More Targa Prep

Visiting the shop this morning (dropping my RX7 off for some work prior to this Sunday’s hillclimb) I spied Glenn Ridge’s RX7 SP in for some work in preparation for Targa Tasmania. Couldn’t resist taking a snap – unfortunately just with my mobile so quality isn’t the best. The 3rd Generation RX7s really are a great looking car.

Event report - New engine and new PB at hillclimb

A little late on the update, but at the last SDMA Hillclimb on the 20th of Feb my S1 RX7 debuted its new 13B Bridgeport built by Reliance. It was a last minute thrash but the car was ready (and quietened down with a revised exhaust) to race on the day (actually it was ready days before the race). My previous pb was a 50.76 set earlier last year. On my second run of the day I lowered my PB to a 50.52 so I was pretty happy. On the third run of the day it felt pretty good. I knew when long time rival Teppo walked over and shook my hand something special had happened - and when I found out I had finally cracked a 49 I was stoked, especially when I found out I had dropped my pb to a 49.75. All down to the engine.

Thanks to Mark Neal for the photo.

So a great result for Team Aardvark - never a bad thing when you beat a Porsche and a Lotus. Jon definitely builds a great engine - and the sound of a bridgeport never gets old.

Shop Visit 3rd March 2011

Over the last month 3 second generation RX7s have begun the transformation into rally cars. Two of them are being prepared for customers to run in tarmac events such as Targa Tasmania (one is going to be something a little different but more on that another time) and the last is a replacement for Jon’s RX7 known as the Chainsaw (maybe we need to run a naming competition for the new car). All have been stripped of sound deadener (good old dry ice and a good wipe down with petrol) and caged – this process being made much easier on two of the cars as the roof panels were removed to replace the sunroof equipped cars with factory non-sunroof panels. The cages all sit as close as possible to the pillars and roof as you can see in the photo gallery. There is still much to do but I’ll try to follow their progress as preparation continues. And if you want to know which car will be the Chainsaw replacement – look for the white Compototives that Jon put on there especially for the photos.



If you look through the photos you might notice some other Targa Tasmania regulars in for some maintenance and modifications – which you might recognise if you’ve looked at Mazda Motorsports privateers page.