Top Gear covers Rob Dahm’s otherworldly 4 rotor RX-7
The only limit is your imagination. The only limit is your ambition and commitment. Corny motivational one-liners aside, when pursuing your dreams, the only thing stopping you is your desire to make those dreams a reality.
For some, the dream is a house or a new life in a different country, but for some ambitious tenacious petrol-heads like Rob Dahm, the dream is to have a hand-built, all-wheel-drive, four-rotor Mazda RX-7.
Very few cars are as noteworthy as the absolute monster that is the four-rotor RX-7. From the notoriously impressive design of the four-rotor motor to the intricate all-wheel-drive Frankenstein drivetrain and transmission, few come close.
The standard RX-7 features a twin-rotor Wankel engine. While it is common to see multiple rotors in production cars, three rotors are usually the highest number. Four-rotor engines are absurdly complex and intricate pieces of engineering that are not created by simply fitting two twin-rotor motors together on one eccentric shaft.
Despite the intense design and manufacturing process involved in creating a working four-rotor, the rewards are more than enough to justify the cost and labour that could cost north of R500 000 if you asked a shop that specialises in building these beastly engines.
The “average” four-rotor offers power figures north of 745 kW with unbelievable amounts of torque. Wankel rotors are already very prone to screaming their lungs out, but the four-rotor engines have to take it to a whole new level boasting a 10,000 rpm limit being the standard for many four-rotors.
Four-rotors are the extreme. Everything about these engines borders on the highest setting imaginable, the cars they are placed into usually follow suit. GT cars, prototypes such as the illustrious 767 and 787 B or outrageous passion built “street” cars, the 4-rotor sitting in the upper echelons of automotive design and engineering.
Rob Dahm’s RX-7 is a special case even within the 4-rotor catalogue. From the astonishing motor to the unenclosed GTR sourced transmission that sits right next to the driver, the impressive all-wheel-drive system with specially built components all around, this RX-7 -if you can even call it that- is in a league of its own.
Top Gear has debuted a new video series with Rob Dahm at the helm. The series seeks to shine a light on the amazing cars across America that are the true embodiment of the words “special” and “unique” The first video has already aired with Dahm’s RX-7 being the first car in the TopGear spotlight.
Watch the full video on YouTube.
