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Hot Take Time: Mazda's FD3S RX-7 is Japan's best sports car. Forget the MX-5. Forget the NSX. Forget GT-Rs, Supras, WRXs and Evos (none of them are sports cars, for one). Ultimately the top 3 sports cars Japan has poduced are widely recognised as being the Mazda MX-5, the Honda NSX, and Mazda's third-generation RX-7. For the sake of this article I'll define a "sports car" as a light weight, two-seat (or 2+2, which is just a glorified two-seater), rear-drive car that places driving dynamics above creature comforts. Never mind if they've got pistons or rotors, turbos or natural aspiration,...

Marty's RX-7 is copping a bunch of upgrades [CLICK HERE], including going from frail twin turbochargers to one big aftermarket snail, but while throwing a larger turbo will make power there are some other secrets hiding inside the Mazda rotary engine.  All engines are air pumps, so getting more air in and out will make more power. It's that simple, though there is a lot of science hiding inside that simple truth. While rotary engines are physically much smaller than comparative piston sluggers, their lower rotating mass and far superior inertia makes them an excellent way to turn air into...

People, we need to have a serious talk. We build cars for all sorts of reasons, and they can be cheap things we put together quickly or a huge undertaking we labour over for years (like my car WHICH YOU CAN SEE THE BACK STORY HERE). So I get why people are a bit gunshy to hop in their cars and drive them interstate on big adventures on the open road... but this is wrong. Having spent a couple years and 3000km shaking down the Pontiac, learning its quirks and improving some parts that needed a bit of work, I finally...

Marty and MOOG recently went through the FIVE LEVELS OF TOOLS (CLICK HERE) people need in their life with cars, and it got me thinking about some of the tools I have in my kit which I have absolutely needed to finish a job (or make it ridiculously easier to finish).  Here are 5 of my picks for tools you need if you're going to work on any project car. STUBBY SPANNERS Having a good quality set of combination spanners (ring and open) is a must for anyone who wants to do anything handy on a car. Or house. Or...

Back in August of 2024 I hit some roadworks in my '64 Pontiac (CLICK HERE to watch the full 30min video on its back story) and it smashed the transmission pan on the Hughes Performance-built 4L80E four-speed auto. I got the car to Laurence at Brintech Customs so we could pull the trans pan and see if it could be fixed - being cast alloy this is a difficult repair, as you'll see below.  Cast aluminium alloys are tricky to weld because they're nice and light thanks (in part) to their loose metal density. That refers to how the particles...