1974 Mazda RX-2 Series 3 (Part 2)

The first track-outing for the new combination saw an improvement over the 13B times, but the old FC RX-7 gearbox was not up to the task of shifting at high rpm. A Tremec TKO 500 with a Liberty non-synchro gear set was ordered from the States and fitted. With the new box in, Craig and Warren also decided more power would do the trick to push the car into the 10-second club. Thanks to a switch to E85 and the addition of six 1000cc injectors and a Link G4 Xtreme, the RX-2 ran 334kW (448hp) at the rear wheels. That was enough to propel it down the quarter in a best of 10.62 at 125mph (201kph), making it the second-fastest NA rotary in New Zealand behind the infamous quad-rotor RX-7 [FOURRE] of Bryce McEwan. But Craig isn’t about to stop there. After the last 10.70 at Masterton, he was told he would need a cage if he wanted to run again, so the team at PPRE built an NZDRA nine-second-spec roll cage, and while the car was there they also fitted a two-step launch controller. “With the two-step it will allow me to hold the throttle at the perfect rpm for launching, it’s just a matter of trial and error to get it set up perfectly, I would love to run into the high nines, that’s the goal with the car now,” Craig says. It’s just a matter of getting a few great runs together, at the moment there have been a few high-mph runs with poor 60-foots, and vice versa; when they come together it should net a low 10 or high nine-second pass, as Warren from PPRE explains: “It’s easy to make power gains in a turbo, you just up the boost, but with an NA it’s not that simple, we could start cutting a lot of weight from it, but at the end of the day it’s a street car. The power it’s making now is about the limit, with the only option to play around with the exhaust, it’s more about getting the passes perfected.”

If he does manage to eclipse Bryce’s time, that will put the RX-2 into a world-beating position. All with a WOF and rego still on the windscreen. And yes, this is a true street car, “Although I don’t drive it much on the road, as it doesn’t like going 50kph, that is a tall ask, but it’s great on the open road, and I often take it up my road out in the country.”

Expect to see the RX-2 on the track a lot this summer as Craig works his way down the 10-second bracket, and hopefully into the single digits. From a sand-blasted shell to the 10-second car before you, it just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what you start with, it’s the hard work and dedication put into the build that will pay off in the long run.