This is a story about a puzzle, a puzzle that has been more than 60 years in the making.

In 1962 The Ventures released a single featuring the first use of a fuzz pedal on electric guitar. The Ventures had a smash hit with “Walk, Don’t Run” two years earlier and they were looking to create a new sound with the latest in audio technology. The song was called “2000 Pound Bee,” and in 1962 that is exactly what it sounded like. The song was NOT a hit.

Cynthia Starr – Jose Torres Rotary-powered 1981 Toyota Starlet

Five years later, Mazda introduced the 1967 Cosmo 110S, the first car on the market with a Wankel rotary engine. Within 20 years these powerplants would prove themselves on the nation’s drag strips. They were light, powerful, and held together under a tremendous amount of abuse. Race cars with the rotary engine were really quick and fun to watch, but the sound they made reminded me of a pissed-off version of that old Ventures tune. The rotary engine suffered from some bad press and it never really became a popular choice with the car-buying public.

In 1975, Jose Torres was born on the island of Puerto Rico. His parents brought him to live in Lowell, MA at a young age. His dad taught him to use a welding machine and his uncle taught him how to design and build tube frames for race cars. Both men also instilled a love of drag racing into Jose at an early age.

The final piece of the puzzle came about in 1981 when Toyota Motor Corporation began importing a small three-door hatchback called the Starlet. The Starlet had the aerodynamics of a brick, and small Japanese cars still didn’t attract many buyers. Sales of the car were sluggish in the U.S. and the Starlet was only sold in the States until 1984.

Toyota only sold the Starlet in the U.S. for about fours years.

Neither the song, the engine, nor the car were very successful. The only part of this puzzle that has enjoyed any real success is Jose Torres himself. He and a group of friends formed a small company that supplies one important piece of the technology that supports the multi-step process of creating silicon chips for high-end computer CPUs. That success has given Jose the freedom to pursue his love of drag racing. He gets to spend his spare time doing what he loves: welding tube chassis’ and building race cars that have proven to be highly competitive in the import drag racing scene.

Putting The Pieces Together

Jose’s latest entry into the fray is a bright red 1981 Toyota Starlet three-door with a Mazda Rotary 13B engine for motivation. Like Jose, the car originally came from Puerto Rico, where it was pretty well known. Jose purchased the car more than a dozen years ago and had it shipped to his home in Lowell. When it arrived he quickly realized that the car would need a lot of work to get it into shape. It had competed heavily in Puerto Rico and needed almost a full rebuild to make it safe and competitive.

Jose spent a number of years reconstructing and redesigning the Starlet. He reports that he replaced three-quarters of the chassis as well as rebuilding or replacing nearly every mechanical system in the car.

The heart of the bright red beast is a Mazda Rotary 13B engine. The weak spot of the Mazda engine has always been the front and center plates. The factory cast-iron plates just didn’t last very long when you tried to make more than 1,000 horsepower with a rotary powerplant. In recent years a few aftermarket suppliers have started to produce billet plates to improve longevity, and Jose chose the Billet Boss plates out of Australia for his build. Billet Boss uses a steel insert which allows for better internal cooling and lower repair cost if the rotor hits the plate.

80 cubic inches of turbocharged rotary power adds up to an incredible 1100 hp under the hood.

Juan Ortega of Junior Performance Philadelphia, PA built the engine and Wilbert Performance of Puerto Rico helped set up the tune. A Pro-Jay 4 Injector 4 Barrel Bully 1360+ CFM throttle body is mounted to a Pro-Jay intake manifold. A mechanical fuel pump from Ron’s Fuel Injection Systems feeds the 2200cc injectors. The mass air meter is from Ford and it is all controlled by a MicroTech LT-16 fuel management system.

Garrett Motion supplied the 91mm turbocharger, running at 45 psi of boost, controlled by a TiAL Sport blow-off valve. A Precision Turbo wastegate ties into a custom-built 5-inch downpipe.

Ignition spark comes from two MSD DIS-4 Plus High Output boxes and an MSD coil. The spark plug wires are also from MSD, and NGK plugs light the fire.

A Liberty five-speed transmission with McLeod clutch and flywheel passes the power to a Ford 9-inch rearend housing 5.43 gears mounted to a Strange spool spinning Moser axles.

The interior of the Starlet is all race car.

Billet Specialties wheels wear M&H 22.5×15 tires at the front and Goodyear 32×14.5×15 slicks at the rear.

Jose handled all the repairs and reconstruction on the chassis himself at his own Joselo Engineering facility. Suspension duties are handled by Strange shocks, struts, and springs. Strange also supplied the brakes.

We asked Jose what shape the body was in when he got the car from Puerto Rico twelve years ago, and he replied with just one word, “Bad.” After doing all the work to make the car run fast and straight, he sent it to Custom Coach Works of Springfield, MA to get the bodywork cleaned up and the flame red paint applied.

When it came time to give the car a name, Jose decided to name it after his daughter, Cynthia Starr.

The Finished Puzzle

All that high-performance hardware helps the relatively small 80 cid two-rotor motor punch out around 1,100 horses. And since the car only weighs about 2,100-lbs, with driver, Jose expects to see sub-6-second times at more than 200 MPH without any trouble. When you realize that the car rides on a little more than a 90-inch wheelbase, that actually sounds more than a little scary.

From the front, the Cynthia Starr looks like a docile little commuter car.

The car recently made its debut at the Haltech World Cup Finals at Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, MD. Jose enlisted the help of his good friend Camilo BadBunny Velez to run the Starlet through its paces. On its first pass, the Cynthia Starr turned in a 7.11 ET at more than 189 mph. Camilo was only supposed to make a half-pass, but the car was running strong and straight so he kept his foot in it all the way through the back door. That run was good enough to get them qualified 18th in the 32 car field of the Warriors vs Tres Cuarto class. Not bad for the first time out.

From the back, the Cynthia Starr shows its true colors. Race slicks, a serious wheelie bar, and twin chutes that are required on a car capable of running more than 200 MPH.

Since the car has only been raced one time, there isn’t a lot of video out there, but what is available is impressive. Watching this little red rocket run reminds this old geezer of seeing fuel altereds back in the day. The front wheels lift off the ground at launch and they stay airborne for most of the 1,320-feet. It warms the heart of this old drag fan.

On its first full pass, the Starlet ran 189 MPH in 7.11 seconds. Those M&H front tires never touched the ground again until the finish line.

Jose Torres has succeeded in putting together a puzzle from a pile of unwanted stuff and he has created a thing of beauty that is sure to attract a lot of attention.

So you will excuse me while I go and pull out my old Ventures vinyl 45 RPM records and run that YouTube video on a loop with “2000 Pound Bee” playing in the background and turned up high.