Old school is almost always cool-at least it is when you're not the one who has to pay the petrol jockey. These days the bowsers (uh, this might be NZ-speak for gas pumps - JN) are normally frequented by the super-rich. This makes it that much more satisfying to see a guy on a budget, like New Zealander Chris Murphy, put his hand in the face of economic reason. You see, Chris exerted an insane amount of effort into making perhaps the most uneconomical of engines drink a whole lot more.
Logic dictates that if you're worried about gas mileage then you don't buy a rotary-powered vehicle, especially one with a turbocharger that could easily double as a trash masher for the many piston engines that it can obliterate. But 20 year-old Chris is not one to let a petty thing like logic jam him up. This brings us to another illogical bit about Chris' car-this stunning custom silver '73 wagon is one hundred percent street legal.
In New Zealand the modification rules are a little bit more relaxed than in almost every other developed country in the world. This relaxed attitude suits this Mazda 808 just perfectly. Bear in mind that this Mazda is an 808 if you're looking at the rear end and an RX-3 if you're facing the front. Chris grafted an RX-3 front-end conversion onto his 808 because he likes the meaner look of the 3's visage.
There's a very different approach to take when doing up an old car (as anyone who's been left sitting delirious and cross legged on a garage floor at 3 am begging the spider gears to please come back and form an orderly queue at the differential, could tell you). Finding parts can be a real challenge, especially at short notice, but fabricating custom components usually works out better than fitting factory parts around modification plans.
The detail of the craftsmanship on this wagon would lead to you to believe that this job took months of work, but in reality the build-up only took ten very frantic weeks to complete, and all on a budget that required Chris to get his hands dirty-a lot. His own commitment, a few good mates, and some tamed parts suppliers helped get the RX808 ready for its debut at Wellington's Four and Rotary Jamboree, where it began a successful show season, being awarded Best RX Conversion, Best Wagon and People's Choice at various import events.