Mazda Luce, LA4/5 series, 1977-81 The Luce Legato was the last chrome bumpered large car offered by Mazda. While the Luce was a large, luxuriously equipped sedan, it still complied to Japanese Government dimension regulations, and it wasnt the largest sedan Mazda sold in Japan. That honour went to the short-lived Mazda Roadpacer, which was sourced from Australia, locally named the Holden Premier. The Mazda Luce L (Originally designated as the Luce Legato, but the Japanese automotive industry authorities would not allow for what they considered a name change and so it was officially sold as simply the Luce L) was introduced late in 1977 and became the second generation 929 for export markets, often called the 929L. There was no coupé version developed of this generation, although a four-door hardtop body was available in Japan with a wagon available from 1979. Even though it was offered with two different rotary engines (12A and 13B) it certainly was not fast, even with the 13b making 100kw it still had more than 1220kg to haul around taking longer than 10sec to complete 0-100kph. Top speed was claimed at 175kph, I doubt this was often tested as it was timed at 64 seconds to reach. 1/4 mile was measured at almost 18 seconds. Provided you were not interested in any type of spirited driving, and were happy to lope along aware of the Luce L’s shortcomings, then inside the cabin was not such a bad place to be. Very little road noise managed to get through to the cabin, as it was outstandingly well insulated. Most models were optioned with piston engines (1.8l VC and 2.0l F/MA) with 4 speed manual standard and a 5 speed manual or automatic offered. A facelift was given to the range in 1980 (known as the LA5), giving the car a more European styled front. The final addition was a 2.2 L Diesel engine in September 1980 although this was only offered to limited export markets. J.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 10:14:46 +0000
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