RX-GR8

The Story

Whew, where to start? I’m a huge rotary fan, and I have a clean OEM+ FC RX-7. But my love is building cars, so I wanted to build and mod a rotary. By chance I already had two RX-8 shells that were abandoned at the family shop, then this 3rd one fell into my lap in March 2021. I found this car sitting in a field full of other old abandoned cars. The owner was willing to part with it so we dragged it home. The previous owner said it’d been parked for over 5 years after a clogged catalytic converter caused a fire and burned the transmission wiring harness. I DIY’ed a harness and started it up to discover it only ran on one rotor. After opening the engine with the intention to rebuild, the damage was so great it made more financial sense to replace the entire engine. So I did, with a used block. Once the car was running, I decided to go full send on a show car build. I’ve slowly been replacing and/or restoring every piece I can. I’ve used the two abandoned shells for whatever parts I can scavenge as well. I had to slow my roll in 2022 due to a tracheal cancer diagnosis but working on this car (when I wasn’t too sick) was the only thing keeping me sane. I had to see this car finished. The cancer is gone now, but the dream isn’t. I’m slowly getting back into the world and have started entering the car into small local shows. I hope to one day have a car I’m proud to enter into some of the bigger shows. Next plans are to refresh that used engine I put in, and finally get this car where I want it to be.