by a beautifully, all original RX-7 FD3s

But the real masterpiece is on the other side. An absolutey pristine Mazda Cosmo sport. one of the blue-chip Japanese cars currently.
It’s restauration can be seen here in the “mazda garage” Youtube show, as well as Cindy and Det race it on the Rallye Hamburg-Berlin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6F8h02rFBz_j9IOiM4EiLBRwlPASRiPq&v=R3gS5otBLIM

The fun thing isn that the exhibtion is all about special mazdas with some historic value. On one side you’ll see a history full of the very first Mazda cars, trikes and other stuff from the very beginning. Things you won’t just find on your classic car auction…

Like the Mazda R360, which was actually Mazda’s very first passenger car they built:

All of these cars are restored to perfection too:

On the other side you’ll find a lot of Rare Japan-only cars… Like the Autozam AZ-1 Kei-Car gullwing-doors coupe:

Or the Roadster / MX-5 Coupe, A limited version with a roof installed:

And even the weird mini-cars like the Mazda Chantez 🙂

Of course there were many sports cars too. 323 GT-R AWD anyone? The real Mazda Hot-hatch 🙂

Or maybe you prefer an original RX-7 Rallye machine?

And if you prefer it a bit more classy – one of my absolute hero cars, the RX-3 Savanna:

And then there are the oddballs which were sold here, but never really a hit, and now many years later they’ve become something like “insider-cars” 🙂   Like the Xedos branded Luxury coupes:

Or the Mazda 323 Familia  Cabriolet ( i didn’t even know these existed 🙂

Or how about some cool Mazda Bongo utility vehicle?

Or more utility Like the 1972 Mazda Pathfinder, built in Myanmar / Burma?

And then of course, beeing mazda – Everything Rotary. Like one of my alltime-favourites. the REPU Rotary Pickup:

Heck, they even had a rotary BUS by mazda on Display!

And since i love station wagons, an RX-4 Station wagon 🙂

Check out the gallery below to see all the pictures. and forgive me the bad picture quality, I forgot to take my “good” camera with me and only had my pocket camera on hand. What a shame. Still hope you enjoy the Pictures and if you’re near Augsburg, i really recommand a visit to this fantastic place!