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When it comes to racing of any form, Mazda’s go-to engine has been the “Wankel engine” more commonly known as the rotor design. From the 24 hours of Lemans, IMSA Grand Touring and even drag racing – the 2, 3 and 4 rotor design has proved to be more than capable against larger and more common designs of engines. For the Pac Performance Mazda 6, a triple rotor 20B engine with a large single Garrett [2] turbo, running on methanol was the lethal weapon of choice.
Checkout Pac Performance’s website [3], to read more about what goes into the world’s fastest rotary powered cars. Pac Performance also runs 2 other rotary-powered drag cars, a 7 second RX3, and an MX6 driven well into the 6.80’s by Rocky’s brother Rodney and George respectively.
We haven’t heard a lot from Pac Performance over here in the states for a big reason – they’re based out of Australia. Nevertheless, Gary White and the guys from Titan Motorsports have made frequent trips over there to have some fun with the Pac Performance crew, and even give them a few pointers. With such killer times from a rather simple combination, a lot of folks are wishing that Rocky Rehayem and the Pac crew would come over to the states and run ADRL. The guys at Pac Performance aren’t ruling out the possibility of this happening as the thought has crossed their mind, but they’re currently overhauling the car quite a bit in hopes of going a bit faster, and maybe, just maybe getting their 1/8th mile times down to where they’d need to be to be competitive in ADRL competition.
As for the record setting car, it’s actually an ex-NHRA Pro Stock car that Allen Johnson ran back in 2007 – you may note the Mazda 6 body’s close resemblance to the Dodge Stratus that Johnson wheeled back then. Weighing in just hair over 2300 pounds, Rehayem’s best run to date is a 6.752, while 6.80’s have become the norm for the car. For a little more in-depth info about what goes into their runs, along with the backbone (crew) making it all happen, checkout the videos below-