Wouldn't you love to get your hands on those bastard car thieves? Believe us, Daniel Orsini would - especially after they towed away his beloved Mazda 808 (rego TOY 808). As you might guess, this wasn't just your everyday 808 - it was a thorough show-winner. All sparkle and shine. Thankfully, though, Daniel's insurance company came to the rescue and gave the financial assistance to replace the long-gone 808. But how on Earth can you replace a car like that? Well, you can't. Daniel rolled his sleeves up for the second time and set about making another killer Mazda in the very same mould - except, this time, it was gonna be based on a 1972 RX3 coupe.
Work started on creating this show-stopping RX3 4½ years ago. The first area of focus on Daniel's new baby was its powerplant - which is almost a copycat of TOY 808's engine. The basis for this is a 13B Series 4-5 motor, which has been enhanced by Simply Maz. On their job sheet were 3mm steel apex seals, dowelling and mild porting. Add to this the fitment of a high volume oil pump, plus an RX4 radiator with a 16-inch thermo fan.
Pushing air through the 13B is a giant TA45 turbo, which has recently replaced a custom T04. This big sucker is spooled up through a custom exhaust manifold, which tees out into a 42mm Garrett external wastegate. Boost is set to a conservative 7 psi on the street and 15 psi on the strip. Nothing too extreme here.
Don't bother looking for an air filter amidst all that under bonnet sparkle - there ain't enough room to fit one! But Daniel has made damn sure there's plenty of intercooling on-site. Plazmaman's massive air-to-air 'cooler gobbles up the majority of the car's frontal airflow and yanks back charge temps to virtually ambient. A Simply Maz blow-off valve purges any gear change pressure spikes before they make their way into the custom inlet plenum. Pressure in the exhaust, meanwhile, is kept low thanks to a fat 4-inch system equipped with a single resonator and straight-through rear muffler. It's right on the legal noise limit! Note that the front section of pipe has been heat wrapped and there's a stainless shield protecting the inlet runners. All of these wonderful things that shine go toward helping TOY 12A look so terrific under the hood. This also includes braided hoses, a heavily polished fuel rail, intake plenum and intercooler pipes.
Firing fuel down the 13B's throat is one 56mm Injection Perfection throttle body equipped with six (staged) 800cc injectors. A VL Commodore primary pump delivers fuel to a Bosch high-flow main pump and a Malpassi rising rate regulator maintains the correct rail pressure. Note that Daniel premixes his Shell Optimax with two-stroke oil - the fuel-to-oil mix is around the 150:1 mark. He explains that this gives "mechanical piece of mind".
Determining the fuel injection volume and timing the quad ignition coils is a Haltech E6K programmable ECU. Engine load measurement is via a heavy-duty 3-Bar MAP sensor and maximum revs are limited to 9500. Hitman has performed around 12 hours of thorough chassis and on-road tuning - and got it spot-on.
Bearing the brunt of this 13B monster whack is a host of non-Mazda components. Daniel stands on a brass button clutch, which - together with a one tonne pressure plate and nitrided flywheel - takes drive to a 1989 Toyota Supra 7M-GTE 5-speed. These renowned gearboxes are plenty strong for almost all street applications. And more bullet-proof stuff follows; a 3½-inch custom tailshaft and - of all things - a Holden VR Commodore diff. Daniel tried a traditional Ford 9-incher, but its huge mass meant that the little RX3 didn't ride or handle very well. Instead, the much-lighter VR centre is stuffed with a 4.11:1 LSD to deliver maximum traction and a near-ideal ratio.
One up-shot of using the VR diff was that Daniel could also run the associated (cut down) 28 spline axles and rear disc brakes. Bosnjak Engineering can be applauded for this conversion. Up front, the brakes have been converted to Holden Commodore VL turbo calipers and discs - together with Holden brake pads as per "Padding Up".
That's engine, driveline and brakes out of the way - next up is the suspension. TOY 12A rides on K-Mac dampers and 2½-inch reset leaf springs at the rear, with Koni adjustable dampers and K-Mac springs at the front. You may notice the 26mm K-Mac front swaybar poking down beneath the body, but chances are you can't see the effects of the K-Mac camber and castor kit. Also fitted is a custom Panhard rod, which - Daniel says - aids launching.
The first step toward giving the Mazda some looks to match its lungs was to build that bare metal bulk into something spectacular. Boy, what a job that was! This started with a good pair of doors and rear guards, a Savannah nose and a back-to-bare-metal file finish. As you might guess, the 1972 bumpers were also re-chromed. Once the panels were silky smooth, Han at Metropolitan Smash Repairs applied a gorgeous coat of deep blue paint - a 1991 Ford Festiva colour mixed with a white pearl. It's a truly immaculate finish.
Daniel isn't a big fan of the common WRX-style bolt-on bonnet scoop. Indeed, he's gone in the other extreme, having purchased a new $900 Toyota Celica GT4 Group A bonnet - just to cut the scoop section out of it! Once extracted, the good bit was then welded into a cutout in the standard bonnet. Ford Falcon GTHO side mirrors and external Autometer gauges - for boost, oil pressure and fuel pressure - finish the body details. When it came to selecting the right wheels, Daniel leapt at polished Simmons FR17s clad in Falken 205/40 and 225/45 rubber. Track duties see 275 wide slicks bolted under that beautiful tail. Hmm, how do you fit 275 drag slicks under the rear guards of a RX3, you ask? Simple - by getting Metro Smash to weld in a pair of mini tubs!
Inside is more of that same loving attention to detail. Driving the RX gives you a quality sense of feel - a Momo steering wheel and gear knob will do that. Daniel and his accompanying front seat passenger ride in Recaro pews, while the rear occupants sit on a re-trimmed bench. All passengers - as well as a few pedestrians! - can listen to tunes over the Kenwood CD/tuner head unit, which is tied to a 2 x 200W amp and 10 x 7s in the rear shelf. Other stuff you should know about are the re-trimmed dash, the fire extinguisher, the shift light, the QuickTrak system (beat that, thieves!) and even a 240V power invertor so that the car can be laptop tuned on the road.
With a taut'n'tight body and power to burn, TOY 12A is more than a match for its probably stripped'n'sold predecessor. Where the sedan ran a best ET of 12.4 seconds, the coupe has gone faster again - 11.0 at 125 mph. And that was with the old T04 turbo set to only 12 psi and running on street tyres. Daniel estimates that the new turbo cranked to 15 psi, together with slicks should crack a low 10! Power? Try a Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno'd 410hp on 15 psi... and, again, that was with the smaller old turbo.
Oh, and in case you're assuming that this is just another highly-tuned rotary grenade, bear in mind that Daniel has driven it 85,000km and it's never once had any internal problems. And - according to Daniel - it's not too groggy to punt around on the street either. Torque comes on real strong at 4500 rpm and - as we're told - it never fouls plugs or stutters because of extra-rich mixtures.
As a parting note, you should learn that Daniel's coupe is secured from thieves with an array of alarm and immobiliser circuits - plus the aforementioned tracking system. "It's like a fortress" tells Daniel... But - yes - he'd still like to get hold of the mongrels that claimed TOY 808!
Contacts:
Haltech
+61 2 9525 2400
Hitman Fuel Injection Tuning
+61 417 259 391
Bosnjak Engineering
+61 2 9757 2133
Simply Maz
+61 2 9755 1320
Metropolitan Smash Repairs
+61 2 9622 5555
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