THE RX-3

Built as a tribute car to the RX-3 that Rod campaigned in the New Zealand Rally Championship in 1975–1977, this Mazda might look like it came from the ’70s, but the recently completed project goes like a modern-built machine. Rod had been searching for his original car, but, sadly — like most rally cars — it had all but been destroyed, as he explained: “I found the guy that now owned the original, but he had crashed it, cut it up, and disposed of it. So, my brother-in-law Peter Davidson built this RX-3 up over about five or six years. There was talk of recreating the old car just as it was, but maybe we had a few beers one night and expanded on that.”

Having raced for Mazda over a 15-year period, Rod had accumulated plenty of those elusive Mazda Factory Racing (MFR) components, which Peter was able to utilize throughout. Alongside those are plenty of modern components, like the external-reservoir coilovers, power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering, and a Holinger six-speed sequential. The engine, like many in Rod’s Mazda collection, is an MFR 13B peripheral-port (PP) making around 224kW. “Sure, it’s got the 13B PP engine the same as what we ran, although this one would make more power than we did,” Rod said. This is again thanks to modern advancements in things like ignition systems and apex seals. Peter paid extra attention to all the little details and making it light. “It’s really fun to drive,” Rod noted, “and runs pretty damn good. Last year, I ran it in the pre ’75 class [at Leadfoot] and, even with the misfire it had developed, we were able to hold off the others.”