The Savanna RX-3 was overwhelmingly strong in the GC era
In the era when people were crazy about the Fuji Grand Champion Race, the Mazda “Savanna RX-3” dashingly appeared in the racing world and defeated the Nissan “Skyline GT-R” to win the championship in no time. Hiroki Nakasuji has always admired such a racing machine and continues to love it to this day. Let’s check out his favorite car in detail, a Savanna RX-3 that he built as an active tuned machine.
The rotary engine that dominated the racing world.
The “Savanna RX-3” became famous in December 1971 as the car that stopped the then unbeatable “Skyline GT-R” from winning the Fuji Tourist Trophy 500 for the 50th consecutive time. In its debut year, the Savanna RX-3 showed overwhelming speed and proved the power of Mazda’s only rotary engine in the motorsports arena.
The RX-3 was also extremely successful in the racing scene after that, and in 1972, the following year, the engine was changed from a 10A to a 12A to increase its potential. It dominated the podiums of both works and private teams, showing the difference in potential from the Skyline GT-R, which was said to be unbeatable, and leading a generational shift. The car continued to make rapid progress, achieving a total of 100 wins in domestic races in just four years and a few months after its debut.
The RX-3, with such spectacular achievements, is a car that has left its mark on history, and it is still a very popular model today and has become a coveted object of desire for old car enthusiasts. Mr. Hiroki Nakasuji, who lives in Tokushima Prefecture and is introduced here, was one of those who fell for the charm of the RX-3 that was active in racing.
Hiroki says he loves rotary-equipped cars, which are strong in races and run fast with a unique sound, thanks to their lightweight and compact design. In addition to this RX-3, he has several other rotary-powered cars in his garage. He is also known as a famous rotary driver in Tokushima Prefecture.
This is a street racer spec car that he built because he admired the way it looked in races
The theme of Mr. Nakasuji’s RX-3 production is to finish it as “an active tuned machine that continues to run beyond the times.
Although it is timeless, the specifications are not a method of replacing it with something new, but rather a style that values the feeling of the time. The most important point is that the Savanna Works over fenders of the time were set to assert the car as a GC racer of the Showa era, and Mr. Nakasuji said that he became an RX-3 driver because he admired the look of this racer specification.
The presence of the RX-3 with the Savanna Works over fenders, which are probably the widest and most appealing of all the over fenders created in the Showa era, is tremendous. The wheels that fit there are also set with nostalgic SSR Star Shark 14-inch wheels. The tires are new Toyo Proxess TR1s, but both front and rear are 225/40R14s, which are designed to pull just enough on the Star Shark’s ultra-thick rims, a desperate measure in an era when parts were scarce. It can be said to be a way of expressing the specifications of the time.
translated by DeepL
