10,000 RPM 20B FD RX7 Makes Intoxicating Sounds Unlike Anything Else
Three rotors, a peripheral port, and individual throttle bodies on an FD might be the secret to creating an amazing race car.
Ah, the Mazda FD RX7. This Japanese sports car is renown for its incredible timeless styling, low weight, and near perfect driving dynamics. It is infamously known for being powered by a rotary engine, like all of the vehicles in the Mazda RX line up. Rotaries are known to be devilishly unreliable and very risky to maintain. Most owners sport a rebuild of their motors on a yearly basis, if things are going well. They eat up oil like its their job, get terrible fuel economy, and people still love them. Why? Maybe, because they are incredibly unique and nothing can produce a sounds quite like a modified rotary.
To the brave souls that decide to go down the path of building one, more patience and more money will be required than your average cylinder-based build, but for those few that deem it worth it, the rewards are bountiful. If you ever had a dream of driving something with the sound of a classic V10 Formula One car, this is probably the closest you can get to it without spending a literal fortune. Thanks to That Racing Channel, we get to see a proper example of one of these amazing Mazdas.
The owner of the bright yellow FD RX7 is Jack Cecil and his FD doesn’t sport the original 13B two-rotor twin turbo, but rather, a 20B three-rotor engine that is naturally aspirated. The engine is running individual throttle bodies in addition to a semi-peripheral intake port for more airflow. While peripheral ports make more power and really allow the rotaries to maximize their performance, they are terrible for any street driving, as they simply don’t cruise well. This type of port is usually used for racing applications, thus, with it comes several compromises.
With the port comes the characteristic “brap” that rotaries are known for and it is what allows this particular 20B to rev to an incredible 10,000 RPM. Thanks to the ITB setup, this FD was able to pick up 45 WHP in the top end of the power spectrum (rotaries are also known to produce very little torque, thus, why they normally come turbocharged). Jack’s FD is definitely a race car before anything else, it has no power steering, no power brakes, no windows, and no sound insulation. What it does have, however, is an incredible sound that is almost the definition of racing nostalgia in a hell of a beautiful package.
Jack’s next plan for the car to is to get it to rev to 11,000 RPM, but he needs a dry sump oiling system first. Stay tuned for that. To see this FD make 400 HP N/A on the dyno and do some ridiculous pulls, please watch the full video. If you even remotely like rotaries or even just high-revving cars, you won’t want to miss it.
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