Words and Photos: Danny Wood
Some people stumble into cars later in life. For Jason Steiner, it was baked in from the start. Growing up in rural Morrinsville, cars were never just means of transportation in his family. Jason’s dad and brothers raced speedway, and his old man was the sort of hands-on fixer who tackled anything himself, whether it was farm machinery, broken engines, or the half-destroyed cars his kids dragged home. That attitude rubbed off early, and Jason found himself drawn to the process as much as the result. Tinkering, fixing, learning, cars were simply part of his life.
While most of his siblings gravitated toward V8s, Jason took a different route. Growing up in a small Waikato town, there was a surprisingly strong rotary scene bubbling under the surface, and those high-revving, slightly unhinged engines grabbed his attention. At school, his favourite part of the day was watching cool cars cruise past or line up for impromptu drag races. One moment that stuck with him was having the opportunity to peddle an old-school Mazda 323 hatch with a 13B J-port at a ripe age of 15 years old. From then on, Jason was hooked.
Before he even had his licence, he was tagging along to 4 & Rotary Nationals and the Rotary Summer Drags with his family, soaking it all in. His older sister didn’t help the obsession either — every Christmas came with a fresh NZ Performance Car subscription. Looking back now, he reckons he was always heading this way.
His first project was a rough Ford Anglia picked up on Trade Me for $305, five dollars over his dad’s bidding limit. It came with a seized Cortina motor and a lumpy cam, and together Jason and his dad spent countless hours rebuilding, painting and retrimming it. The project was never fully finished in the end, but that wasn’t the point. They’d taken a non-runner and turned it into something they were proud of, and Jason learned lessons that would stick with him for life.
Fast-forward to his early twenties, and Jason and his partner Nataylia head off to London for a couple of years — and come back engaged. Somewhere along the way, he also manages to convince her that their wedding car should be a Mazda RX-2. “Yeah… it’s our RX-2,” he laughs.
With a $30k loan sorted, the hunt was on, but it had to be a sedan, Jason’s always preferred the four-door shape. After missing out on a couple of dream cars, the right one finally popped up within budget. It wasn’t running, but it came with a fresh peripheral-port 13B from an FC RX-7 and a solid EFI setup already lined up. Jason was stoked.
The plan was to wire up the ECU, get it running, dyno it, re-cert it, and drive. That lasted about five minutes. A mate suggested that if Jason really wanted to keep the car long-term, he should strip it back and do the paint properly. Sandblasting revealed a harsh truth: decades of shortcuts and dodgy work hidden under layers of filler. Luckily, there wasn’t much rust, but the repairs told a different story. The shell was a mess, and suddenly no paint shop wanted to touch it.
Jason was persistent and thought he could push through, until he spotted a stunning RX-2 coupe at the 2017 4 & Rotary Nationals. After finding out who was behind the build, he called Chopper at Choppers Autobody Shop. One visit later, his RX-2 shell was on a truck heading to Riverhead for a full bare-metal resurrection.
What followed was the real turning point of the build. Rear quarters, boot floor, strut towers, chassis rails, nothing was left untouched. While the body was getting sorted, Jason came across a JC Cosmo turbo 13B and decided to scrap the peripheral-port plan entirely.
Like most long builds, the project snowballed. Green Brothers Racing came on board to help craft a solid, street-friendly turbo setup instead of just chasing numbers. A Tremec TKO600 replaced the planned RX-7 gearbox, the tunnel was modified to fit, and a Hilux diff with custom mounts went in to get the stance right without killing drivability.
After a year of steady work, the shell was finally prepped and ready for the team at Choppers Autobody to lay down the Jet Black. Jason thought he knew exactly what to expect, but he had no idea Chopper and his mum had cooked up a little surprise delivery. It all went down one evening while Jason was at home having a few quiet ones with some mates. Out in front a tow-track was quietly backing into the driveway. Sitting on the back, was the RX-2, finally in colour and ready to come home. “I sat in my garage all night just staring at it,” he recalls. “I couldn’t believe it was home.”
With the engine being rebuilt at Green Brothers Racing into a healthy turbo street motor, Jason focused on restoration. Factory trims, bumpers, badges, hardware, everything was restored, rechromed or zinc-plated. If something couldn’t be replaced, it was repaired properly. Even parts no one would ever see were treated the same way.
The interior followed suit. Elite Motor Trimmers transformed tired Racepro buckets into custom retrimmed seats finished in Eurolux Dattel leather with RX-2 Antelope badges. The rear seat was reshaped from scratch, and even the seat springs were powder-coated, despite being hidden forever.
“Those details are my favourite part,” Jason admits. “To most people it’s just an RX-2, but I know what’s hiding away.” The wiring was completely redone, modern touches were hidden discreetly, and sound deadening filled the shell. The goal was clear with an old-school look with modern function.
The first start-up, first drive, and dyno session all came with nerves. Jason laughs now at the moment he realised the car made 300kW. “I thought the dyno screen was reading in horsepower… then I realised it wasn’t. That was a bloody good day.”
Life tried to stall the build more than once. Business, marriage, kids, and the general cost of living all took their turn at the front of the queue. At one point, selling the Mazda seemed like the only way out. Instead, Jason finished the brakes and took it for its first proper blast.
From there, the car did exactly what it was built to do. Events followed — Rotary Reunion, Mad Mike Summer Bash — and sure, awards came too, including Top RX-2 at Rotary Reunion 2025. But trophies were never the goal.
This RX-2 gets used. Hard. Jason overheated it, shredded tyres, snapped belts, nuked a diff, and even welded the clutch plates together during a burnout session. Every time something breaks, he fixes it, beefs it up, and goes again. The cooling got sorted, the diff came back stronger, and the wheels have changed as his tastes evolved.
“I always wanted a car that could win an award on Saturday, then go out on Sunday and take an absolute beating,” Jason says. Seven years since he first picked it up, the RX-2 feels finished. It’s not a “perfect” trailer queen; it’s an honest, hard-driven machine that’s shared with the family, and that’s exactly what Jason set out to build.
SPEC LIST
1972 Mazda Capella RX-2 (RE)
Heart
ENGINE: Cosmo JC 13B, 1300cc twin-rotor, stage 2 porting, balanced, I-Rotary apex seals, brand new FD3S RX-7 rotor housings
BLOCK: Cosmo JC 13B, polished and colour coded
INTAKE: Factory Cosmo JC polished
EXHAUST: Full four-inch stainless steel exhaust system, AdrenalinR rear muffler, full-length two-inch external wastegate pipe
TURBO: BorgWarner EFR8374
WASTEGATE: GFB 50mm
BOV: GFB 50mm
FUEL: Custom drop tank and surge tank, Dead-head fuel system, hardline fuel lines throughout, Radium fuel pulse damper, Bosch 044 fuel pumps
IGNITION: Four Smart coils
ECU: Link Storm
COOLING: Custom 55mm high-spec PWR twin-pass radiator, 16inch SPAL cooling fan, custom 100mm front mount intercooler, custom oil cooler
EXTRA: Green Brothers Racing competition water pump
Drive
GEARBOX: Five-speed Tremec TKO 600, upgraded synchros, steel bellhousing, Howie hydraulic release bearing
CLUTCH: Quartermaster twin plate
FLYWHEEL: Green Brothers Racing 12-pound
DIFF: Shortened Hilux diff, custom mounts, 4.1 Truetrac centre
EXTRA: Two-piece Hilux driveshaft, shortened hanger bearing
Support
STRUTS: (F) RX-2 struts, BLG Engineering welded adjustable coilovers (R) QA1 double adjustable coilovers
BRAKES: (F) Four-pot Wilwood Dynalite callipers, 291mm FD3S RX-7 rotors, Hawk racing pads (R) Four-pot Wilwood Powerlite callipers, 291mm FD3S RX-7 rotors, Hawk racing pads, Wilwood reverse mount pedal box, compact master cylinders, custom billet calliper mounts, brake lines tucked under dash
ARMS/KNUCKLES: Factory
Shoes
WHEELS: (F) 17×7-inch (+0) Blitz BRW03 (R) 17×8.5-inch (-27) Blitz BRW03
TYRES: (F) 185/35R17 Nankang NS20 (R) 195/40R17 Whatever’s cheap as they don’t last long haha
Exterior:
PAINT: Jet Black
ENHANCEMENTS: New old-stock re-chromed bumpers, re-chromed badges, door handles and taillight rings, chrome painted vents, zinc plated bolts and nuts throughout
Interior
SEATS: Custom re-trimmed front Racepro bucket seats with RX-2 antelope badges, colour-coded seat rails, chrome seat mounts, custom-moulded rear seat, black powder-coated seat springs, all trimmed in Eurolux Dattel leather
STEERING WHEEL: Restored RX-2
INSTRUMENTATION: Autometer boost, oil temperature, oil pressure, and water temperature gauges, USB port, high- and low-boost switch, line locker switch
EXTRA: Custom re-trimmed door cards, dash top, and rear parcel tray, colour-coded interior plastics, colour-coded seat belts, Dynamat throughout the entire car, brown moulded carpet including the boot
Performance:
POWER: 313kW
BOOST: 12psi
FUEL TYPE: BP Ultimate 98
TUNER: Richard Green at Green Brothers Racing
Driver Profile:
DRIVER/OWNER: Jason Steiner
AGE: 34
LOCATION: Rural Morrinsville
OCCUPATION: Tittie Puller (Dairy Farmer)
BUILD TIME: Seven years
LENGTH OF OWNERSHIP: 10 years
THANKS: Chopper and the team at Choppers Autobody Shop; Richard, Chris, and the team at Green Brothers Racing; Scott Stinson at Elite Motor Trimmer; Todd Olsen at Tolsen Engineering; Reece David (“washed up car painter”) at R.A.D Restorations; Mike Partridge at Hamilton Collision Repair; Marc Kelsey at RE Wires NZ; Toby Gollop (previously known as B.O.P Polishers); Adam Basher at Motorsport Plumbing Supplies; Ryan from Autoproject NZ; Shaun Ace; Ray at RKM Motorsport and Engineering; Rhys at RMJ Imports; Rikki Baker and Rob Irving; my beautiful wife for letting me build my dream; Mum, Dad, and my siblings; and all my friends who have helped in one way or another (except Annalisa).
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This article originally appeared in New Zealand Performance Car issue 319
