OK, a short entry this time. Growing up in Singapore in the 1980s, I saw a lot more affordable sports cars on the roads rather than the Lamborghini and Porsche variety. And especially after having my interest in cars piqued by the Lotus Esprit right around 1977-78, I was always clipping out car ads from my dad’s motoring magazines, and looking out the windows whenever we took a ride in the family car.
When my dad got a chic little Mazda 323 in the early 80s, I suddenly wanted to know more about the brand, and that of course took me right up to the RX-7. I was lapping up the magazine reviews about its (literally) revolutionary rotary engine. And something about the curved rear canopy made it look extra sleek and aerodynamic to my adolescent eyes. While the RX-7 family has maintained its visual identity far better than the Nissan Fairlady, I will always have a place in my heart for this early version over the more refined and powerful iterations.
And what about the name? Why Savanna? Turns out the RX-7 was not the first to wear that moniker. Mazda chose ‘Savanna’ for its original line of rotary engined sports coupes back in 1971, and that model was numbered RX-3. When the next generation made its debut in 1978, ‘Savanna’ was retained for the RX-7.
Naturally, the glossy green edition of the RX-7 seemed to be a perfect fit. And so when it came to choosing a pen or pencil for the pairing, my immediate choice was the Lamy Safari, which also came out in 1980, and miraculously was introduced to the world in either Terra Red or… Savannah Green.
Truthfully, I never owned the originals, which are pricey collectibles in their own right. Instead I grabbed a hold of the 2021 reissues celebrating 40 years of the Safari. Even the black accents on the Safari seemed to be a close mirror to those on the RX-7. Poor molding lines or not, it felt right.
