Ask a Harley rider why he didn’t buy a Honda Fireblade; he’ll shake his head and then you’ll lose your teeth. As you regain consciousness you’ll realise he just answered your question. The biker rides a Harley because it has soul, because it has character and because it represents a way of life. Sometimes it’s easier for a bloke to explain that sentimental sort of stuff over a knuckle sandwich.
I knew Ryan would let me keep my teeth so I asked a similar question about his 12a rotary powered Mazda RX2 Capella. So many young enthusiasts stick to modern, more popular cars, I just had to know what attracted this 24 year old to a car much older than him. He told me, “I feel classic, older cars have more character and personality,” and that, “9 times out of 10 they’re built not bought”. You can’t find too many clean RX2s these days that don’t need at least some restoration. Even modified examples don’t come up for sale too often. If you want a car like Ryan’s, there’s no two ways about it, you’ll have to build and/or restore one yourself.
Still, there’s a lot more to this car than its vintage charm and looks. The RX2 also has some serious performance thanks to its light weight chassis and rear wheel drive layout. It really does make modern cars look porky by comparison. Safety standards and crash test ratings are to blame for that; you can’t buy too many rear wheel drive cars that weigh 900kg/1980lbs anymore. Sure airbags and crash reinforcement structures may keep us alive but they add kilograms and kilograms kill fun – who wants that? Despite the lack of safety features Ryan has never felt unsafe when he’s driving the RX2. Though I guess it’s easy to feel protected when you’re car sounds like a viscous dog that has a chainsaw for a head.
Although Ryan doesn’t like to use the world “style” he has made some personal touches that make the car uniquely his. Custom offset, 17″ V-tek wheels are the most noticeable addition but it’s the paint that really sets the car apart. It has just been resprayed with a custom blue pearl, and the finish is flawless. The interior has also been given a freshen-up with an all black re-trim, complete from the roof lining to door panels. All of the changes Ryan has made are tasteful and compliment the original design of the car. He explained that when it comes to modifying a car he likes to keep things clean and tidy. He said, “it’s not the biggest or brightest but it’s definitely the way I like it. Too many people in the car scene seem to modify there cars to other peoples tastes and opinions just to get noticed. I have much more satisfaction knowing I built the car the way I wanted it to be!”
Ryan isn’t one to do things in halves either so he hasn’t ignored the performance side of the equation. To that end, the12a has been given some serious bite. It’s made a dyno proven 176 wheel horsepower in naturally aspirated guise, and 250whp with nitrous. They’re pretty impressive figures for a 1.2 litre engine that was originally released in the 1970’s. In order to achieve those numbers it’s been given a full race bridgeport by the guys at Dyson Rotary along with: new rotors, new housings and 3mm seals. Unfortunately, the popularity of the rotary engine has been stunted over the years by reliability concerns. I asked Ryan about this and he set me straight by saying, “those in the performance industry, and most of the rotary community know, that when treated correctly, they have very little issues”. His engine hasn’t missed a beat for two years now, so I’ll take his word for it. Let’s hope the word gets around: “Brap Brap!” – pass it on.
Ryan would like to thank Craig Dyson from Dyson Rotary and Burkey from Extreme Trimming for all of there help in getting his car to where it is today.
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