Ex-Mazda President "Car Guy" Matsuda Who Believed In Rotary Engine Dies

Mon Aug 5, 5:09 AM ET

TOKYO - Kohei Matsuda, former president of Mazda Motor Corp. and owner of the Japanese professional baseball club Hiroshima Toyo Carp, has died of stomach cancer. He was 80.

Matsuda died July 10 at Keio Gijuku University Hospital in Tokyo, Hiroshima Toyo Carp spokesman Hirokazu Yamamoto said Monday.

Matsuda, the grandson of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda, joined the Japanese automaker — then known as Toyo Kogyo — in 1961 as a vice president. He helped the Hiroshima-based company introduce the Cosmo sports coupe in 1967, the first car in Japan powered by a rotary engine.

The rotary engine is driven by cylinders rotating around a crankshaft instead of being lined up horizontally like conventional pistons. They tend to have a better weight-to-horsepower ratio than other internal combustion engines.

Matsuda became president of Mazda in 1970, succeeding his father, Tsuneji Matsuda, and steered the automaker through a period of declining earnings.

He retired from the presidency in 1977 and was appointed chairman, a post he held until 1980. As chairman, Matsuda oversaw Mazda's 1979 capital tie-up with Ford Motor Co., which now owns about a third of the Japanese firm.

Mazda rehired Matsuda as an honorary adviser in 1988.

In 1970, Matsuda became owner of the Hiroshima Carp and invigorated the baseball franchise by instructing scouts to go after young, unknown players. The team won the first of six Central League pennants in 1975, and captured the first of its three Japanese championship titles in 1979.

He is survived by his wife, two sons and daughter. (Kyodo News Service)