ONE STEP AHEAD

4&ROTARY’S HEAD HONCHO IS BACK WITH A QUAD-ROTOR RX-3

AZHAR BHAMJI HAS BEEN PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES WITH HIS PERSONAL BUILDS FOR OVER TWO DECADES NOW AND, WITH THE REBIRTH OF HIS EX– COVER CAR RX-3, SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING. IF YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A SERIOUS PIECE OF STREET MUSCLE BACK THEN, WAIT TILL YOU SEE IT NOW!

Azhar Bhamji has become a household name within the scene here in New Zealand. Pull out your phone and type ‘A’ into your contacts and we bet Az’s digits will pop up. This is because he is one of the biggest, if not the main, driving force of our scene. He’s a man with a seemingly boundless amount of energy. In between organizing the biggest events on our calendar, running numerous other businesses, and raising a family, he somehow still finds the time in the day to build cars, personal or otherwise — all of which seem to be ever-so-slightly ahead of the curve, from his showdominating S14 ‘NFULFX’ in the early 2000s to his nine-second street-driven R100 ‘HUKUUP’ and this 20B RX-3 that it shared the cover of NZPC Issue No. 196 with.

That was six years ago now, and although it might still be dressed in his signature blue, there has been a flurry of activity over the past 12 months by a handful of key workshops — Dynamic Automotive, RSL Automotive Performance, and Choppers Autobody Shop — taking the RX-3 to the next level. This was all done under a shroud of secrecy, which, in this day and age, is something not all that easy to pull off. For Az, who’s had a long string of rotary builds stretching right back to his 13B-powered Morris Minor built at the back of his family’s dairy in Te Atatu, that next step from a 20B peripheral-port (PP) was, of course, the addition of a fourth rotor! Inspired by the likes of ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett’s ‘MADBUL’ FD, it was never a matter of whether it would happen but, rather, when and in what car. As it turns out, the right chassis was right there in front of him: his 20B PP coupe, a car he’s been messing with for 13 years now. Once he made his mind up, it was just a matter of gathering together the swag of parts required to pull it off.

The exterior remains much as it was in our first feature, including its custom blue hue and drag wing. But there are plans afoot to change things up with new wheels and a new livery in the very near future