Simply to get the apparent out of the way in which first; this automotive is absolutely, really f*cking loud.
I’m not talking mild levels of discomfort either. Get close enough to this automotive as passes at full throttle and it looks like someone has stuck a screwdriver into your ear. It’s each beautiful and brutal at the identical time, such is the attraction of a custom four-rotor 26B engine.
That is James Deane’s FD3S Mazda RX-7, but what might surprise you, is that it’s not the most recent automotive in his stable. In truth, it’s probably the oldest. Despite competing around the globe in certainly one of his other 1,000+hp Falken-liveried builds, or in Formula Drift in an RTR Mustang, the RX-7 has at all times been around, lurking within the background.
From memory (which being honest, isn’t great as of late), James debuted this automotive in 2010 and won the Irish Prodrift Series with a circa-500hp SR20DET fitted up front. He competed with the RX-7 again in 2012, after which it became an indication automotive, even featuring on Goodwood’s most famous hill.
Despite the high-revving nature of the later-installed SR20VET, which occasionally made people think it was still rotary-powered, there was at all times a goal to return the automotive to its Wankel roots. To make up for lost time, James decided to suit twice the variety of rotor housings that the Mazda originally got here with.
In fact, you’ll need to hear this automotive while reading about it.
I missed the debut of the automotive at this 12 months’s LZ Festival at Mondello Park, but made sure to get along to a recent test and tune day at 360 Motorsports Park within the (very) south-west of Ireland. I’m undecided the Kerry countryside was prepared for what was soon to be unleashed, but I enjoyed the concept of somebody away in the gap hearing the four-rotor motor at full noise and attempting to work out what it was.
Aesthetically, the automotive has been refreshed from its previous guise, too. The hints as to what lurks beneath its skin are only obvious to those who know.
The aero front wheel covers and custom made Ström wheels were purposely created to reference the legendary ’91 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning 787B.
Even the Falken livery was rigorously adapted by Alexander Lituta to subtly mimic the famous Renown graphics, following a well-recognized v-shaped pattern. The inclusion of shiny orange inside this color scheme is one other nod to the Le Mans winner.
A custom wide-body kit was created by Aerokit for the project, before the addition of a Big Country Labs 1850 wing.
While there’s still some development work to return, on the subject of the chassis and drivetrain the RX-7 stays just like the way it was run in recent times. BC Racing suspension, Wisefab steering components and a Samsonas sequential gearbox all feature.
The party piece is a Pulse Performance Race Engineering (PPRE) peripheral ported 26B, in-built Latest Zealand. The engine is dry-sumped, with a PPRE exhaust manifold and an EFI Hardware billet ITB intake fitted with a custom K&N filter. It’s a setup able to 600+hp and 11,000rpm, naturally aspirated.
Say what you’ll about drifting, but I’m undecided there’s one other motorsport which gets essentially the most out of cars from an aural perspective. It’s nearly at all times full throttle with gratuitous blips on deceleration, often in a confined space, so that you’re immersed within the sound for for much longer.
From an engine management standpoint, every little thing is controlled and monitored with an entire suite of ECUmaster products. An EMU Pro for engine management, PMU16 for power management, ADU7 display for monitoring vitals and a CAN keyboard for controls.
Fuelling and cooling are again, pretty easy. Goodridge hoses and fittings, a Setrab Pro Line oil cooler and a Radium Engineering fuel cell with surge tank and fuel pressure regulator damper. Fuel itself, something criminally neglected, is VP Racing C85.
Drift cars will not be traditionally complicated things, and this is absolutely no different. While the recipe is perhaps familiar, it’s the ingredients here and the way by which it’s driven, that create something special.
A part of me does sometimes worry that in some ways, we’ve already passed peak internal combustion engines. What are the probabilities that we ever see or hear something like an actual recent rotary engine again? While I’m sure we’ll see more efficient, more powerful fossil-fuelled cars for some time yet to return, I’m concerned that the times of manufacturers creating engines that appeal to our very souls are done and dusted.
I’m not a luddite, and I don’t fear the electrical future that’s coming our way like some do, but I’ll appreciate things like James Deane’s screaming four-rotor RX-7 for so long as I can.
Paddy McGrath
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paddy@speedhunters.com
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
