By the time you've finished fantasizing about your next modified car, Isaiah Rodriguez will likely have already bought it, boosted it, painted it and sold it to move on to the next car. Yep, if there were such a thing as a modified car player, Rodriguez would be it, leaving a wake of broken-hearted past projects behind for the next guy to console. You might be thinking you can relate. But consider this: In 2006 alone, he pimped a Lotus Elise, turbocharged an S2000, ducked for cover in a Mini Cooper, hooked up an M3 and wheelied around on a Ducati 749S. Now think about this: he bought them all new and he's already sold half of them.
Maybe it would take a car like the '93 Mazda RX-7 to keep Rodriguez's interest for more than a year. After all, the amazing grenading rotary is notorious for breaking the hearts of car lovers worldwide, and everyone knows that it takes a player to break one.
Rodriguez issued a confident chuckle at the idea of a car leaving him heartbroken. He's taken some precautions to ensure that his relationship with RX-7 isn't fast and fervent-in fact, he was so determined that he sent the car straight to Steve Singh at R & R Rotary in Fontana, Calif. Singh explained the dangers of owning a boosted rotary but assured Rodriguez that, if done right, he'd be able to play this one like a car with pistons under hood.
Given the full go-ahead, Singh set out to build a bomb-proof rotary. The engine was disassembled completely and rebuilt with Atkins 3mm apex seals. While he was at it, Singh bridge ported the 13B, giving it a malicious idle and the ability to rev to a stratospheric 11,000 rpm.
A 13B with an 11,000rpm redline without forced induction is nothing more than an excellent way to get about four miles to the gallon and not go very fast. So a GReddy TD06 kit was used to fill each of the two rotor housings with pressurized air. Singh stresses that the benefits of the TD06 kit aren't purely in the horsepower numbers. A major reason boosted rotaries are notorious for popping is from excessive heat in the engine bay. Using one turbo instead of the stock sequential setup eliminates a lot of this heat, as does the lightweight stainless steel manifold in place of the massive cast iron stock unit.
Ask anyone who's taken the intake manifold off their FD RX-7 and they'll tell you they've never seen a bigger jumble of vacuum hoses. Most of the hoses are in place to regulate boost pressure to the overly complex sequential turbo system. Because the hoses are uncessesary when going to single turbo, the GReddy TD06 kit eliminates these, which means less chance of popping one and overboosting. The giant GReddy front-mount intercooler sees to it that the intake charge stays cold and dense, while 500cc primary and 1680cc secondary injectors link to a fuel system from Rotary Extreme to ensure that the pressurized air has the right amount of octane to combust.