Do you know about the Mazzei Formula Five yet? I’ve written about the mad-lad creation a handful of times for this fine website. In essence, it’s a homemade five-rotor supercar with a masterfully fabricated chassis wrapped in a Superlite SL-C kit car body. Last time we checked in, the single-seater had just laid down 1,120 wheel horsepower on the dyno. But that was with a 106-millimeter turbo, which has since been ditched for something even mightier: A 119mm whirler that’s sure to scream even louder.
David Mazzei, the man behind all this, is entering new territory as he sent off his Garrett G57 turbo to Forced Induction Systems for an overhaul. They modified the unit with their own cast housing and what Mazzei called a “7+7 splitter blade.” Because of these upgrades, they’re now working with about 30% more surface area than before, which means the turbo should move roughly 30% more cubic feet of air per minute at the same boost levels.
While this setup could certainly support more power than before, that isn’t exactly the point. Mazzei’s hope is to lower exhaust gas temperatures while increasing volumetric efficiency beyond 8,000 rpm; with the 106mm turbo, the power curve tapered off significantly past that point. It appears that the compressor wheel on the old power-adder was spinning so fast that it couldn’t move any meaningful amount of extra air on the high end.
For good measure, he also installed an exhaust manifold back pressure sensor, another sensor just before the throttle body to see if it’s backing up the turbo’s compressor, and a boost gauge after the intercooler core to see how much pressure drops across the unit.
Mazzei actually admitted more than once in his latest video that the car doesn’t need more speed for him to enjoy it. I’m not sure you can call him “sensible”—I mean, he built a five-rotor supercar from scratch. But still. He explained that he’ll continue pushing this build to learn what’s possible, as he’s picking up quite a few tuning customers along the way.
That being said, Mazzei is still making some mods just for fun. Daddy Turbos built a T-51R mod for the upsized super-spooler, which recreates the insane whistle from one of famed Japanese tuner HKS’s discontinued models. You can pretty much bet it’s the world’s largest of its kind.
I’m pretty captivated by this build as Mazzei keeps finding new ways to make it more extreme. He does it in such a way, though, that it’s not about max YouTube views. Instead, he’s genuinely using the car as a testbed to learn and make new discoveries for rotary platforms. One thing’s for sure—he knows his way around a peripheral port.
This feels ridiculous! 119mm turbo upgrade for the 5 Rotor
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