Fanaticism is a dangerous thing. A quick search on YouTube will result in more than a few videos depicting ludicrous moments of sports fanaticism, where British soccer hooligans clash over whose team has the nicer-looking scarf. But in the world of cars, being fanatical about a certain brand or model is often worn as a badge of honor, where an encyclopedic knowledge of the vehicle in question acts as a sort of filter that separates the casual enthusiast from the true fanatic.
Phil Sohn falls squarely in the fanatic camp, in his case that of the rotary-loving variety. For Phil, his deep love of the rotary all started in 1992 when he first saw an FD RX-7 in a magazine. Then he saw one on the road and as Phil puts it, "I thought, Wow, I've got to have that car someday." So off he went to college in Atlanta to acquire the necessary earning potential to make his rotary dreams a reality, but not even Phil (or his amazingly understanding wife) could have imagined just how far his rotary obsession would take him.
"After graduating from college, I got my first job and started fixing up my Celica. But then I got into an accident and brought the car to a local body shop where the owner's son happened to have an FD. It was lightly tuned and after going for a ride in it I thought it was the fastest car in the world."
That's what finally pushed Phil over the edge, acquiring his first FD in 1999, which he still owns today and is currently building as a full-on show car. Since that time Phil has owned seven FDs, including the Montego Blue beast you see here. He's also owned a FC convertible; a mint-condition FB; a RX-2 that he fully restored and sold to buy a '73 RX-3 he's planning to swap a 20B into soon; an '04 RX-8 daily driver; and the super-rare '91 Eunos Cosmo featured alongside the FD.
The Cosmo is the newest addition to Phil's ever-changing rotary-powered Mazda collection, having acquired it in April. "I organize an event called the Deals Gap Rotary Rally and a guy was planning to bring this Cosmo to the event. I asked if he'd be willing to sell it and he said everything is for sale. After about a month of negotiation, a price was worked out and the Cosmo was mine."
According to Phil, this generation of Cosmo was a must-have for him because it was a first for Mazda in many respects. It's still to this day the most expensive Mazda ever built, it was the first Mazda to feature the 20B triple rotor engine, was the first car to feature sequential turbos and was the first car to feature an electronically controlled HVAC system. But as Phil quickly found out, since only 8,875 of these were ever built, finding replacement parts wasn't easy. He did, however, manage to track down a few choice goodies through his friend Paul Thomas at Mazmart. He also found a used set of TEIN coilovers in Canada, with TEIN USA helping him source a few missing parts.
But where Phil's rotary knowledge really comes out is when you start to talk to him about building the Montego Blue FD and the challenge of finding a good engine builder. "The Montego Blue was my fourth FD. I bought it because it had been very well cared for, was local and the price was right. I wasn't a big fan of the color initially, but it's grown on me. This was just supposed to be a weekend car while I built my Black FD, but somehow this one has turned into a bit of a show/track car, too."