Hellaflush III
Streetwear moguls Fatlace and their official automotive enthusiast division, Hellaflush, recently amended their standard operating procedure of hosting annual events at their San Francisco, CA, headquarters to throw an impromptu gathering of slammed, fender-flush rides at Blacktrax Performance in Milpitas, CA, to collect proceeds for the Philippines Relief Project. Over 1,500 attendees and rides from as far away as the northern East Coast and Florida rolled through. Here are some of our favs:
Mazdaspeed /MZR Engine
Take Over
In motorsports news, Mazdaspeed announces the addition of a new rung in their driver development ladder with the cooperation of Mazda and Cooper Tires, in the form of a new championship series. The USF2000 National Championship, powered by Mazda, will be a new stop along the company's "Road to Indy" (designed to support budding grassroots racers), which will be owned and operated by Anderson Promotions, sanctioned by the Indy Racing League (IRL-remember those guys?), and feature 170hp versions of the Mazda MZR engine of the MX-5 roadster and Mazda3. The new effort will join World Speed Motorsports in adopting the ubiquitous DOHC inline-four; the latter will use it in their all-new FormulaSPEED 2.0 series.
www.mazdaspeed.com
5Zigen
Becomes 2009
Super Taikyu Champs
Also in motorsports news, Team 5Zigen became 2009 Super Taikyu ST3-class season champs, after a flawless victory with their NSX at the series' Round 8 finale at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan, where the NSX finished First Place in both heats of the endurance race's event, driven by Hiroki Yoshimoto, Kousuke Matsuura, and Katsuyuki Hiranaka.
www.5zigenusa.com
Tricks Of The Trade
Helping You Wrench
Stop Blowing Your
Hoses!
There's nothing more frustrating than blowing the charge pipes off your car under full boost. Dislocated piping can be caused by a number of problems, including loose hose clamps or torn couplers, but the most common culprit can be traced back to oil. Motor oil can coat the walls of the intake tract, leaving the coupler slippery and unable to form a tight seal with the charge pipes if reinstalled without cleaning. Using a can of brake cleaner, rubber gloves, and a shop towel, spray the cleaner on a cloth and proceed to thoroughly wipe down the inside of the hoses to remove oil and contaminants. Once clean, allow the couplers to completely dry before attempting to re-install. Refrain from soaking any silicone or rubber material in brake fluid, as the harsh chemical will soften the hose.
Mazda's Rotary-Powered Skyline Killer
Roots
Mazda RX-3
Flip to this month's cover feature on page 74 to read about the Skyline GT-R's racing dominance over the years, and when you come to the part about it winning 49 straight victories in its first year racing, know that it was a modified version of this little guy that kept number 50 out of reach: Mazda's naturally aspirated, 1.0L, twin-rotor, 110hp RX-3, which raced in the Touring Car class of the 1972 Japanese Grand Prix.
The RX-3 debuted as a 1971-model sports coupe in succession to the compact R100 (Familia), just one year after the Capella (for the JDM; 616 for the USDM) and the RX-2 (which was initially a coupe/rotary trim level of the Capella) were introduced as the company's mid-sized family car. Despite factory performance numbers being a bit lower than the RX-2's, due to increased weight from its slightly re-worked engine and improved chassis, it replaced the RX-2 as the company's rotary-powered race platform of choice. The RX-3 was initially released with two variants of the twin-rotor Wankel engine, and in a strange twist of practice for Japanese automakers, export markets like the USDM got the better of the two: the 12A, featuring rotor depths 10mm oversized from their counterparts in the JDM's 10A, for an additional 164cc of displacement and five hp at the same redline (additional variants would make 130 hp in naturally aspirated trim).