1979 Mazda RX7

Back in 2001 after racing my Turbo II in the Street Tire category of the NHRA Import Drag Racing Series and not wanting to destroy my daily driver, I decided to build this car. I purchased the car that had a 12A engine and stripped it down to a shell in my shop at home. Removing all of the sound attenuation with a pneumatic chisel until there was nothing but a metal shell.

The next step was to have a roll cage custom built to meet the NHRA rules requirements, and a 8.8″ Ford differential installed. For that I took the body to a local speed shop who build drag cars.

Once that was done, the work began. Installation of the 13B PP engine, a 5-speed  clutchless sequential shift transmission adapted to a Mazda bell housing, and a drive shaft as far back as possible for weight transfer. Then began the suspension, shock absorbers, brakes, wheels and tires. Then it was removing the glass and installing Lexan and a fiberglass hood. Now I had a rolling purpose build race car. Time to strip it down and deliver it to a body shop to be painted yellow. 

After picking up the beautiful yellow car from the body shop, the real work began. This included all of the plumbing, fuel cell, engine management system, data acquisition system, electrical wiring and custom exhaust.

Since we were basically starting from scratch for engine timing and fuel management, it was now time to spend hours on a dyno. Many thanks to Criss Ott for his expertise in this area. We were now ready to hit a track to test!