Photographer Paddy McGrath of the Speedhunters Magazine has tracked down an exotic Mazda RX-7 (FD3S) in Ireland. What is so unique about this build? Let us take a closer look.
The first thing that meets the eye is the extreme Pandem Rocketbunny aero kit that the owner of the car inexplicably managed to install in a seamless fashion, without a single screw or rivet in sight. Masking all the hardware must have taken considerable time and effort, but the result is a car body that looks wonderfully sleek and gorgeous.
However, what truly astonishes us in this project is the powertrain. The owner let the shop HondaTuning.it perform the engine swap, replacing the stock mill with one taken from a Honda S2000 roadster. Along with a 403hp / 300kW power unit, the Mazda landed with Honda’s six-speed manual transmission and vivid red paintjob. The tuner then fitted a turbocharger onto the engine, supplying an extra 14.7 psi of the pressure to it, and thus raised the output to 500+ hp (375+ kW). In view of the fact that the mill can rev up to 9,000 RPM, mods like these look especially ambitious.
The one-off custom car rides on BC Racing coil-over springs and utilizes a purpose-made crankshaft, a limited-slip differential and a ceramic coupling. It has 18-inch SSR Professor TF1 wheels and a spruced-up cabin with the gear stick and dashboard borrowed from the abovementioned Honda S2000.
Quite impressive, wouldn’t you say?