(Pictures and Story by Dave Gibson of FC3S.org)

After being into rotary cars for the past 8 years, we have most likely been to some of the largest rotary events in the world. We attend Sevenstock, Rotary Revolution, club drives with dozens of rotary cars, and countless trips to the local tracks. We have been exposed to things like Mazda�s 787B Le Mans car, Racing Beats land speed record cars, and countless race and show cars. But on the 27th and 28th of March 2004, we were exposed to a whole new breed of rotaries.

We arrived in Australia early in the morning on March 20th for a Microtech Factory Training Seminar. We spent the day in Sydney adjusting to the 18 hour and one full day time difference, and still aching after our 15 hour flight from LAX. March 21st rejoined us with Co-Director Jon Blanch of Microtech. After a trip to the Microtech factory to see the build process and check on some units, we headed an hour or so out of Sydney to Newcastle where Jon�s shop, RX Engineering, is located. We got the tour, checked out some really sweet rotaries, worked on some shop cars and headed to our hotel at about 11pm. March 22nd-26th rendered pretty much the same thing. We got to tune a handful of high horsepower 13BT�s, 13B-RE�s and a PP 13B. Along with the tuning, we got some in-depth software control, handheld controller function and DASH unit training. After changing trannies, rebuilding a motor, and installing a PP 13B, tranny, and LTX-8 into a 75 Corolla it was time to head back to Sydney to get ready for the Jamboree. RX Engineering had a good number of cars there for the event, so most of the drivers towed their cars there Friday to be ready for the next day. Once in Sydney, we checked into our 5 star hotel, the Crown Plaza, and everyone met up at Ed�s restaurant less than a block from the hotel. Ed is the owner of an R100, with a 12A turbo�d that is currently the fastest 12A down under. It is also one of the cleanest cars we had ever seen. He makes the commute all the way to Newcastle just to have the knowledge of Jon poured into his car. We all had a great time over drinks, wood fire pizza, and an abundance of great car talk. That is where we also met Dale (10secRX7 from the big forum), who is another great guy with a lot of knowledge, especially with the Microtech units. At about 2am or so, we decided to hit the sack for the day ahead.

7:30am came quickly as Jon�s wife Miranda called our room. We headed to the track to meet up with all the drivers from Jon�s shop, and establish our pit area. As soon as we climbed out of the rental van, we were amazed at what our eyes were seeing. Rotaries everywhere! Rotaries in Datsuns. Rotaries in Toyota�s, and more Mazda�s than you could shake a stick at! They were everywhere. Every make model size and color. 13B, 13BT, 13B-RE, 13B-REW, 20B. Name it and it was there! Street cars, drag cars, show cars. It was rotary heaven! They should have renamed it to the Fast Rotaries and Fours Jamboree! The drivers checked into their meeting, tech�d their cars, suited up and got ready for the qualifying rounds.

Up first was the street car class. They were mostly full interior cars, which were mostly driven to the event. One of which was owned by Steve. His S5 TII was one of the cleanest I have ever seen. It was interesting to see how the RHD models were different than our USDM counterparts. With full interior, rear seats, a FMIC, Microtech and a stock 119,000 kilometer engine he was able to run a best of 11.8 seconds! Not too shabby for a close to stock FC! Another vehicle of mention was a Toyota Hiace (mini-van) with a 13BT in it! We actually got the privilege of driving this killer creation around the block at Jon�s shop, and man is that one van that moves! It managed a 14.8 for the weekend without even taking out the mattress in the back! (we didn�t ask what it was there for!) Another very nicely put together car was owned by Gary. It was a 1st gen RX-7 with a 13B-RE installed and tuned by Jon as well. It ran very nice times, and was forced all day not to break into the 9�s since he didn�t have a roll cage in it. He was easily doing wheel stands at the tree, and could have ran into the 9�s with ease we think. Gary ended up taking home 1st place in his class for the weekend without even using the full potential of his monster creation!

When it comes to old school rotaries, RX Engineering knows their stuff. With a few other very nice RX-3�s they were one of the top tuners at the event hands down. Pat, with his dark blue/purple RX-3 with license plate �CRITTA� was hands down one of the crowd favorites. It not only sounded great from the corporate box, but it was insane off the line! With a weekend best of 10.02 it was a really quick ride!

Then it came down to the man himself, Jon Blanch. His red 13B-RE powered RX-3 was insane all weekend. With some initial shake down runs in the low 10�s, he knew it was time to the 9�s. Along with Justin, his main mechanic at RX Engineering, they were able to extract almost another second off of his times just by working on the suspension setup, mainly the wheelie bar! Jon ended up grabbing a 9.323 @ 144.98mph! Not bad for a car that has A LOT of potential left in her. Look out for him if you are running street mod class in Aussie!

Other cars of mention were Abel Ibarra�s old FD tube chassis car now owned by Smokin� Joe Signarella, a couple very nice FD tune cars (one blue and one black) and another dozen old school Mazda�s Toyota�s and Datsun�s, most of which were powered by a rotary of some capacity. There was an old Datsun pickup with a 13B in it that ran 9�s. A Corolla that ran 10�s, and a bunch more R100�s, RX-2�s, and RX-3�s. A lot of other vehicles that we don�t see in the states like Nissan Skyline�s, Holden Commodore�s, turbo Lancers (AKA GSR�s) and EVO III�s. It was like automotive culture shock after being exposed to so many Hondas and Acuras over the years.

All in all, it couldn�t have been a better trip (other than that 15 hour flight back�again) We met a lot of great new people from places like TurboSmart and NGK, got to talk to countless shop personal and owners, and met a lot of new friends over at RX Engineering. We will definitely be back soon to experience another Jamboree!

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