Listen to this 3-Rotor Mazda RX-8 Rally Car Sing
Watch this crazy rotary-powered Mazda get sideways and tear apart the countryside.
What engine creates the best exhaust note? Is it a burbly American V8, screaming V-10, or something not so conventional? The debate for the best sounding car rages on, but one particular engine has held its own since the beginning—the Wankel rotary engine. For those unaware, listen to a Mazda 767b race car and you'll understand why the high-revving, low displacement engine is revered by vehicular audiophiles. They're apparently great engines for rally cars too, as New Zealand rally champion Marcus van Klink has dropped a rotary engine into his custom Mazda RX-8 and is ripping it up in the NZ countryside.
Rally and hill climb enthusiast channel HillClimb Monsters posted a video Sunday of van Klink piloting his insane creation through the rolling hills of Marton, New Zealand. We get multiple angles of the car carving a path through the woods, getting sideways at any opportunity. Most important is the cockpit camera, which gives us a wonderful depiction of what this crazy-loud car sounds like from behind the wheel.
As detailed in an article from RallySport Magazine, this is no ordinary RX-8; four-time rally winner and resident Kiwi Marcus van Klink has given the Mazda the full rally treatment. The car has been completely gutted for weight reduction and features rally suspension, plenty of carbon fiber, a sequential 6-speed manual transmission, and a 3-rotor 20b rotary motor pushing 370 horsepower to the back wheels.
Van Klink plans to race the RX-8 in the next RallySprint event, so we'll get to see how the car stacks up against the countless turbocharged four cylinder-powered hatchbacks it will be facing in a real competition.
