Thursday, 3 December 2015
Make/Model: Mazda RX3 Coupe
Driver/Owner: Steven Barnett
Car's purpose (race car, street car, show car etc): Drag Car
Engine: Pac-Spec 13BT Bridge Port
Bolt-Ons: Garrett GTX Turbo, Turbosmart Power-Gate 60
ECU and Fuel: Microtech LT16c, Turbosmart FPR-2000 Fuel Pressure Regulator, 2000cc Injectors
Driveline: G-Force GF2000 5-Speed Gearbox, Mark Williams 9-inch diff
Cooling: PAC H/duty alloy radiator
Brakes,Suspension & Chassis: Strange brakes, Strange double adjustable struts, 3/4 Chassis
Body: RX3 Coupe, Steel body with Fiberglass boot lid, doors, bonnet & front end.
Paint & panel by Custom Body Works
Wheels: Weld Racing Sportsman Drag rear wheels with 10.5 in MT Drag Slicks, Weld Racing Alumastar 2.0 front runners
Power: ~ 1000hp
ET: 7.042 @191
At 17 years of age, almost 20 years ago, Steven Barnett came to us with his white RX3 Sedan 'SIRRX3' looking to go fast, the result was a street driven weapon running low 10 second passes.
In 2002 Steve decided to let the car go and it was a few years before he would be behind the wheel of another RX3, this time a green coupe which was soon painted orange and graced the cover of ZOOM Magazine as 'RIP08Z' ,a mid 8 second beast with show car looks.
'RIP08Z' in action at Sydney Dragway.
Having only run a handful of passes in the orange coupe, and having more power than any car needs for the street, Steve decided he wanted to go all out and rebuild the car as an all out 3/4 chassis drag car. So back into our workshop it came before heading off to
JL Racecars to build the chassis and then to
Custom Bodyworks for them to work their magic with the body work.
After a couple of years in the build it was ready and Steve first debuted his gorgeous RX3 Coupe at Motor EX as part of the Custom Bodyworks display, mixing it with some of the best Elite show cars in the country. The level of detail in the build of this immaculate coupe is second to none and well worthy of earning it's place in the display hall at Motor EX.
After over 2 years in the build you can imagine Steve could not wait to get in the car and start it up for the first time.
Like with any new race car there are some teething issues when you first hit the track, and on his second meet out in the new car, Steve had an encounter with the wall after launching hard to the left.
See the full story of the event
HEREWith the team confident they were on top of the chassis issues that were plaguing them the first few times out, Steve Blasted out a first full pass of 7.6 @177 in his 13B powered rocket, during a Track Championship event.
With quite a few events run now this is Steve's quickest ET, 7.042 @191 (just .002 off of Andrew 'The Dentist' Maratos' time) which he recently ran at the 1st ever Melbourne Jamboree, making Steve's little yellow coupe the second quickest 13B in the country and also earning him top Qualifier in the Pro Turbo class for the event.
Steve receiving the Top qualifier trophy at the Melbourne Jamboree
Here is Steve running his PB of 7.042 @191. He's definitely not one to hold back his emotion!
As a former Australian Olympic Diver, Steve is no stranger to knowing what it takes to succeed after winning a Bronze Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He now applies the same dedication and focus to his racing which has earned him the title of 2nd fastest 13B rotary in the Southern Hemisphere.
These days, Steve runs his own Electrician business, SBE Contracting and gets out to the track when he can, participating in events all over the country. Coming up soon though, Steve will be heading overseas as part of the PAC RX3 assault team that will be racing in New Zealand for the
4 and Rotary Nationals next year in January.
As you can appreciate racing a car of this caliber is not a one man show and his team headed by crew chief Emmanual Mann aka GADGET, are always on hand to help get Steve down the track.
We would like to congratulate the team on their results so far, and we look forward to seeing the numbers drop even further in the near future.
