By starting photography at a very young age and being heavily involved with the show car scene, we at Balabka Design have sometimes been labeled as ‘ young hoons’ and have been accused of falling into that stereotypical group. This shoot of Tony’s original ’74 Mazda RX3 proves that candy painted cars on big chrome wheels isn’t all we have to offer. When the opportunity arose to photograph this immaculate RX3, I jumped at it and what a way to show that old school is still cool!
After 8 years of searching for a standard Mazda RX3, owner Tony finally stumbled across this stunner down in Albury. Previous owner Mat had originally found the car in pretty poor shape and restored the car to its current condition. Tony wasn’t interested in buying an RX3 packing 600HP, but a car people could look at and appreciate the originality of. In March 2008, Tony purchased the car and has no plans to sell this treasure any time soon. But this humble little Mazda RX3 comes with a twist!
12.5 @ 108MPH? Yes you read right! To match its flawless original look, this car is powered by a Maztech powered 12AT setup with a Series 4 Turbo running a Microtech LTS-8 computer. The 12.5 second pass was registered running only 10 pound boost. The rest of the driveline is near standard with the exclusion of a little bit of strengthening to the automatic gearbox.
With a wide range of Sydney based automotive photographers floating around, I was honored to shoot this immaculate RX3. As I mentioned earlier, Tony has no intentions of selling this little beauty and one day hopes to pass it on to his child. The last paragraph has been written by Tony with a list of people he would like to thank.
I would like to thank the following people, Mat Liersch, Mitch from Balabka Design for taking the photos and making the photo shoot happen, Mik Mortimer from Rotor Sport, a huge thank you to Tony Marretta from Rotor Torque (he has done amazing things with tuning and performance, thank you for your hard work), Tony George, I thank you for all you help, you have become a close friend. Mum and Dad and most of all to the most important person in my life Fiona Carantonis, thank you so much for your support and the person you are. I can’t express the words on what it means for me to be able to share something with you that I am so passionate about.
