Flash Back: 1985'ish (seems like yesterday)



I found an ad in the local paper for a 1972 Mazda RX-2 for $150. 2 door, perfect in every way, except it had no motor.



So I bought it, towed it home and sought out a motor.



I found an orginal 12A Motor (dual distributors) for $290 and dropped it in. What a great car. Seemed quite fast, had a limited slip rear end. Bright Red with with white MAZDA ROTARY stripe painted down the side by the door.



You see the early Mazda's of this year had this little problem with backfiring... REAL loud. Mazda put this THERMAL REACTOR exhaust system on it and when you lifted the throttle it went CO-POW... the kids in my neighborhood loved it.



I drove it through college and finally got rid of it...Man I miss that car.



Yeah and in high school I had a R100 with a 13B, but nobody really knew what it was. It was a little funky and small (1800 lbs). kids would turn my car sideways in the parking lot all the time, but boy did it move. I just couldn't keep mufflers on it.

 

Haha. I remember the atomic backfire! My RX-2 was an automatic, and if you romped it in second, then lifted, it would make drivers in the other lane freak out it was so loud. Amazingly, it never seemed to damage the exhaust.