This Gorgeous FD Mazda RX-7 Build Is Half Porsche 935, Half ’90s JDM
Turns out the FD’s timeless curves pair nicely with a helping of ’70s aero.
I absolutely adore that in 2023, people are not only modifying Mazda RX-7s, but that fresh and creative builds are still appearing on this iconic platform. This yellow third-gen (FD) RX-7 was presented as a collaborative project between widebody-loving Liberty Walk, Indonesian tuner shop Art Customworks, and West Coast Customs' Head Designer Musa Rio Tjahjono this week at the Indonesian Modification Expo.
The Expo posted a glorious 10-slide image carousel on its official Instagram account which I'll share with you in this post, because man, this car is righteous. It's clear that the design took a lot of inspiration from the Porsche 935, an extreme 911 that raced in the 1970s and was revived and remixed in 2019. If you don't remember the 935 by its number, you might know it by the name "Moby Dick." The most powerful variant from 1978 was so-named for its whale-esque lines and body length.
Speaking of lines, drink some of these in:
The car belongs to Arief Muhammad, a YouTuber who's clearly a car fan. All his videos appear to be in Indonesian, but there's a decent amount of car content in his feed and one clip offers a small behind-the-scenes peek at this RX-7 as a work in progress:
For my fellow non-Indonesian speakers, turn on closed captioning and then toggle auto-translate with the gear icon. The translation's not perfect but it is surprisingly effective, enough to give you the broad strokes.
Using good old Google Translate on some other posts about the car, I gleaned that it's running a 13B rotary engine with big single turbo, and claims about 500 horsepower.
Despite the inherent inconvenience of running a rotary engine (who has time to check the oil every time you power down?) I'm glad this car keeps the original RX-7 heart. But the build's greatest accomplishment is marrying two deeply unsynchronized vibes ('90s JDM tuner car + '70s German race car) in a way that actually looks awesome. Not only that, but the execution of this widebody kit manages to be completely over the top while maintaining an aura of class.
The color and livery, which are also giving some '70s right along with the front bumper and rear hatch, look great too. Unfortunately, I don't have much more for you in the way of mechanical modification details, but you can see what's going on with the suspension and interior in the gallery above. Check out @artcustomworks on Instagram for even more images of the car. There are a few different angles of it on the Indonesian Modification Expo's official IG page, too.
The 2023 edition of this show just happened, but images from it are still trickling out. The theme was "The Future of Creativity," and the show was billed as "a reflection of the Indonesian modification and aftermarket industry opening a new era for Indonesian automotive" in an Instagram post I translated from Indonesian. I'd love to get out to this show someday—looks like the car scene in that country is pretty cool.
