Watch – Spa 24-winning Mazda RX-7 on track
Turn up your speakers for this one, as Dickie Meaden drives the screaming RX-7 that won at Spa in 1981
Think Mazda’s rotary racing history begins and ends with the Le Mans-winning 787B of 1991?
Not a bit of it. In evo’s latest video, Richard Meaden takes another legendary Mazda racing car to its limit, one raced a whole decade earlier – the Spa 24 Hours-winning RX-7.
Built by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), the little RX-7 fought against much more powerful opposition in the 1981 Spa 24 Hours, but still emerged victorious.
As Dickie finds out around the twists and turns of Blyton Park, racing the RX-7 would have been a physical experience – there’s no power steering and no servo for the brakes – but with a light kerbweight and an engine that delivers all its power towards the top of the rev range, it’s both quick and beautifully balanced.
In fact, it’s quick enough to put some distance between it and the Renaultsport Megane Trophy we used as a camera car – despite the little Mazda now approaching its 35th year.
But how does it drive, and how does it sound? Watch the video above to find out.
