Clint and his Turbo FD3
“A designer has a duty to create timeless design. To be timeless you have to think really far into the future, not next year, not in two years but in 20 years minimum.”
- PHILIPPE STARCK
First seen in 1992, it’s now 29 years old and is timeless. The Mazda RX7 FD3 remains one of those cult cars that hold a special place in the history of motoring evolution. Despite the noise around reliability and apex seal issues, is a radical piece of technological development that changed the game as we had come to know it.
At the heart of every RX lies the Wankel rotary, an engine so advanced for its time it was banned at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991 for being too advanced for its time. The 787B remains one of the best sounding cars of all time. That type of dynasty lives on in the road variants.
Several iterations exist but none quite caused as much of a stir as the FD variant when it arrived, possibly skyrocketed to fame thanks to the Fast & Furious franchise, amassing a love affair with many. One of the many happens to be Clint Rennard, who’s no stranger to speed. Clint’s history involves thrashing one of the quickest front-wheel-drive FSI golfs around Killarney International Racetrack.
After a long history of searching for one, he eventually realised the dream of hunting down this Turbo 13B in Johannesburg and transporting it to Cape Town where it’s undergoing a slow restoration. Dream cars should never just remain that.
