Bridgemoto FC RX-7

A while back, I received a call from Wooley (editor of this magazine), asking if I’d be interested in doing a photoshoot with a widebody FC RX-7. The obvious answer was yes. However, I had never met the owner of this car, Alan Newsome, and only knew about him through mutual friends and clients.

Alan owns and operates BridgeMoto with his wife, Rachel. BridgeMoto specializes in SFI/FIA approved racing equipment, like seats & harnesses… as well as driving suits, gloves, window nets, and all sorts of safety-related items.

But he twist to BridgeMoto is…

Their acute attention to style & detail, and colors that pop with a heavy JDM inspiration. Wooley forwarded me Alan’s info and we set up a date to go get photos. The night before the shoot, I got a text saying that one of the main fuses on the car had blown… and they were going to need a little more time to repair the car. Luckily, he only needed a few hours to get things sorted, and we were able to meet up that following afternoon.

At our meet-up point, I sat there & watched as Alan, plus his wife & kid, rolled up in a RHD imported Isuzu double-decker car trailer with the FC RX-7 tethered to the lower level.

That was unexpected lol. Alan introduced himself & showed me the car. It’s unreal! The amount of work put into the absolutely insane widebody was beyond impressive. While the car is not ‘perfect & flawless’, it shows great character & has such a wild presence. You’re immediately hooked & obsessed. We found the perfect spot for photos, and unloaded the RX-7.

Once Alan had laid down the ramps, he fired up the car, and it was NOT happy…

Imagine that lol. Turns out – that 100 amp main fuse had reset the tune on the car. Thankfully, it smoothed out, as the Haltech 1500 Elite ECU is self-learning. Under normal circumstances, the custom tune on the car makes just over 400 horsepower & gets used on track and backroads. The quiet North Georgia mountains where Bridgemoto’s located is the perfect touge-esque backdrop for the sights & sounds of this FC.

Under the hood of the RX-7, lies a 13B-REW rotary engine built in-house by his custom shop, Touge Techniques.

Mated-up to the custom port engine is a Garrett G30-770 turbo, exiting through a custom-made exhaust in collaboration with Walton Motorsport. Alan’s quite meticulous & detail-oriented, and just about every part under the hood had been custom made, custom fitted, and customized in every sense of the word. Yet – somehow it still feels very OEM+ under the hood, with hose-fittings designed by Alan in their signature BridgeMoto colors, and even the HKS filter to match.

Big horsepower numbers mean squat without balance…

So Alan is running Touge Techniques ‘touge & track edition’ coilovers, matched up to a set of brakes frankensteined from a Mitsubishi Evo X and Mazda FD3S. This brake setup is massive considering the overall size of the FC RX-7, and fits snug against the custom-made Mazdaspeed Rays MS-01 3-piece wheels… which are 18×11 square! And not only are they 11” wide on all 4 corners, but a zero offset at that! For those of you who are not wheel-spec nerds like myself… this means the lip on these wheels are a massive & gorgeous 5.5-inches! Yet, even with these insane wheel specs, the fitment is perfectly track-stanced & tested, with ample room for suspension travel. That’s due to the giant Ronin Speedworks widebody on the car. This kit widens the FC more than 6” over the stock body – enough room to fit the 285mm wide tires on each corner of the vehicle.

The last bits to mention on the exterior of the RX-7 are the front bumper & spoiler, which are made by RE Amemiya in Japan.

RE Amemiya’s been making high quality aftermarket Mazda parts and tuning rotaries since 1974. They are considered by many to be the holy grail for rotary enthusiasts.

Moving to the interior – the majority of products obviously have some sort of BridgeMoto logo on them.

The racing seats are BridgeMoto FiA Suzuka seats, and are supremely comfortable, even for myself & Alan who are well over 6-feet tall. The level of quality speaks for itself. They have the right amount of comfort AND the right amount of support, and they’re specifically designed to be durable in common wear-spots. The harnesses are also designed by BridgeMoto in stealth black.

But possibly my favorite BridgeMoto design comes on the steering wheel… in Touge Green.

You hardly ever see a steering wheel this color, and man it pops! Everything has it’s place, including that Haltech ECU, which is located in the glove box… out of the way of the footwell. The battery is located behind the passenger seat, helping with the car’s weight distribution just that much more. I only know it was there because it went dead and wouldn’t start in between shooting locations… racecar problems!

Finally, we loaded the RX-7 back on the trailer & headed down the road for some of the most unique rollers I’ve ever taken.

The whole thing left me with serious rotary + JDM fever. RX-7s are some of the most truly unique & iconic vehicles in all of car culture & motorsports. Yeah they’re temperamental, but that’s just part of it. Because when these things fire up & break the silence, there’s just nothing else like it. You really do feel the history – the energy, & passion that drove Mazda in this era. And I thank people like Alan for being patient & purist enough to keep that aura alive.

See this feature for real in badass S3 Magazine: Issue 57

Text & photos by Ben Battles