This Mazda 3 Rotor RX-8 rally car ripping it through the hills of Marten, New Zealand is pure enjoyment to listen too.
Usually, when you think of rally cars your mind goes to small displacement turbocharged engines coping with huge amounts of boost keeping all that pressure sky-high thanks to anti-lag. But according to this Reddit thread that popped up on /r/cars earlier this week (Dec. 9, 2017) one of the most surprising sounds to come from this particular rally car is the iconic brap-brap-brap of a rotary engine bouncing off its rev limiter. Driven by Rally and hill climb enthusiast Markus Van Klink, this RX-8 isn’t just spec’d out to catch some proper air at speed but it’s stuffed with a gem of a naturally aspirated 20b rotary engine (yes, that’s 3 rotor.) Check out the sound of this most uncommon Mazda rally car below!
According to RallySport Magazine, this isn’t your run of the mill Mazda RX-8. At the heart of this beast is a 20B triple rotor engine that, when put on the dyno, spun the rollers up to 370 HP. Instead of using the factory 20B motor, which would’ve resulted in quite a long engine, van Klink went the most common route for three rotors and three peripheral ported 13B style housings and rotors with a custom crank. Additionally, the car sports a six-speed sequential gearbox and suspension from MCA. To add even more lightness, the roof is carbon fiber as well as other body panels like Mazda’s third door on the passenger side.
The video pretty much speaks for itself. If you’ve ever heard Mazda’s legendary 767B Le Mans racecar going at full race speed (or even at idle) you’ll know just how awesome it is to hear such a high-revving, low displacement engine making all its power. Its sounds are further accentuated thanks to the echo bouncing off of the trees and surrounding hills. As far as track safety is concerned, you’d be hardpressed not to hear this rally car before you actually see it coming giving you plenty of time to get out of the way.
And according to some fellow Rally enthusiasts in his area, it looks like he’s still campaigning this RX-8 as hard as ever.
