It may have taken popular automotive YouTuber Rob Dahm more than six years to build his four-rotor Mazda RX-7 but the finished car was unveiled at last year’s SEMA Show and was recently strapped onto a dyno for some performance testing.
FD-generation Mazda RX-7s like the one that Dahm owns originally left the factory with a 1.3-liter twin-turbocharged, two-rotor engine pumping out 252 hp and roughly 216 lb-ft (294 Nm) of torque. However, Mazda did build a four-rotor car in the forming of the Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B. Likely inspired by this race car, Dahm set about building a four-rotor Mazda RX-7 of his very own.
Watch: At Long Last, Rob Dahm’s Insane 4-Rotor AWD Mazda RX-7 Is Finished
With the sports car strapped to the dyno, Dahm performs the first run on 10 psi. He then gradually increases the boost pressure in subsequent runs, upping it to 14 psi, then 25 psi, 30 psi, and finally, 35 psi. The figures it delivers during the 30 psi and 35 psi runs are really something to behold. Indeed, it churned out 1,124 hp and 841 lb-ft (1,140 lbs) of torque at all four wheels on 30 psi and then 1,145 hp and 925 lb-ft (1,254 Nm) of torque at 35 psi.
Making those figures all the more impressive is the fact that the engine of the 787B Le Mans racer could churn out a maximum of 900 hp but was capped at 700 hp during the race.
The all-wheel drive system of Dahm’s RX-7 was actually borrowed from a Nissan GT-R and ensures that the car is able to put all of its power to the ground.