Thursday, 7 October 1993

FD3s Version II RZ

The rarest special version of FD from Mazda is this one. The 1993 RII RZ. Only 150 of these babies made it onto the JD Market and they are hard to find. With a lot of 93-95 cars looking very similar the Rz really is hard to pick out externally. All options were available from the option book, so effectively you could build an Rz from a basic RII version anyway. So what is so special?

Brilliant Black again was the only colour and of course it was 5 speed manual transmission only. Internally, the Rz only carbon kevlar Recaro seats, knee pads and passenger foot rest returned to pretty much make the same spec with optional audio and air-conditioning for light weight "race" feel. The Bilstein dampers returned from the version I Rz along with most other components from the original. The 17" +40 offset BBS RSII rims available on the RII though, also found their way onto the Rz. They were equipped in the same size with front 8" and rear 8.5" matched to Bridgestone Exspedia S-07 tyres in 235/45 and 255/40 sizes respectivly.

Along with the rigidity changes of the base models and refinements made to the suspension. This Rz was again as sharp a performer as ever. This even better Rz was also equipped with a tighter race type Torsen LSD for a bit more grip. For a showroom special from the early nineties, you cant really go past this one.

Russ.