1973 Mazda RX3 Restomod - Jay Leno's Garage

well another episode of Jay Leno's Garage today's car does not belong to me I saw this car I went to the Petersen Car Museum and this was in the parking lot you know what every now and then you see a car it just seems to sit right or look right it just looks like it was professionally done so I waited around for the owner and luckily he didn't try to steal the car because the owner is a martial arts instructor and a fighter so I'm glad I didn't try to swipe it let's meet savant young so I'm come on in my friend well you know how impressed I was when I first saw this car the color the stance because this is not a car that would normally catch my eye but just it just seems to sit right and look right and did you do all the work yourself I did some of the work but I had most of the you know the things that were out of my wheelhouse done professionally okay by a couple friends am i okay so it's a 1973 mazda rx-3 correct correct so it has the what's it's a dual rotor right two rotor dual rotor the motors out of a 2nd gen rx-7 ok oh ok so it's nothing original motor not the original motor but the original motor was a 2 rotor it was yes but this is out of the rx-7 the sports car right that was there a high performance model for what the mid 90s I guess say 87 to 90 oh yeah very cool ok so now why this car were you always a rotary guy you just like to think differently what was it it was a couple things actually I had uncles you know growing up they used to race these down in the street races ok Alton you know Compton and Ron Deena and as a kid growing up I just noticed this was the car that always sounded different this was the car that a lot of guys were a little bit leery of lining up against so I kind of had this district traction to it since it was a small car that went up against most of the v8 and you know the big car well it was funny because I never really I mean I have the mazda cosmo which was a japanese sports car version i thought of it as a quick car and a smooth I have to admit I never thought of it as a fast car as in drag racing because they don't have a lot of torque you have to rev the heck out of them to get them off the line right what do you drop the clutch at what six grand roughly ya bout six grand okay yeah six grand alright so now what has been done to the motor in terms of hopping up a rotary well we bridgeport it the motor so it uh you know definitely has a more erratic idle topping speed is a top-end power is really really good now what kind of power you think again about four hundred yes fifteen pounds of boost right okay methanol you know methanol injected the water inject you know yeah yeah so it goes it's definitely uh it's it's similar to like a bike I feel this is my version of a motorcycles yeah you're married right with kids I am so you can't have them oh sorry can't have the bike so we'll get the car equivalent exactly okay absol all right so why this particular body style as opposed to like rx-7 why not the sports car you do you like this did you like the sedan the little slow you know the rx-7 was kind of you know Miami vices to me you know I didn't really like that yeah I'm just into the seventies Japanese automobiles I got kids you can carry kids in the back yeah I mean if they could deal with the gas fumes I'd take them but this is uh this is a one driver car this is a rough version of a Mad Max car okay and how long have you had it a long time about 15 years okay so I'm assuming and I'm just saying you guess this is something you did step by step like a lot of guys now will buy a car strip it down through the whole thing did you drive it stock for a while then came the engine then came the the color change and then because I love the color which I love the fact the absence of chrome with the black I think that really looks good makes it you know it does and it makes it look modern like this doesn't look like a 40 year old car no no it uh yeah it's been through a couple phases I've drove it a while when it was beat-up not fixed at one time we slap a turbo on it and caught on fire once yeah I brought it back from the depths of that and you know here it is now and and so far so good it's paints off for Lamborghini actually yeah yeah Doug the color now does the wife get it or just one of those things you have to quiet some of the stuff is off off the record yeah of course I don't man she knows about the BBS wheels those just showed up one day right yeah of course turbo and I barely know you yeah I know how guys think you do that one day what uh how much of wheels you don't you know you just put the wheels on well let's just say I have a separate bank account oh okay I have my own Baker cows it's a car okay but see it's still cheaper than girlfriends or anything another nonsense probably that's what I'm saying yeah that's one when a guy comes home reeking of transmission fluid or oil at least you know where he's been exactly exactly exactly exactly okay very cool so tell us some more about the car there how about the transmission stock transmission yeah the turbo - okay actually from the from the second gen rx-7 so all the drivetrain is from the rx-7 except the rear in the rear end came out of a heel exactly Toyota Hilux a half-ton pickup truck just to you know kind of put the power down to the ground can you open the hood for such a rush or nicely polished aluminum look at that very cool right nice clean installation well this engine wasn't much bigger physically than the stock motor was it no it was about the same the stock was 11.2 right if you wanted to you know look at it - just displacement wise the 13b is a 1.3 liter which just poured it now you know it didn't come fuel-injected it was carbureted car first came okay so it runs a lot better now I think it's a modernized version of the old car and how often how long do your seals last because I know on most mostess if you keep it under five grand the seals will last a hundred thousand miles but you don't look like a under five grand guy not at all no well you know what is more or less of matter of lubricating housings you have to premix these you mix you know premix along with the gas oh you do almost like a - exactly just like a two-stroke they used to Martha came out with a system where they had a oil metering valve right that kind of you know spit a little bit of oil into it so we delete that because it didn't really lubricate the housings well and we add remix to the fuel oh I said okay yeah so you use like what just like a standard two-stroke the red stuff yeah we use gosh I forgot a good line makes it yeah red line makes me yeah yeah yeah I use Bill Bell reaction oh okay this one yeah well that's that's interesting okay I didn't know that because I might rotor wealth mine just stock so it mines a 12a we put that in my in my Cosmo and I don't have to do that alright very nice does it smoke much don't startups like yes how that gets warm and then once it's warmed up it's ready to go Wow okay very cool yeah and what kind of gas mileage you get 400 horsepower from her rotaries I've never known for their games we're probably wasting gas as we're talking I mean what are you getting like 12 yeah I probably say that waving yeah yeah maybe 12 but it's fat you get there quickly you covered that 12 miles a lot quick oh yeah oh yeah that's you yeah how about brakes what have you done there we got aerospace component aftermarket kit in the front there 14-inch brakes in the front disc disc brake yeah just so it's not bad no have disc in the rear okay yeah disc all-around aftermarket disco use the monster uh no we used an aftermarket different we use a stock one in the back okay yeah well you know what's fascinating like you how old are you 39 39 okay you're that much younger than me see I missed I grew up during the hot rod era of American cars in the 60s and early 70s for your era probably the 80s is when you were driving right suddenly Japanese cars were everywhere yeah it was a new thing when I was a kid so nobody could afford a new one so it's fun to see the hot rodding thing move over to the Japanese tuner segment because it's a whole bunch of guys I remember I watching one of the early Fast and Furious movies where Vin Diesel's got a Hemi he's racing that's a little Honda for some like all right how's that even a rate and then my Honda oh that's right yeah they make a grenade these yeah make like 800 nitrous yes and everything else yeah yeah what is this car weighed you know uh about 2,000 maybe 2,100 what do you like yeah yeah so you must surprise a lot of people I mean oh yeah most definitely yeah it's pretty scary the cops you coming in at times you know I get a thumbs up or they try to buy it oh yeah oh yeah I've got pulled over and they try to buy it a couple times oh that's all right yeah well you know it really is striking and I like once again let's show the grill look at the front the way the Chrome's been blacked out it's all nicely done I imagine this was done pretty much on a budget right yeah all right so I mean that's been good you got three kids and you teach exactly so obviously the fact that it looks way above the pay scale hey I'll take it no it does what I mean that in a company way because this is what I like I like guys who use their ingenuity and use what they have cuz anybody can write a checkbook get something done I mean I've done it myself you know and that's easier so when I saw this sit and I said the owner did something here that I like it's it's right now is this it's the Flair standard that is standard oh it is okay a little bit okay all right so you did modify them a little slightly okay yeah but that is the it's the standard with them sit out and you know you just don't see this body style anymore every one of these rotted out oh yeah went returned to the earth yeah do you remember the Mazda commercial there's a couple of piston engine goes to come yeah of course I'm thinking the guys that designed the new Hellcat must have seen your car because they've taken an idea from it you've pulled out one headlight and turned it into an air intake yes okay nicely done look at that we figure this the coldest source of air you gonna get you know what's funny when I built my galaxy I just had a regular air filter on it and on a hot day it was just choking down the road I couldn't figure out because it's just taking someone's engine heat right so that's what we had to do we had to reroute it to the front of the car I'd never had that problem before so it's interesting so it's I like the way you did that and you can hardly tell us see well I guess you can tell definitely get away from the ambient heat inside the mode yeah definitely look at that so you just have what a high beam here right yep okay but this you know I drive this car this is the perfect where the car and never driven in the rain so yeah yeah yeah let's take a first opinion to keep hey I think this is gonna be fine yeah yeah take it for granted I'm sorry sir yeah I thought we were gonna you know yeah see that nice yeah [Music] got a little bite oh yeah yeah it's like you know what happened how tall is it God I think I can take oh yeah see that you're marginalized there you go get the car uh-huh got the sleeper body with the sleeper car you always been into the martial arts things the taste for actually since I was 10 you know I did karate and stuff growing up as a kid and I found this to be something that I can do for a living yeah make some money and you know yeah yeah it's great yes they started opening your own gym the whole deal yeah got the gym fight academy in Pasadena we going on seven years now wow that's great I got about 200 students I teach yeah that's great kids adults cops doctors everyone gives and dogs how do you teach dogs how does that work adults adults kids dogs no no no yeah that's Michael Vick that's not me [Music] well the mid-range really comes on it really does where my looking tech doesn't work oh yeah right here all right Noatak yeah no the hotel okay no Mazdas you got a endless endless rev limiter yeah oh yeah all right yeah I never I gotta admit that mind I never go much over 7 grand said this one uh the Rev cut is that thing at 9,000 Wow ok yeah yeah I don't ever get there really though cuz yeah you know car starts to feel like it's falling apart yeah but doesn't mean it's a mad car it's like a little mad pit bull you know I know it's alright and you know doing the blackout chrome really makes it kind of modern oh yeah yeah it gives it a good uh good aggressive pitch how many engine you've been through believe it or not this is only my second okay yeah this is only my second yeah buddy of mine over at a jrx rotary built this one it is it feels pretty solid and rotary guys are a whole different breed they really are I mean it's got nothing to do with yeah yeah no combustion mechanic yeah it's kind of like you're going to the couch you know but the beauty of this is when I come out here I know I'm not gonna see another one of these there's no you only one I need to be the fastest yeah yeah you know this is the one for today I've installed it yet you're doing great you doing great still drive like an old car it is an old car well all old cars drive like all car yeah they do there's a couple things I still need to do to it to get it da being a little bit better in the rear I mean think of how much time from this car to now as from this car was due back right but this car is new back you 20 1910 so it and the rotary is the only true newly engine right the only true new engine yeah 20th century headers having another engine gas paraben electric everything else was invented the 1800 yeah this is the only one invented the $19 the other motor they call this one yeah and then the for sure but we should be able to eat that for lunch right yeah maybe not in the turns we get them going straight though for certain I like the air cleaner sticking out there people see it in the window and see it in a rear view like what is that behind me yeah yeah you done anything spring wise their suspension wise we did a little bit in the front I still got to do the back you know these came with a leaf springs in the back so it's not the best and I own a Datsun 510 as well that thing handles like a dream oh that's a nice guy yeah yeah this one is really good straight line more sweeping turns like this but if we get into like the tighter canyons this was not as fun [Laughter] cool well what a thrill that was now I got a bus Sivan on something now because you never build your own car you think you're the only one that could drive it huh and this clutch is tricky and when I started up I could see and we had that look on its face like he's gonna stall but I didn't stall it did I know you did no I didn't know you did not stall this car one I will be honest I thought you were he thought I was all set to bust me on it so that just goes to show but see that's what now and you know something you built yourself a lot of times really is more fun than driving some of the high-performance stuff because this car when it get man when it hooks up it feels dangerous oh yeah it's doing it I mean it's a it's a lot of fun and boy it's got a lot of power when it comes on yeah it feels good but very much so on thank you very much I appreciate ya keep us updated and we'll see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,490,901

Rating: 4.9602499 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, mazda, 1973 mazda, mazda rx3

Id: rNsjQCBPUe0

Length: 17min 59sec (1079 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 23 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/One_Wheel_Drive]

This is my favourite type of car. A restomodded early '70s Japanese sports car. I'd love to do that sort of thing to a first gen Celica or C10 Skyline.

[u/SeaManaenamah]

At first I didn't think I was going to like this, but I'm glad I stuck it out. That's a pretty cool little rotary.

[u/HRman77]

Cool review & very cool owner.

He knew how to relax & have fun with Leno

[u/snotbowst]

What a tastefully modified car.

I like that flat gloss colors are coming back a little. Chrysler sells their cars in a similar gloss grey, and while a little out of place on a 200 or 300, it's a great color overall.

[u/Troggie42]

I need an RX-3 in my life. And a REPU. I can park em next to the RX-7. It will be glorious.

[u/Hairy_Greek]

I may not know much about rotaries but damn it do I love streetports/bridgeports/Peripheral ports.