Words and Photos: Richard Opie
Building a car is a hell of a journey. Every single one of us begins with a vision in mind, but along the way that initial visualisation can become less than 20/20. Lines are blurred. Barriers and deadlines are broken. Sometimes the rollercoaster just feels like it’ll never crest that ascent. But like all challenging journeys, the destination is often that much sweeter once the vision crystallises into a final form.
Dunedin’s Luke Neilan, owner and builder of this spectacular FD RX7, begins our short chat about the car with a bit of sage advice. “If I had to give anyone some advice, I’d say stick to a plan,” he laughs sheepishly. “I didn’t. Throughout the build, my plans changed so many times and it cost me so much more time and money than if I’d just stuck with a clear direction!”
Clear direction or not, you’d need your head examined to argue that the end result is anything but striking. Despite his admitted pinball approach to the build, Luke’s knocked together a supremely detailed and considered build. The RX-7 is almost subtle enough to convince the casual onlooker they’ve seen it before. But it’s the deep dive into the details — and hell, there’s a lot of them — that really displays how this FD stood head and shoulders above its peers at REunion 2025, taking out Best Rotary Overall.
It’s the penchant for detail that undoubtedly drives the indecision and changes of tack when building a car. The art of combining a bunch of bits and pieces that were never destined to exist together, and make it cohesive is exactly that — one hell of an art. It’s an eye for the finer aspects that Luke’s seemingly been blessed with for a little while!
Like so many of his millennial peers, Luke’s interest in cars was piqued not by a family member or close friend with a rad bit of iron in the shed, but by the early days of the Fast & Furious franchise. You know, before it got all about international terrorism and sending cars into every corner of the galaxy. Dom, Letty, Roman, and the guy who’s name sounds like a serial killer, all belting about in a selection of Japanese tuner-scene icons. From the get-go, the team’s cars were well presented and co-ordinated — quote the spectacle for impressionable young eyes.
Those early films made quite an impression. “I think it was the ability to customise cars, and make them your own,” says Luke, “and it really made me appreciate the way you can use cars to reflect your tastes.” It also didn’t help that as a kid, the prospect of going fast and looking cool held a certain appeal.
While Luke’s love for cars was firmly established, he found BMX as an avenue to start making a machine of his own. “I wasn’t the best rider, but I really enjoyed building a cool-looking bike and learning about all the different frames, geometry, and that,” he says. “It really scratched the itch I had to build something.”
Despite this, Luke wouldn’t end up with a driver’s licence until he was 18, something he attributes to not really being immersed in car culture with his mates. However, when he did, it’d be a humble KP Starlet that kicked off the four-wheeled journey.
“I bought it because it looked cool,” he smiles, “but I had no idea about the mechanicals really.” It lasted about three weeks, with a broken axle ending that chapter. “I sold it for like 400 bucks — I couldn’t be bothered dealing with it.” But the untimely demise of the humble Toyota would ultimately make way for a foray further into the 90s — and specifically, turbo technology.
“My first real performance car was a WRX wagon,” explains Luke. “I had a lot of fun in it and soon upgraded to a Version 7 Type RA, the first car I really got into modifying.”
Wheels, suspension, a rebuilt engine, a carbon bonnet, and more. Luke’s appetite for tinkering with JDM icons was well and truly whetted.
But bubbling away in the back of Luke’s mind, was a lingering thirst for the brap. “I’d always said to myself a rotary would happen, I just didn’t know when,” he says. It’d eventually manifest after about a year and half of owning the RA, and a trip up to Street Meat at Ruapuna. “I think it was about when Skavanger [Fritz Leaning] had finished his four-rotor RX-7, and he had it there. I saw it. I loved it. I told my mates I was going home to list the Subaru, and buy an RX-7.
“The Subaru sold pretty quickly, so I was in the market,” Luke recounts. “I had the cash burning a hole in my pocket, but my flat ended up getting burgled and it was taken, so I had to start again.”
About eight months later, Luke found himself standing in front of a black 1996 Mazda RX-7. “It was the first car I looked at — it seemed exactly what I was looking for,” says Luke. It ticked a few boxes. Stock, extremely tidy, around 100,000km, and the all important black paint. But he couldn’t see it right away. “The seller told me he was about to rebuild the engine, but since I was the first to call I had first dibs on viewing.
“Before I even sat in it, I was ready to hand over the money,” laughs Luke. “I’d never even been in an RX-7, let alone an FD!” Nonetheless, a quick drive around the block and he was totally smitten. A deal was struck — although not until the seller had run in the engine.
“There were so many emotions going on when I finally took delivery,” says Luke. “I probably wouldn’t have even cared if there was a problem, that moment was just so perfect. I finally had my RX-7, it was black, it was everything I wanted.”
But remember that lust to be unique, and the finer details? Well, there was always a plan. In Luke’s case, the basics were a widebody and some big-boy three-piece wheels. He’d even done a stack of research prior to making some decisions before he’d even bought the car.
Despite the rollercoaster ride to come, the rear Origin overfenders were the very first part Luke bought for the car. “The majority of the rest of the car, I’ve bought parts then changed it — from turbos to front bumpers, but with those rear quarters I always knew it had to be them.”
On the bodywork note, the genuine Mazdaspeed GTC front bumper is arguably the most notable of Luke’s styling touches. “I found a video of a drift car running a GTC bumper, and I needed it,” he explains. Initially he tried a replica part, but despite best efforts it just wouldn’t fit quite right.
Partway through the struggle, a genuine item popped up for sale in the UK. “I jumped on it immediately. It was expensive, but I wanted it, needed it, had to have it,” Luke affirms. Even getting it here was a long story, but ultimately the bumper was in his hands, and in his own words the basis for a truly unique aesthetic. “You hardly ever see it on an RX-7, and you never see it on this style of build,” he explains.
The GTC bumper is the pointy end of a bodywork combo that shouldn’t work on paper, but is exquisite as a whole. D-Max front guards and a D-Max D1 bonnet handle the rest of the front end, flowing into the Sexy Style skirts and those Origin quarters. It’s tied together with the absurdly (in a good way) named ‘Obsidian Midnight Ultra-Deep Intergalactic Void’ shade of black paint, expertly applied by Customs Bodyshop in Upper Hutt, also responsible for the panelling.
However, before Customs got their mitts on it, the engine bay had already been painted locally, ready for another contribution from the 04 region — this time a serious engine build by Lawton Rotorsport.
Again, it’s a classic case of scope creep. “I put it on hold after I’d had the car a year, and got into the build,” says Luke. “I’d decided to tidy up some funky wiring and it was a classic case of things snowballing.”
It all started with the old, “Might as well put an aftermarket ECU in to sort these issues. So you might as well do a single turbo, so you do that. Then you figure, well I’m at that point, so I should probably open the block,” he admits.
The fresh rebuilt, but stock, 13B-REW was swapped for a bridgeported block. That block would soon be opened, freshened, then an incident with courier damage and a snapped plate ended that plan. A set of early billet plates were acquired, with big plans to build a stout new block, and this is where Stu Lawton comes into the picture.
After some advice from Stu, the billet plates were moved on and a fresh slate in the form of a crate 13B acquired. “I wanted to go bridgeport at the time, but after a bit of research and advice we went with a semi-PP arrangement, for reliability and of course sound, so I told Stu to go nuts on it.”
Detail was once again at the forefront. Polished housings and front cover, shaved plates drenched in black paint conceal series-4 side clearanced and lightened rotors kitted with SCR apex seals, the whole rotating assembly balanced on a Precision eccentric shaft.
Like the engine itself, Luke’s also been through a couple of turbo and intake manifold iterations, landing on a Borg Warner EFR8474, pumping 18psi of boost into an Elite semi-PP upper and lower manifold, via a Bosch drive by wire throttle.
Stu also tuned the Link G4X ECU to 364kW at the wheels — the third instalment of an ECU for Luke’s RX-7. The changes, as he’s admitted, are attributed to the continual pursuit of making it better. It was a seven-year process after all, and a lot of methods changed over a period of time. “It got to a point where I had to tell myself I was happy with it, changing things out was getting ridiculous,” he grins.
With the built engine shipped to Dunedin, Luke and his mate Jake carefully lowered the engine into the bay, fitted the peripheral components and wired it — good enough for a base tune. It wasn’t without a slight drama, with the e-throttle defaulted to wide open! Set your rev limits low to start with, kids — it sure saved Luke’s bacon in this instance.
The HGT six-speed sequential is worthy of a mention, and it might seem at odds with the overall look of the car. “I’d always had a power number I wanted to chase, and a factory ’box just wouldn’t have held up. Sure there were other options, but I just always wanted a sequential. I thought it’d just be cool with my foot on the gas, banging gears at full noise,” he laughs. And who are we to argue? The screaming 13B with the whip-crack of the shift cut is something to behold.
We haven’t even touched on those wheels, though. They’re the classic Blitz 03, custom built to 18×11.5-inches up the front with a -6 offset, and a wild 18×13-inch rear with a -13 offset squeezing under those pumped quarters. As Luke explains, a set of coilovers just wouldn’t achieve the slammed aesthetic he wanted. Tein and BC both had a stint in the car, but just didn’t get the skirts close enough to the deck. So it absolutely had to be airbags.
In this case, it’s an Autostance setup at all four corners, controlled by an AccuAir management system. Looking at the car, it’s difficult to imagine it not being low, and Luke reckons the air setup hits the driveability brief, to boot.
With the car tuned, painted, aligned, and back home in Dunedin, Luke set about preparing the FD for it’s public debut — REunion 2025. Disaster almost struck again, with a series of teething issues threatening to derail the whole notion of a mission up north. Over the Christmas break, the entire drivetrain came out, and went back in. Some unfortunate mistakes persisted, and were duly rectified. The camel’s back came perilously close to being broken when, once reassembled, the clutch line gave up.
This in turn almost made Luke give up. But he and Jake fought through, loading the car and making the 1,156km drive to Taupo Motorsport Park.
Prior to hitting the Taupo circuit, the sole driving experience in the RX-7 was a few laps around a parking lot. Not being road legal, he’d not wanted to take the chance. But in his own words, “ripping around Taupo was ah-may-zing,” despite a bit of trepidation around the perceived reliability of a newly finished build, especially one of this scale.
The car ran flawlessly. It banged gears. It sat perfectly on the tarmac while parked on the pits. It drew a continuous throng of complimentary admirers. Enough, as mentioned above, to take out the top car award for the weekend.
“It was everything I wanted the weekend to be, and more,” an ecstatic Luke exclaims. That statement could also apply to the build as a whole. Sure, it’s had its fair share of undulations and tribulations. Nothing worth doing rarey doesn’t. When you’ve got a certain expectation of build quality, it’s inevitable.
It’s a journey. So buckle up and enjoy the ride.
SPEC LIST
1996 Mazda RX-7 (FD3S)
Heart
ENGINE: 13B semi-peripheral port, 1300cc, series-four side clearance and lightened CNC-faced rotors, semi-peripheral port rotor housings, Mazda rear counterweight, full half-inch stud kit, balanced rotating assembly, SCR apex seals, new OEM seals and springs, Precision eccentric shaft, polished housings and front cover, Full Function Engineering trigger kit, Elite Rotary crank pulley, Built 2 Apex sump
INTAKE: Elite Rotary semi-peripheral port upper and lower intake manifolds, Bosch drive-by-wire throttle body
EXHAUST: Full four-inch exhaust system with oval middle section, AdrenalinR resonator and muffler with race baffles
TURBO: BorgWarner EFR 8474, 1.01 A/R rear housing
WASTEGATE: Twin Turbosmart GenV HyperGate45
BOV: Turbosmart
FUEL: Radium drop-in surge tank, triple Walbro fuel pumps, Walbro lift pump, Radium fuel filter, Radium fuel pressure regulator, Elite Rotary primary and secondary fuel rails, twin Bosch 1650cc primary injectors, four Bosch 2200cc secondary injectors, AEM water-methanol system
IGNITION: NZEFI smart coils
ECU: Link G4X FuryX
COOLING: Custom V-mount radiator with PWR advanced cooling technology core, custom V-mount intercooler with PWR advanced cooling technology core, twin SPAL fans, dual Setrab 19-row oil cooler kits, SakeBomb Garage Smart Cooler oil thermostats, Davies Craig electric water pump
EXTRA: DC Power alternator, Ultimate Power Steering kit, Link boost solenoid, Link map sensor, Aeroflow AN lines and fittings throughout
Drive
GEARBOX: HGT six-speed sequential gearbox
CLUTCH: Quarter Master twin plate rally clutch
FLYWHEEL: Quarter Master flywheel
DIFF: Cusco 1.5 way LSD, GReddy diff cover, stealth-coated ring and pinion gear set
EXTRA: HGT bell housing, HGT billet shift lever with strain gauge, HGT diff brace mount, PPF deleted, custom driveshaft, Driveshaft Shop 1000hp billet axles, Chase Bays clutch master cylinder
Support
STRUTS: Autostance performance air struts
BRAKES: (F) Wilwood six-piston brake callipers and rotors, Hawk High Performance Street pads (R) Factory callipers, Sakebomb Garage Competition two-piece rotors, Hawk High Performance Street pads, Sakebomb Garage Competition calliper relocation brackets, Chase Bays brake booster delete kit
ARMS/KNUCKLES: HardRace arms and bushings throughout
EXTRA: AccuAir airbag management system, AccuAir ENDO-CVT tank, Cusco front and rear sway bars
Shoes
WHEELS: (F) 18×11.5-inch (-6) (R) 18×13-inch (-13) Blitz BRW03
TYRES: (F) 255/35R18 (F) 295/30R18 Falken FK510
Exterior:
PAINT: ‘Obsidian Midnight Ultra-Deep Intergalactic Void’ black with ‘Quantum Light-Absorbing Nano-Gloss Technology’ black
ENHANCEMENTS: Mazdaspeed GTC front bumper, D-MAX front guards, D-MAX D1 hood, Sexy Style side skirts, Origin rear over-fenders, Ganador Super Mirrors, RE Amemiya carbon door handles, RE Amemiya rear carbon diffuser, RE Amemiya carbon tail light cover, D-MAX carbon roof wing, custom carbon side splitters, Racebred Components front splitter and mount kit
Interior
SEATS: Recaro RX-7 RZ seats, Willans x Nightrunner harnesses
STEERING WHEEL: Vertex ‘King’ steering wheel
INSTRUMENTATION: Twin Motec PDM15 (Power Distribution Modules), MoTeC 8 Button CAN keypad, Link MXS Strada 5-inch dash
EXTRA: RZ optional rear storage box, custom half cage, NRG boss kit, Drakes cluster dash mount and HVAC delete panel
Performance:
POWER: 364kW at the wheels
BOOST: 18psi
FUEL TYPE: BP Ultimate 98, boost juice water meth
TUNER: Stu Lawton
Driver Profile:
DRIVER/OWNER: Luke Neilan
AGE: 30
LOCATION: Dunedin
OCCUPATION: Painter
BUILD TIME: Seven years
LENGTH OF OWNERSHIP: Seven years
THANKS: First and foremost, a huge thank you to my partner, Paige, for putting up with me living and breathing this car — I’m sure it’s been taxing! Jake Lanauze, not only for wiring everything but also for spending hours with me getting it going and troubleshooting. Stu Lawton for the engine build and tuning. Taylor and the boys at Peterson Fabrications. Ben, Rick, and the team at Customs Body Shop. The Lord himself, Mr Bemrose, for supplying a hell of a lot of parts. Matt Chappell for the interior retrim. Cory at Retro Automotive. The Detailers Garage. Vinnie Keach and Shay Casey from Central City Car Painters for re-clearing my carbon bits and painting the engine bay. And to everyone else who has been involved that I may have forgotten to mention — thank you!
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This article originally appeared in New Zealand Performance Car issue 314
