The Mazda RX‑7 Elford Turbo is a rare, forced‑induction rotary hero

Kiwi owner Tim Bassett came upon the model in 2011, after a childhood misspent ogling rotary-engined machines. When the mechanical engineer moved to the UK, he was astounded at just how cheap they were and knew he had to have one. Even better, he managed to find a 100,000-mile Elford Turbo – a Bournemouth engineering firm’s take on the iconic Japanese coupe – for just £2,200. Today it has covered 112,000-miles but is still valued at three times that.

Bassett reckons that the price was low because no one really knew what they were.

“They’re just not well loved I think,” he said. “I mean you get a Ford Escort or something of the same age it would be £20k. But I think people also get put off by the turbo rotary engines. There were a lot of them around but now they’re just getting rarer and rarer the value is going up, which is cool. 

“It’s quite unique because it’s an Elford Turbo model. Elford started making turbocharged variants in ‘79, taking off the standard carburettor and put a suck through SU carb on it, so it went from 115 horsepower to 165. In total, they converted 540 cars, with the turbocharger kit, the front wing, side skirts and the spoiler.”

Continuing, he added: “When I bought it, it was basically in this condition. I’ve done some engine work and some work underneath, but not changed too much.

“I had to replace the engine, because on the rotary engine, you’ve got a spinning triangle and one of the side seals failed. So I got a replacement engine and I had to strip it all back and put all the turbo gear on that and drop it back in.

“I’ve put a limited slip-diff in it – it was just an open diff before – but it came out of another RX-7, and I’ve put those mirrors on it which are from the Australian and New Zealand models.”

With such a unique engine, I wondered what it was like to drive?

“It’s pretty good. I mean it’s not got independent rear suspension, so it’s quite a handful. It feels quite fast, even though by modern standards it’s not that fast. I think it will do about 135mph but it just goes to redline in top gear, because they put quite a bit more power in it than it originally had and didn’t change the gearbox or the diff, so it’s quite low ratio.

“But it does drive really nicely – it has no power steering, no ABS, just a cable from the throttle to the carb so it’s all quite analogue. It’s got very good weight balance as well because the engine’s quite low and back, it’s about 50/50 front/rear weight so it handles quite well.

“But it’s pretty comfortable. We took it down to the Classic Le Mans last year which was really good fun.”

Pausing, he adds: “In fact, I’ve done a few events in it – Firle Hill Climb Revival, near Lewes, which is quite a short hillclimb, only about 40 seconds, but they have all sorts of ranges of classic cars competing.

“I’d love to go to the Spa Classic in a couple of years I think – that’s probably the next one I want to do. And I might try to find a few other events like the Hillclimb this year – not hardcore competitions but maybe the speed trials on Brighton seafront."