275kW rally Mazda RX-8 with 20B rotary

It doesn’t get much better than the sound of a ballistic Mazda rotary coupled with the visual treat that is a rally-ready RX-8.

New Zealand’s rally-friendly gravel roads have proven a good place to get the thing sideways too, with driver Marcus Van Klink having no qualms with flicking the tail out.

His RX-8 houses a 275kW three-rotor 20B, which is very similar to the 13G used in the Mazda 757 Le Mans beast from the mid-eighties.

That’s not a huge surprise coming from the rotary-obsessed Land of the Long White Cloud.

The aforementioned sideways flicking results, at one point, in some spectators copping a lashing of gravel, though they don’t seem to mind as that’s kinda what you get when standing a few feet from a gravel road.

As well as the RX-8, Van Kling steers an early RX-7 complete with light bar and cracking soundtrack.

A bit of digging also uncovered a better look at the car from the outside, and from every angle.

Nothing like a little bit of dust to remind everyone that they’re probably standing too close.

In an interview with A Little Bit Sideways, ‘Klinky’ gives some good advice to aspiring rally drivers in terms of the best approach to learning.

“I think a lot of people make the mistake of jumping straight into a 4wd without learning the basics first,” he says.

“They would be a much better driver in the long run if they started off in a 2wd car first. Miles, and more miles, is the key. Nothing will make you go faster than more miles.”