Australian Muscle Car – July 01, 2019

V8 engine. Irving’s
expert opinion was
that allowing the
RX7’s 12A rotary
engine to run in
peripheral port trim
was in conventional
piston engine terms
the equivalent of
upgrading from
single-cam, two-valve
con guration to twin
cams and four valves.
So while Moffat
raced an RX7 in the Daytona 24 Hour in
February, AMRAC came up with a scheme to
approve the RX7 – as requested by its NCC
overlords – but without peripheral ports, so it
remained a three-litre class car.
AMRAC again rejected PP in April 1980, but
the following month the National Council turned
around and announced “ nal” approval. However,
the very next day the AMRAC members served
an ultimatum over the issue, and a showdown
meeting between the two committees was
scheduled for June 7. Again the NCC caved in, but
tried to save face by sacking AMRAC chairman
Richard Cousins. I went into print attacking such
“mismanagement”, calling them all inept and
contemptible. Ah, the brashness of youth.
Mazda Australia was now at wits’ end and
sold off the batch of 10 ‘Custom Special’ models
(stripped of air-con and sound system) it had set
aside for racing, and a distressed Moffat even
expressed doubts about racing in Australia again.
You could hardly blame him after being treated as
a political football.
Moffat kept sharp by winning
the Australian Sports Car
Championship in a Porsche
934, and the Winton promoters
presented him with a bottle of
‘PeripheralPort’,inscribedwith:
A nehomologationof grapes
pressedin thelatestrotary
presses,butnoteligiblefor
GrapeOneconsumption.
Thiswineexceedsthe
100-octaneratingandshould
onlybeusedasdirectedbythe

After sensationally

cing an MHDT

Commodore at Sandown

ndthenhisownquickly

obbledupXDFalconat

athurst,Moffatimported

e DaytonaRX7for

Sandownmeeting

December 1980 to

monstrateit andgive

s rivalsa chanceto drive

Brock,whosurprisingly

pportedtheMazda

bid,wastheonlyonewhotookuptheinvitation

andcameawayconvincedit wouldn’tbethe

rocketshipdetractorssuggested.

In themeantime,theNCCresolvedthe

politicalimpassebydisbandingtheAMRAC

andinstructeditsnewlyinstalledExecutive

Committeeto approvethePPMazdaforracing.

Andso,onJanuary27, 1981 – twoyearsafterthe

wholesagabegan– thegreenlightwasnally

given.Andthistimeit wasnal.AllanMoffat

Racingwasbackin business.

Moffat imported the Daytona RX7 to demonstrate at

Sandown, inviting sceptical rivals to inspect and drive it.