Although its success wasn’t in the Bathurst 1000, Mazda still enjoyed an undefeated run at our prestigious Mountain during the late-1990s and later paid homage by releasing a special edition model of its awesome RX-7.
The Mazda RX-7 Type R Bathurst was launched some seven years after its last success at the Mountain as Mazda Australia completed a hattrick of wins in the James Hardie Bathurst 12 Hour between 1992-1994.
Led by legendary Allan Horsley, who aided in Allan Moffat’s attack on the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1981 to 1984, Mazda’s attack on this new production car race launched in understated terms in 1991 proved dominant.
A team of Mazda dealer apprentices worked under Horsley to beat the likes of Porsche, Lotus, Honda, Nissan, Maserati and more at the Mountain. This led to Mazda Australia developing a limited edition of its own ahead of the 1995 12 Hour now at Eastern Creek to take on the special models released by Porsche, BMW and Volvo.
The SP won the Eastern Creek 12 Hour, the last for this era and went on to further success in GT Production racing until the turn of the millennium as another win at Bathurst in the Three Hour Showroom Showdown of 1999 followed.
Mazda in Japan decided to send the FD RX-7 off in style with this special edition model, with it being bestowed the Bathurst name.
Power was boosted to 276bhp (limited due to a gentlemen’s agreement with all Japanese manufacturers) from the twin-turbocharged 13b rotary engine, custom height adjustable dampers and a lot of weight was removed to create 50-50 distribution. Inside, carbon was the main theme mated with body hugging sports seats and Mazda Speed produced elements.
Just 500 produced exclusively for the Japanese market (so, ironically none came to Australian shores unless imported privately). Many did come to Australia and found passionate owners.
As a sidenote, the RX-7 continued to race competitively until the mid-2000s through Sydney-based Rotary guru Ric Shaw in GT Performance, nearly winning the title in 2004.