“With a long history with his championship-winning Mitsubishi Evo, Leon Scott wanted to build something he could drive on the street and take on the odd round of local time attack racing”
Well, we most certainly weren’t expecting this! Leon Scott strikes us an extremely staunch Evo fan after owning his time attack circuit car for nearly a decade, so when we got the call telling us he’d bought something to drive on the street, we were a tad confused. An exchanging of images later, and what Leon had built was him down to a tee, however, it had a rotary engine between the strut towers; a 2003 Mazda RX-8 Type S.
For what looks like a relatively attack-specific car, it’s actually reasonably factory and has a warrant of fitness, a registration, and an engineer's certification at its current ride height. To give it a unique style, Leon fitted 18x9.5-inch and 18x10.5-inch Work Emotion Kiwamis wrapped in Advan Neova rubber up front, and cheap road tread down the back to pass certification. “I have got some more Advan tyre on order for the rear through my sponsor Hyper Tyres,” Leon told us.
Custom Tein coilovers built by Ian at Autolign, Whiteline sway bars, and braces complete the subtle handling package and give it an aggressive appearance — as does the custom white wrap job by Signwise. The Mazda still wears the factory brake calipers, but now features high temp Endless MX72 pads, stainless lines, Endless brake fluid, and slotted and drilled discs which should be more than enough for the application. “During the certification process, the engineer told me that it’s the best braking RX-8 he has come across during the process,” Leon added.
Under the bonnet, you’d be a fool if you thought the factory engine remained. Well, it kind of does, however, has just been rebuilt with Unbreakable seals, a custom Gilmer drive kit, a three-inch intake kit with foam unifilter and carbon airbox, stainless steel headers, a remapped Maztech ECU, and has been balanced and doweld. Once run it should see 9000rpm with ease and produce around 280hp at the wheels, thanks to a serious bridge-porting. To back the Mazda six-speed gearbox Leon went with an Exedy race clutch with lightened flywheel.
Inside the cabin, it’s all stock for now. A Tech race dash is ready for installation, and Bride seats with head restraints are sitting in the garage ready to go. For now, though, Leon’s enjoying the tidy Mazda interior on the street.
We’ll be following this build as it progresses, so as always, keep your eyes peeled for the next update!
