There’s a few gems hiding in the Saskatchewan car scene. This one gem in particular was documented by our own Scott Deeley, circa 2014, just after Patrick had the first iteration of his build out on the roads.
… and then the car disappeared for a while. Patrick and I are what I consider close-ish acquaintances. With Patrick disappearing from the scene for a while, I had wondered where his car had gone from time to time over the past four years. Then, in August 2017, I saw it re-appear in a random Instagram post. But it disappeared again. My questioning resulted in this response: “It needs some more work.”
Fast forward to present day (2018): Patrick and I got talking again and catching up. My excitement was amplified when we got on subject of “Hey dude, how’s your build going?” You’ll notice in the posting for this year’s Defrost event that I hadn’t shot any coverage of Patrick’s car. The shoot had already been in the works before then. I figured “Why only get a car-meet style ‘snapshot’ of this gorgeous build when it will have a thorough shoot of its own?”
This year, I got the chance to shoot his RE-Amemiya FD RX7. This year… this year is the revival of one of the best “rooted” built FD RX7s the province has ever seen and is an honest tribute to one of the most iconic cars from Japanese auto culture. In one of my Instagram teaser posts, I promised an in-depth shoot and article on this car. You can quote me on this. It’s the real deal.
As with every article I’ve ever shot and mentioned in the commentary, at heart I’m about the balance of both form and function. It appeases my personal taste in cars when I see something that looks outstanding and can function – whether it be a drift car, straight line car, or something built for speed and handling.
Aside from the seriousness of the shoot, this will be at the top of the list as one of my most memorable shoots. If you’re a photographer like myself, you can probably remember the exact time an image was taken or the details of the shoot itself. This shoot will be ingrained in my memory with images of three things: it was hot and humid, there was a lot of mosquitoes (poor choice of clothing on Patrick’s part) and this was the most physical shoot I’ve ever done. Every shot you see here, outside of the rolling shots, the car had to be pushed into position. Mumble mumble something about big injectors and a rotary.
The first thing you’ll notice about this car is that it looks menacing. The areo up front is highly aggressive. The next thing you’ll notice is the color: a dark burgundy-crimson flaked “Italian Racing Red.” The third is the way the wide-body kit is so subtly molded to the body and how it accents the lines and enhances the curves.
To put this in perspective and with all credit due to Larry Olson, Patrick noted that nearly 250 hours were put into the body work alone.
Stepping into performance… the real hold-up with this shoot was Patrick getting the wheels re-done. This tiny little rotary is generating enough power to make a stout 530 horsepower at the rear wheels. The width of the rear wheels had been extended to 11 inches to not only fill out the fender-wells, but to host the 295 width Advan tires that took the gruelling forces and propelled this car. Quickly.
Some have commented that this car “sits too high.” My thoughts are this: Patrick drives this car. It wasn’t built to roll slowly over every nook, crack and pothole on the roads of this city. It wasn’t built to be a half disappointment to the legendary RX7 name and have only looks. That’s like having a blind date with an overly attractive other half and finding out that beauty is the only thing going for them. That’s like opening a Kinder Surprise egg without a toy inside. These similes are meant to illustrate the joy of a driving experience.
The Borg Warner 8374 EFR turbo doesn’t seem to lag if paired with an AEM methanol injection kit, resulting in a downright snappy powerband. It makes all of the holy rotary noises while violently climbing the revs.
My favourite visual aspect of this car begins at the front of the splitter to the joining of the front fenders and doors. The combination of the carbon fiber canards and the carbon fiber fender diffusers lead my eye right to the point where the wide-body kit mates to the front third of the car. The flow of the kit continues through the sideskirts that lead you to the hips of the car for an elegant middle third. At the rear of the car lies a tall carbon fiber GT wing at the rear third of the car. If I was to personify this vehicle (let’s not start a gender argument) – she has an astonishing form.
The little bits that tie together the front end of the car with the rest: the carbon fiber mirror and rear wing. The interior rear of the car has been stripped and replaced with a simple black rear cage. The wiring tucked and functionally accessible through the rear hatch. Details – always details – when looking deeper into Patrick’s build.
I’ve written enough – this car truly speaks for itself. The heat that evening, the pushing of the car multiple times, and the jungle-like swarms of mosquitoes we had to endure to get the strobe shot… none of that effort compares to the time put into this car. However, I did feel bad for Patrick, who decided to wear only shorts and a t-shirt into the outskirts of the city. I got bit quite badly by the mosquitoes through a bunnyhug (a “hoodie” for those not from the prairies) and jeans. You can only imagine the torture he went through while I ran the circumference of the pond five times to hand strobe his car from 200 feet across.
By the way, that aforementioned and updated build list for 2018 – “It needs a bit more work” looks something like this:
Motor
-13B-REW with an Extreme Street Port built and tuned by Force Fed Racing
-2mm high boost apex seals
-RE-Amemiya Competition rotors
-Lightened flywheel
-A custom twin scroll turbo manifold built by Force Fed Racing
-Borg Warner 8374 EFR turbo
-Greddy Profec Spec B boost controller
-A custom 3inch down pipe built by Force Fed Racing
-Fujitsubo Giken 3.5” exhaust with Magnaflow resonator
-Dual Tial MV-S 38mm wastegates (with open dump screamer pipes)
-Full Function Engineering fuel rails
-4x1000cc injectors primary and secondary
-Chevy LS3 ignition coils
-Greddy compression elbow
-Mishimoto 3 row radiator – V mount configuration with CXRacing intercooler
-Angel Motor Sports AST delete tank
-AEM water-methanol injection
-Microtech LT9C ECU with Pro Dash data logger
-A full wire tuck done by Patrick himself
Trans and diff
-upgraded 99 Spec trans with CSport short throw shifter
-reinforced PPF
-RX8 differential with 4.44 gears
-Tomei 2way LSD
-A custom differential brace built by Force Fed Racing
-Rotary Performance solid differential bushings
-ACT Extreme 6-puck clutch
Suspension and brakes
-HKS Hipermax coilovers with a 16k spring rate front and rear
-Sustec Tanabe front tower brace
-A custom rear tower brace built by Hard Luck Fabrications
-Rotary Performance launch kit
-Rotary Performance front sway bar brace
– Hawk pads
-Rodriguez Motorsports ABS delete kit
-Sake Bomb Garage braided brake and clutch lines
-6 point roll bar and side bars built by Hard Luck Fabrications
Wheels and Tires
-Weds Wheels Kranze LXZ 9.5 inch +28 front, 11 inch +34 rear
-Advan Neova AD08R 265/35/18 front 295/30/18 rear
Exterior
-RE-Amemiya GT-AD wide-body kit painted Italian Racing Red
-Built 2 Apex front splitter
-Craft Square carbon mirrors
-RE-Amemiya wet carbon GT wing
-EVO-R Demon-i head lights
-99 Spec tail lights
Who would have thought such a beautiful RX7 would be hiding in the prairies of Saskatchewan? Another “diamond in the rough” automotive fairy tale with an absolute ending leaving no room for a sequel. Another few things that attract me to featuring a car is the principle of patience, effort, and passion. Patience for quality, patience for enduring the time of doing things properly and not rushing. Effort – outside of the build. The truth is cars cost money. Time and money relate to a build. If you’re patient with your time, and work hard, the dream of yours will take form. Passion. You can really tell when someone is passionate about their build or their chassis of choice. Instead of saying “it’s my beater” the attitude should be “this is what I have, and it’s the best I can create out of it”.
All three of those traits lie directly with Patrick.
I’d like to thank Patrick for spending several hours out of his time to sit down and shoot his sum of a labor of love – and once again for assisting for that strobe shot in which he got eaten alive.
-Lee.