There is just something so pleasing to the eye about the colour black. Henry Ford was certainly onto something when he chose the colour for the Model T line all those years ago, and more than 100 years later it’s still the go-to for many. It’s timeless, it’s classic, and it looks good on just about any car you slap it on — especially when that car is low, loud, and wide like this pair of BN-kitted Mazdas that I found lurking around my local industrial area.
The name Aaron Keach is not a new one to NZ Performance Car — he has had two previous cover cars (NZ Performance Car Issue No. 173 and NZ Performance Car Issue No. 220) — but Yung City Boyz member Sam ‘Dot B’ is. Sam’s MX-5 was fresh from the paint booth, and Aaron was at the same shop adding the finishing touches to his new FC RX-7 ahead of the 2016 4&Rotary Nationals.
If you can recall Aaron’s first FC with its big-power 20B and steel widebody, this FC is a completely different animal. It was not about building the mintest, most powerful machine that he could, it was more about having some fun on the side. Hell, he wasn’t even looking for a new project, but the FC shell popped up for a price that he couldn’t ignore, as Aaron explains: “It was one of those deals that are too good to turn down, so I grabbed it.” One thing lead to another and soon the build resulted in this.
Dot B’s NA Miata, on the other hand, is still a work in progress, leaving the paint booth hours before this impromptu shoot. Like Aaron, Dot B is a Mazda man through and through, and after selling his first-generation RX-7 just as the stance scene was blowing up in New Zealand, before he knew it he was purchasing his first Miata. That MX-5 is long gone and what you’re gawking at is version two — not so low, a little more refined, and destined to pulse.
Sister cars by default, the one thing that both builds pull off perfectly is the stance. Somehow that word has become somewhat dirty over the last year, but there is no better way to describe either of these skid hacks.
For Sam, the NA chassis is a great driver’s car — it has no driver aids and is really about as raw of a driving experience as possible. Sitting in the RacePro ‘leanback’, the MX is so low that you feel like your ass is going to scrape the road surface. The ride height comes thanks to a set of BC coilovers, wound down enough to make jacking the damn thing a nightmare.
Wheels are Work Equips, measuring 15×10 inches (-6), and wrapped in very little amounts of rubber.
The kit has been a bit of a nightmare to put together, with the front and rear bars and side skirts (all of which are reproduction PS Duce items), taking over a year to finally show up. The front steel guards remain, but have been severely pulled, while the rears are 40mm Rev9 over fenders from the US. Next job on the list is the 12A Bridgeport that is currently being pieced together. Once that is installed, we hear rumours that you might even see Sam hitting a drift track day or two.
Aaron’s FC, on the other hand, is ready to hit the track now. The ex rally car came with a full cage and hydraulic handbrake. Original plans were for some cheap wheels, but after purchasing the massive Work Meisters, the other areas of the build also stepped up.
The engine set-up in the FC is a 13B bridgeported turbo with Holset HX40 Pro, TiAL 60mm wastegate, TiAL BOV, 1600cc injectors, and Microtech LT10c with dash. The guys at SD Performance handled all of the fabrication, and the engine is yet to be tuned, but with E85 running through the braided veins, the 7PSI road tune has provided a hell of a lot of fun thus far.
Fitting such an aggressive wheel was no easy feat, and required the BN widebody to be spaced out from the body another 50mm. This is actually the third colour for the Meisters, which came from Work in black on black. Aaron then had GT Refinishers paint the centres Candy Teal, however an American saw the colourway and copied it, so back under the gun they went, this time in a custom white with gold hardware and gold bolts.
This pairing of unlikely siblings just goes to show what can be achieved in very little time and on a budget — neither build was supposed to be a show winner, they are both about having fun, and what better way to do that than fry some tyres.
