Danny’s Immaculate Nut & Bolt Restoration
13B Cosmo by JBR Racing, mild ported, T51R turbocharger
Al’s Race Glides-built C4 automatic
BC Racing coil-overs, Caltrac traction bars
9" diff with TruTrac centre, billet axles
Wilwood disc brakes
Simmons FR 18in
Following along from the 1967 L10A Cosmo, 1968’s Familia Rotary/R100, and the 1970 Capella Rotary/RX-2, Mazda introduced a new model called the Grand Familia in 1971. Originally intended to take over the Familia’s battle with Toyota’s evergreen Corolla, Nissan’s Sunny, and Mitsubishi’s Colt, the OPEC Oil Crisis of the early 70s saw Familia sales soar, and the larger Grand Familia become a new, up-spec model in its own right.
As with most Mazda products of this time a rotary-powered variant was offered as the Savanna (in Japan) or the RX-3 in export markets. Offered with either a 10A or 12A Wankel rotary engines, depending on the market it was sold in, the Savanna/RX-3 was available as a coupe, sedan, or station wagon, and it quickly became a hit.
Sydney’s Danny grew up immersed in Mazda rotary culture as his brothers owned them. “There’s something about them,” he says. “They’re a pain to own, but they get the heart racing.”
While they’ve become infamously capable monsters on the drag strip, Danny built his RX-3 from a bare shell over seven years to be a tidy street car he could take his kids out in. And it all started with a spontaneous purchase while he was on holidays overseas.
“One popped up for sale but I couldn’t get there to look at it because I was in America, so I spontaneously bought it over the phone and that was probably a mistake,” Danny laughs.
When he got home and looked at the rolling shell he’d bought he wasn’t happy with it, so he stripped it bare and started from scratch. What was originally intended to be a quick build of a neat street car soon rolled into the nut-and-bolt, bare metal build you see here.
While quick for their time, an original RX-3 wouldn’t hold a candle to Danny’s beast which now makes 430hp at the wheels on a safe street tune, and could easily go over 500rwhp if Danny wanted to push it. This is because he swapped the factory 10A for an EFI 13B built by JBR Racing, with a giant T51R turbocharger.
This is paired with a Ford C4 three-speed automatic that has been fully rebuilt by Al’s Race Glides to handle the huge horsepower the 13B can produce. Down the back a Ford nine-inch diff has been equipped with a TruTrac limited-slip centre, while billet axles resist the twist.
Polished Simmons FR wheels lend a classic rotary look, with hydro-dipped centres to look like carbon-fibre. Behind them are Wilwood disc brakes at each corner, while BC Racing coil-over struts improve the front-end handling, and reset leaf springs and Caltrac traction bars stick the rear-end to the road.
Inside the small sedan appears almost like a timewarp back to ’77, save for the Hurst shifter and the Microtech digital dash signaling this isn’t your standard Mazda. Amazingly Danny got the sedan with no trim in it, so he sourced all the interior parts from passionate rotor-heads, and then had Planet Trim in Casula retrim it all to look better than what you would have driven out of the Mazda dealer in the ‘70s.
“I love it and it is 100 percent worth it, coming home and lifting the garage door to see it there makes me so happy”
This build isn’t just a story – it’s part of our national brand campaign celebrating the people, cars, and culture that define what it means to be an Enthusiast
