Ed Forman's Wild RX2

Darwin is comparitively small when it comes to the rotary scene, through the late 80's and for over a decade the street scene was dominated by the V8's here, with the occasional fast 6 or 4 popping its headlights up into the classes.

Over the last few years however a growing group of local rotary fans have slowly changed that showing the true potential of what they can do with their cars. The ideas and innovations in the rotary scene around Australia in fact has begun to earn the country big kudos and with the information available nowadays the Darwin rotary scene has not wasted time in using this to its advantage and turning it into respect. The V8 crowd have really begun to sit up and take notice especially with Ed Forman's latest debut.

Ed Forman is a fan of tough street cars and over time his passions have turned to small tough cars that pack a huge punch. Ed's turbocharged 13B Bridgeport is an engine that packs just that sought after performance and delivers it to his RX2 so easily that

driving it has become just a 'hop in and turn the key and forget about it' daily event. What is remarkable about this car is its ability to change from a reliable (if not somewhat powerful) daily driver to a vitamin enhanced strip eater with the press of a button thanks to its custom mapped microtech setup.

Ed has been building cars for years in one form or another, not just rotors but the big V's as well, he's not a one-eyed rotor fan by any means nor is he a subscriber to any particular number of cylinders or configuration instead Ed has tried his hand at a few, this just happens to be his latest passion. He does freely admit though that he has become very impressed with the versatility and incredible potential that a rotary has and he has researched his options on this car to a great depth.

Indeed when you get a chance to look over it closely and hear it running you begin to get the idea of how thoroughly he has done this most recent project, not to mention the countless weekends and late nights that slip past. As many project car builders will tell you, it wont happen without the hard work, long hours or dedication.

Besides having the knowledge of how to build and manage the project with his own resources Ed also had enough experience to know that he couldn't just strap on a monster turbo and hope magic would follow, the numbers associated with a proper engine tuneup are enough to give most people a headache.

In this case though the tune-up came in the shape of international rotary expert Anthony Rodrigues from Maztech in Melbourne who was called on for the final stages of configuring the car and tuning her up. The motor itself was built by Lino Alessi from Maztech, the Maztech name is synonymous for quailty, power and reliability in the Oz rotary scene.

The turbo is a meaty Garret GT42r currently assisting with 12psi boost on the street which gives him a comfortable 380rwhp for city driving, on the strip the Michrotech LT10s assists in transforming this to 25psi (on C16 race fuel) giving 570rwhp, which considering the car itself weighs only 1000kg gives it a nice power/weight ratio.

Even here though Ed has left room to move till he gets used to the current configuration and dials in a little more. On the RX2's first ever quarter mile run with no feel to the new car's ins and outs it pulled an easy 10.20 seconds at 138mph, since that first run Ed has begun to get the feel of the gears and has also steadily improved reaction times but is still holding back somewhat till he figures out her handling a little better at which point he will dial in more of the boost and let it go crazy. Maztech themselves have predicted with a little extra boost the car will run easy 9.6's down the 1/4. Judging by the initial run we are sure the figures are going to be impressive!

The engine gets the horsepower to the ground via a stock Series 5 Turbo 5 speed gearbox and the drivetrain has a custom 3" tailshaft that spins to the diff. We're not giving out any prizes for guessing Ed has a 9" diff up the back to handle the transfer of power to the wheels. With this sort of snap anything less bulletproof might spell disaster.

Inside, the car has an ANDRA spec custom fitted 6 point rollcage made by We'reabout Engineering in Darwin. The racing seats are single piece fibreglass moulded with cloth covers and both driver and passenger strap into them with 5 point RCI harnesses.

The only differences between street and strip trim besides the C16 Race Fuel mix is that the tyres are changed over to Mickey Thompson 26x8.5x15" slicks on the rear and 4" mickey thompson front runners for the front.

Unfortunately for the time being; due to the phenomenal performance of the cars first few runs at the strip it now falls into the category of car that needs to have a fitted race parachute for assisted braking so this is now in the works before Ed can take it down the strip on more official races. We hope to see him back again soon!

Owner: Edmund Forman

Age: 34

Occupation: IT Team Leader

Engine: Mazda 13B Bridgeport, Injected

Turbo: Garret GT42R

ECU: Microtech LT10s with igniter Box

Trans: Ford Toploader with Liberty Gear set

Diff: Ford 9"

Suspension: Front - Original, Back - Custom, parts from hilux and tarago etc for drag racing

Brakes: Front - Commodore, Back - RX5 Disks

Wheels: Simmons 17" OM’s

Colour: Custom Orange with a Blue Pearl

Power: 570Rear Wheel Horse Power

Best Time to date: 10.20 @138mp

Build Time: 3 years and a lot of Rum and Wild Turkey

Cost: Don’t ask