‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett takes RX-7 back to the old school

IT'S sometimes held to be the most beautiful Japanese car of the modern era, but Kiwi drifter ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett has decided that the FD RX-7 lacked a little something. And that little something was the front end of an RX-3.

It sounds like a mash-up that should never work, but we have to admit that ‘Madbul Gen 7.3’ looks the absolute business. The creation is the work of legendary stylist Kei Miura, and while the RX-7 chassis remains in place, the front end gets a 12A Savanna RX-3 grille, and spotters might well notice that there’s the big 10A RX-3 grille badge.

The heavily-dished Rotiform LHR wheels are pure Tatsumi car meet, and the car even sports its original JDM licence plate. The Rocket Bunny body kit gives the car the macho stance to complement the bluff front end, hiding the FD’s more feminine curves while the hockey stick door mirrors complete the retro look.

The engine is largely unchanged, and followers of Whiddett won’t need reminding that it’s a peripheral-ported 26b quad-rotor good for 400kW at the wheels and marshalled by an all-Haltech engine management system. For a car that’s seen more of its share of tyre walls and jigs, it looks fantastic, as indeed it should with Red Bull’s beefy budget behind it.