Steven Barnett dropped one of the most epic runs at the 2019 Sydney Jamboree a few weeks ago when he reset the record for the quickest pass by an Australian 13B rotary motor.
Barnett’s 6.709 at 213mph bettered his own Australian record of 6.93, set in his Mazda RX3 coupe.
There is still much to come from the Mazda 6, which only went 1.07 to the 60 foot marker and poured on 50mph in the second half of the track.
The former Olympic diver said that the run felt pretty straight from his perspective.
“I didn’t have to steer much which is great because it shows that the car is set up right,” he said.
“We knew that we had all the right ingredients for a fast car and we had hoped to show some of the car’s potential, but you never really know what you have until it has run.”
Barnett said the team are aiming to be up there with the quickest 13B-powered cars in the world. The world record is currently a 6.33/217mph, set by Jose Olivo of Puerto Rico at Orlando Speed World earlier this year. Barnett’s big speed showed that he has the horsepower to be able to mix it at the top.
“Not much went perfect in our first pass! We believe that the car can 60 foot much better and run quicker to the half,” he said. “We did have a very strong back half of the race track and 213mph is a huge achievement with a small 2 rotor engine.
“I think that the car can be consistently running with the best 13B cars in the world and our goal is to be number one.”
While the tremendous numbers on the readout boards were inspiring plenty of congratulations on social media, Barnett said it only came after plenty of effort.
“We had some problems with the clutch and the air shifting in testing the day before, among other small teething problems which you would expect with a new car. We worked through them and got a great result which is testament to the quality of my crew,” he said.
Check out the video of the run below.
