1993 Mazda RX-7 - Sacrilicious
A Mazda RX-7 with all your favorite JDM parts and the soul of Toyota's venerable Supra
Death, taxes, and the agony of rotary purists: three things that can be counted on from now until the end of time—especially if you decide to build a car like Khiem Pham's '93 Mazda RX-7. At first glance, Khiem's FD might appear to be your typical well-developed, piston-free street warrior, but pop the hood and you'll be confronted by the Wankel enthusiast's natural enemy: a Toyota 2JZ-GTE.
"When I was young, maybe 15, 16 years old, I would flip back and forth about whether I wanted a Supra or an RX-7," he explains. "I had recently sold a project and was looking for my next one, and an old friend suggested I look into FDs. When I saw how much cheaper they were compared to Supras of the same vintage, I picked one up."
For Khiem, it was the beginning of a journey that would see him simultaneously realize his twin Toyota/Mazda fantasies within the same chimeric car, because almost as soon as he got the coupe home to Houston, Texas, from Colorado, the hunt was on for a Supra-sourced 2JZ to swap under the hood. Some of the groundwork had already been done, as the car featured a smaller displacement 1JZ from a previous swap, but it wouldn't last long, as Khiem executed his ultimate vision.
"Everything about the entire cooling system had to be changed, because the FD mounts wouldn't work at all. I installed a Tech2 subframe and engine mount system to snug it in," he says. "The hood, too, needed an extra 6 to 8 inches of clearance before it would close over the taller motor, which is partly why I went Tech2 in that department. I also ended up using an R154 transmission, because the Mazda unit simply wasn't strong enough to handle the torque I was planning for—an issue that's also cropped up with the stock rear end that's still in the car, and which will need replacing soon."
