05/07/2025
An 80-year-old Japanese woman named Naoko Nishimoto, from Nagasaki, spent 25 years driving the same car: a silver 1999 Mazda RX-7 with a manual transmission. It wasn’t just any car — it was her dream vehicle, inspired by the anime Initial D, which she watched in her mid-fifties before purchasing the RX-7 brand new.
For over two decades, she used the car regularly for everyday errands, carefully maintaining it and clocking just 77,000 kilometers (around 48,000 miles). Even as she aged, she continued to drive it proudly — until she turned 80 and decided to voluntarily give up her license.
Rather than let the RX-7 go to just anyone, she wanted to find it a proper new home. Her story eventually caught Mazda’s attention. The company reached out and arranged a special handover ceremony at her local dealership in Nagasaki.
Mazda plans to fully restore the RX-7 and use it in events and displays — honoring both the car and the woman who cherished it for a quarter of a century.
