Mazda RX-7 News

Now reality television will enter the world of car lovers, with a new series that goes in search of Australia's best car and driver. Blood, Sweat & Gears is a new show which will debut on FOX8 next month, with seven finalists competing for the title of the best driver and the best car, not to mention the bragging rights that come with it. Advanced driver training instructor Ian Luff is a judge on the reality show, which he describes as a motoring version of Survivor, even featuring a car council and a whole series of challenges. “It's a show about people and their cars in a competitive environment where everyone wants to win, but naturally, there's only going to be one winner,” Luff says. The seven finalists, who come from all over Australia, previously had their cars featured in car magazines and were selected by people in the industry to take part in the series. And there is a diverse range of machinery on show, from Japanese imports, a Nissan 200SX and a 800hp Mazda RX7, to classic American and Australian muscle cars, such as a 540-cubic-inch Chevy Corvette, an original VL Brock Commodore, an LJ Torana and a classic Ford GT. And you can't have a competition about the best and fastest cars without a Ferrari. “The cars were supposed to be the stars, but you have to remember people drive cars, they own these cars, the people and personalities tend to overshadow the cars,” Luff says. “These cars are their passion, they built them, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on them and you're dealing with male egos here.” And it seems putting seven rev-heads together with their prized possessions is a recipe for disaster generating some fairly heated moments making for, of course, some great TV. “It was all about egos, big boys and big toys,” Luff says of the contestants, who were put through a series of tests, from navigating their own powerful cars through slalom courses, accelerating and suddenly braking on skid pans, to testing the engine on a dyno or on the quarter mile at an air strip. On one challenge, Luff jumped into a Hyundai i30 and set a time he expected the seven competitors to beat. Not surprisingly, Luff says most were a little too confident and eager. Six of the seven drivers spun out. Ferrari owner Mohamed Ibrahim, in particular, was not happy as his “very powerful” car began to lose control around the bend, and went into safety mode, turning itself off. The Mazda RX7, a car Luff calls a “stealth bomber” was the only car to make it through successfully, beating Luff's time by two-tenths of a second. “When you see enthusiasm exceed ability it's just the most amazing thing, where testosterone and ability don't work together,” he laughs. And it wasn't just the car against car, with all seven drivers having a turn in the i30 for one challenge, to see who could do the best. It then came time to jump into an old Ford Fairlane, which lacks the benefit of modern technology. Ibrahim says although car fanatics can get competitive both behind the wheel and when talking of their cars, the program was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “It was excellent, the best week of my life,” he says. “We were working with a team we never met before and at the end of the series you miss them. Straight away we became like best friends in a matter of a couple of days.” Having rebuilt more than 500 cars in the past six years at his smash-repair business in Condell Park, Ibrahim has the credentials. In four days, he got his 2003 350 Modena ready for the show. Having spent $350,000 on the car, including enhancements such as 22-inch wheels, a twin turbo, a paint job and red leather interior, Ibrahim was ready to show Australia he and his 5.6-litre V8 car really are the best in the country. “I know pretty much everything to do with cars,” Ibrahim says. “My one is definitely the best, there were a lot of old cars but I like the later models.” Ibrahim says he loved taking part, but didn't learn anything new from Luff. “I reckon I could give him a lesson,” he jokes.  

AS ONE-FIFTH of the upbeat phenomenon Hi-5, Nathan Foley is known around the world. He has sung and danced his way to worldwide acclaim with the multiple Logie and ARIA Award-winning group and children's show. The 28-year-old has been part of the successful Nine Network show, which is aired in 83 countries worldwide, for eight years. And, along with the other four members of Hi-5, he has become a cult star for under-10s. Foley, who has recently written and produced his solo album, Discovery, loves V8 engines, riding motorcycles and karting.What was your first car?I bought a 1983 Mazda RX-7 when I was 16. I started performing when I was 10, so I saved to buy a car when I got my Ls. I bought it secondhand and I still have it. It's bronze-over-brown - sounds disgusting, but it's really funky. I'm trying to sell it.What do you drive now?My main car is a 2003 Ford Explorer. I also have a 2003 Triumph motorcycle, and I've just sold a 1969 Mach 1 Mustang. In 1998 I won a Proton Satria in a singing competition and traded it in for the Mustang. I sold it because I want to renovate my house.Do you have a favourite drive, and who would you take along?I love driving down the south coast of NSW to Coolangatta with my girlfriend Melissa (not Coolangatta in Queensland). It's about a two-hour drive from Sydney.How far would you drive in an average year?Oh boy. We tour a lot and I drive both and in New Zealand. I live on the NSW central coast so I do a lot of driving back and forth to Sydney. I'd average three to four hours a day. What's that over a year? A lot of kilometres.Do you have a favourite motoring memory?I used to visit my dad on weekends at his farm in the central coast area. He bought me a $200 paddock-basher - I think it was a Corona. It was a five-speed manual, so I learned to drive a manual at a young age. I was 10 years old and had my own Dukes of Hazzard course. My mates would come over and we'd go around the paddock-bashing course.What would you buy if money were no object?I'm not a huge fan of new cars - they all look the same to me. But if I had millions of dollars to spend I would buy 50 to 100 classic cars. Get all the muscle cars from the late 1960s and early '70s.What music is playing in your car?I'm a huge Stevie Wonder fan but at the moment I'm really getting into Ben Harper -- Both Sides of the Gun. I always travel with my iPod. I have this huge transmitter that's really strong, so if I'm travelling in convoy with friends in three cars they can all pick up the frequency.How much is too much for a new car?I think car prices are going up ridiculously, especially if it's just to get you from A to B. The only way I would buy an expensive car is if it would hold its value like an investment. That's why I got the Mustang. If you spend $80,000 to $100,000 on a new car - which I haven't, that's way too much money -- in a few years they're down to $40,000. I think $450,000 is too much to pay for a car. If big businessmen have the cash to do it, then do it, but I think it's ridiculous.What should be done to make driving safer?People need to be more aware on the road. I find when I'm on my bike, people just don't look where they're driving. They don't indicate. I think everyone should do a road-rules test and be taken on a course once a year. If they're not up to scratch they should lose their licence. I really believe that. My pet peeve is people going slow in the right-hand lane on the freeway. It bugs the crap out of me.Are you sponsored by a car company?No, but I'm looking.

The re-birth of one of Mazda's popular sports cars, the legendary RX-7, might be just over the horizon. There has been speculation about the revival of the rear-wheel-drive, rotary coupe that ended li

The Mazda3 MPS Extreme was only intended as a Motor Show tease but the reaction by visitors at the 2007Australian International Motor Show prompted a re-think.There are people with cash and commitment who can see a future for an MPS, which has been tweaked to 210kW and 425Nm with matching upgrades to the body and suspension.“If we get a flood of people with cheques asking us to build it we'd have to consider it,” says Mazda Australia marketing chief Alastair Doak.“We've had a lot of interest in it. But there is absolutely no plan to build the car; at the moment. Still, it is food for thought for people looking to buy a car or already have a Mazda3 MPS.”The man behind the Extreme machine is Allan Horsley, who led Mazda to a string of 12-hour race wins; with specially tweaked RX-7s and has also done Extreme upgrades on a Mazda2 and the RX-8 sports car.He also produced limited-edition RX-7 and MX-5 SP (special performance) cars for Mazda Australia, which were a sell-out showroom success. They also prove there could be a future for the MPS Extreme.“We just like doing it. We have a bunch of guys here who just love doing this stuff,” Doak says. “We get a big thrill out of doing it.”The details of the Mazda3 Extreme are relatively simple, but the key is the tweaking of the car's Powertrain Control Module to lift the output from its 2.3-litre turbo engine.There is also a larger-diameter exhaust system with a sports muffler.The car rolls on upgraded 19-inch BBS Motorsport wheels with suspension, lowered by 25mm, redesigned by motorsport tuner Murray Coote. On the visual front, the Extreme car has picked up black racing stripes, a rear spoiler and extended black wheel arches, with red-stitched, black-leather trim in the cabin and a Momo steering wheel.“It just shows how great a Mazda3 MPS can look, with some paint and stripes and stuff. It has other mechanical things going on underneath,” Doak says.While the Mazda3 Extreme is a work in progress, the earlier RX-8 Extreme is still a one-off. It proved too difficult to make in production, even though Mazda is still looking for a workable way to turbocharge the rotary in the RX-8, and too outrageous for racing.“That proved a very challenging installation with the amount of room around the engine,” Doak says. “Yes, we could have raced the car. But to do the durability and things to the corporate level, to hand the keys to a customer for 10 years, is a much bigger and more complex process.”