Thursday, 8 September 2016
Who would have thought 25 years ago that two brothers with a passion for the humble Wankel engine would now be running a state of the art Rotary workshop, responsible for countless tough builds and a number of records to boot.
It all started with Rocky and George riding 2 stroke motorbikes when they were kids, a friend had told Rocky about a car with an engine that had the same characteristics as the 2 stroke bikes – a Rotary Engine. Another friend then took him for a ride in a car that had a 12A Bridgeport and he was instantly hooked, curiosity got the better of him and so the very next day he went out and bought his first Rotary engine and began to strip it, and as they say the rest is history!!!
The original ‘PACMAN’ was in fact a lemon yellow, RX3 Coupe, naturally aspirated 13B built by Rocky at home in his Wiley Park garage. This would be the start of what would become a passion and obsession of all things rotary for Rocky and his two younger brothers. After finishing his studies, Rocky struggled to find a job that could satisfy him as much as tinkering at home in the garage and building engines for his mates and with his brother George completing his Mechanical apprenticeship around the same time, it only made sense to take the operation out of the garage and to make it a more professional outfit, and so Pac Performance was born.
The next projects were the first out of the newly opened workshop and they would be possibly two of the most iconic cruisers on the streets in the 90’s, Rocky’s ‘EZY08S’ 13B powered RX2 coupe and George’s 20b powered ‘PACMAN’ RX3 sedan, literally put them on the map and still have a cult following today. The boys were very popular on the street scene, but with the cars getting faster and the increasing dangers due to advancements in technology the authorities started to crack down hard on the street enthusiasts. With the reputation of their business now on the line and the responsibilities of maintaining a positive position in the community the boys made a decision to move away from the streets and took their cars to the track, the drag strip. It was a tough slog trying to prove themselves through the main stream drag racing community, with a heavy resistance from the conventional piston and V8 racers. They were constantly taunted and no one ever gave them a chance of ever being competitive labeling their cars as “chook cookers” “rice burners” and even “lawn mowers”.
But never disheartened and more than 25 years of persistence later, how times have changed, they have toured in NZ, USA and recently Puerto Rico and have earnt the respect of fellow racers and followers from around the world and are at the Top of the Sport Compact community. The boys including the youngest brother, Rodney, have a dedicated team at their ever expanding workshop and are building some of the fastest and most spectacular rotary powered cars on the scene. In this time we have seen a fleet of fast and furious cars both on and off the track from show Cars, daily drivers , street/strip and full chassis drag cars. As part of Mazda’s 50
th anniversary celebration of the Rotary engine we thought it be fitting to reflect on all the cars past and present that have come out of the Pac Performance stables, powered by the mighty rotary engine!!!!Click
HERE to check out the PAC Hall of Fame. So far we have over 100 entries with more to come!
