Vid: 420HP Rotary Cruiser

Photos by: Jason Gynn

When building a car for any purpose, there is usually some sort of compromise between comfort and performance. At either end of this sliding scale, you find vehicles that do what they have been built to do very well but as you move towards the middle, you find more watered down examples that live up to the age old saying that has something to do with Jack being alright at a bit of everything but a master of nothing.

Notice that I said this is usually the case and after taking one look at Craig’s 808 known far and wide by its plates (RXMOOD), I’m sure that you will agree that this thing is about as watered down as 150 proof Vodka!

The first thing you will notice is that while this car is rotary powered, it isn’t rolling on a set of Simmons FRs. While this may sound like sacrilege, Craig kept it in the Simmons family and I reckon these gorgeous V4s suit it down to the bone.

In fact, every aesthetic feature of this car works well together and you get the idea that Craig has put a lot of thought into how the car looks.

The candy red paint is downright delightful and is a colour that was first sprayed on Craig’s brother Peter’s Mazda 1000 ute, with Craig liking the colour so much that he decided to spray the 808 to match.

Peter took care of the paint and when the brotherly duo’s cars are parked side by side, it is quite a sight to behold.

As with most builds, Craig didn’t plan for the car to end up quite as wild as it is, and when we had a chat to him, he told us that the completion of the respray marked the point where things really got out of hand.

“When the car was completely sprayed, Peter asked me what I was going to do with the rest of it,” explains Craig. “I wondered ‘what are you on about?’ but realised that I couldn’t really stop there; so while the engine was out, I decided I needed more of everything!”

Craig’s first port of call was VIS Rotary, with Troy piecing together a bridge ported 13BT that when provided with 16psi of boost courtesy of a Garrett T04Z, buzzes out a whopping 420rwhp on pump fuel!

Next on the list was the interior and as a man passionate about his stereos, Craig was adamant that this thing had to be pumping. “I previously owned an RX-3 that I used for sound-off competitions,” he says. “It has been a passion of mine for a long time, so I wanted to continue that theme with this as well.”

Xtreme Audio and Xtrim joined forces to give the tiny two door a makeover and they certainly went all out. The cream buckskin leather interior combined with a thumping sound system make for a luscious environment that I would imagine Craig finds hard to leave.

So with a tough rotary under the bonnet, an insane Soundstream-based stereo system in the back and a mean look from any angle, I would be confident in saying that Craig’s car has all the bases covered and at the recent Sydney Jamboree, RXMOOD proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Launching hard off the line Craig posted a PB of 11.8@118mph in full street trim but that wouldn’t be his only achievement of the day, rolling around to the sound comp next! “As I pulled up, the typical brap brap brap of the rotor screamed out,” says Craig. “People were like ‘excuse me mate, the drag strip is over there!’ There was a lot of puzzled looks.” Those puzzled looks were quickly transformed into looks of disbelief though, with the serious stereo cranking out an ear splitting 138dB.

This seems to be RXMOOD’s specialty, with Craig taking it out to every event he can.

He’s certainly not afraid to drive it and as you can see by the video above, he loves to let that Wankel wail.