Restomod RX3

Nicely done up 73 Mazda RX3 sets foot in Jay Leno’s garage.

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Wasabi RX3

A cool RX3 review from Daniel at Wasabi cars.  Hmm I still need to get mine going.

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From zero to demon

About a year ago I was in search of some camber plates for Yellow Lion.  To find a bolt on set is pretty rare and not too many aftermarket sources are available, even china doesn't make some.  Fortunately, Ground Control up in northern california still has some support for this old rotary beast.

Changing pattern

One thing i've always hated about old yellow fever and generally many of the old Mazdas, was the wheel bolt pattern that the cars were provided.  The 110 x 4 pattern is just plain horrible(what were they thinking), since it limits wheel selection to dress up the old dog.  I've been contemplating to change this and attempted rectify this.

Cooling Buttercup

List of The Powerpuff Girls characters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few months back I ordered and received and radiator from China.  After many distractions and over coming my lethargic tendencies (technical term for laziness), i've finally got around to installing the radiator into ol' Buttercup.  As much as i'd like to keep the retained the factory components,  the original radiator was already giving up the fight.  I had radiator fixed many summers ago and the shop informed me that the radiator was on it's last leg.  They did mended it as best they could.and I was able to use it for many years of enjoyment.

New radiator for 3

In my quest to get the 3 running again,  I needed a radiator.  The last time I tried to get it up and running (a few years ago), the original radiator began to leak. I guess it developed a hole by just sitting there, dunno know what happened.  Since a stock piece is difficult to allocate, I searched for an aftermarket item.

Reacquainted with 3

The last time I putted around in the old 3 was in 2003 for Sevenstock 6.  Since then it's been quietly sitting under the cover waiting for time where it will one day rumble down the streets spitting out flames of fear and the rotary screaming to be worked up to redline.

Almost 10 years later, after bolting the seat in the car, I finally sat in Mr. 3  Now I need to get the old dog up and running again.

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Eyes for 3

Time to change how we see things.

 A while back I picked up some used Cibie headlight housings.  During my short stint with Volvo's I found someone selling a set on the turbobricks.com forum.  They were 5-3/4 and a perfect fit for Mr. 3.

Old Yellow

The 'ol RX3 rarely sees the light of day ever since i've been tweaking on the Corolla.  Lately, I've been on downward spiral with the corolla, haven't driven it and rarely work on it.  It feels like writers block or something (aka lazy).   I think now is the perfect time to get something fixed that's been messed up since I took delivery of Old Yellow.

Yard hopping: not again.

 I never really like going to the yard much, but when you need parts, it was now a must.  And it seems i've been on a binge for a few weekends.  So this past weekend, I stopped by the Pick a Part on Katella ave. in the city of Stanton.

R.I.P. Walt

Racer Walt Bohren passed away days ago, but I just found out.  Racing rotary cars in the 70's and 80's.  Including the Racing Beat/ Akai RX 7 (shown above) in the IMSA racing series.  He helped forge Mazdas racing program in America.  My condolences to family.

Star or Bull?

Mazda RX 3s that is clad with Rockstar energy color, and Red Bull livery.  I wonder if he has problems holding down a sponsor.  Though I'd be happy with either one.


Rockstar



Red Bull

Special K

Katayama Mazda RX 3 a car that brought down the Skyline GTR in the early Japanese Touring Car days.  And also influenced the bosozoku car treatment.  Would you believe this was put together in thailand, i wouldn't have guessed it.  Well done.

Clean example

 

Nothing more awesome than an all motor rotary.  Especially on an RX-3.  Shod with some nice watanabe wheels. 

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Brap Brap

The project that's been sitting for too long.  I know it needs to get going and no matter how long I let it sit, it won't reassemble itself.  Though I'm thinking I need to add another rotor.

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Norton Auto X

Just like the previous post on Hollywood Park Autox. Here's a couple pics from and autocross event held at Norton AFB. I think this was about 10 years ago. I wonder if they still use that venue?I think I was still running the RX-3 back then.

Not this one, this a national champion car. I looked up that car for inspiration. But then again I was hanging around too many pinoys who were nuts over TRD and AE86.



10 years later, do you recognize some of these people?

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Autocrossing Hollywood Park

Roughly around the mid to late 90's I tried my hand at driving around the cones. I've heard of autocrossing and visited 1 event a while back but never participated. After enjoying my drag racing phase, I decided going in a straight line wasn't much fun. Unless you have enough dinero to go make your car go into single digits. And since I was working at shop that built lots of Toyotas, and was surrounded by these guys who were in to autocrossing. That time there were quite a few Toyota enthusiasts in the auto x scene.


Moto M. in his super charged coupe.


Alan with his TE27.


Jay S. and his very clean MR2. He still owns this thing.


Me in my RX3 ripping up the course. Really sucked my first time out. But I had a great time.


Satan in da house.


Sunbeam Tigers prowling for some cones.

It's hard to believe all this was over 10 years ago. I began scanning quite a few photos from back then so i'll be putting up a couple more in the not too distant future.

Here's the link to more of the old pics.

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Coffee table gear

Picked up some books from a forum member. Too bad i'm illiterate. But i'm just a sucker for Mazda RX-3s

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Peepers

Just received a set of Cibie lights recently. Yes the French do something good besides good bread and ice cream. But not for the Corolla, but for the Mazda. Yes I own a Mazda, I haven't formally introduced RX-3, that'll probably come at a later date. But for now I just wanted to show off the new (to me), but used set of eyes for the RX-3. Oddly enough I bought them off a guy on the Volvo forums. And for a pretty good price I might add. Though I won't have time to work on the Mazda anytime soon, I just seem to be accumulating parts every now and then. I just want to fall into the trap of working on too many cars and then going broke cause my weak check is being spread thin.