After a few teasers over the the past few weeks the Pac Performance team have unveiled their two brand-new pro cars that we will be racing in the Factory Xtreme class – the new Pac Performance RX9 & Sadek Racing Camaro.
A project in the works for the past few race seasons, the team working on the car after hours, the new RX9’s debut was pushed forward after an unfortunate incident in the Mazda6 SP during testing that put the car out of action.
“We’d been planning on retiring the Mazda6 for some time now, but the desire to race and test meant that the date kept getting pushed back until I had a bump with the wall at Sydney Dragway a few months ago,” explained George Rehayem. “It was an unfortunate incident and not the kind of send-off we wanted for the car, but we all knew it was time and this just forced us to get a move on and make things happen.”
The Reese Brothers Race Cars chassis started life as a C7 Corvette Pro Mod which has now been transformed into an RX9 concept, dressed to impress in the iconic Pac yellow by Danny Makdessi and the team at Custom Bodyworks. The fresh exterior was then finished off with the new livery, designed by Jet Pac Dezign and applied by Pro Signs Australia, making the car look fast even when standing still.
Under the skin, the running gear from the Mazda6 SP has been transferred over, albeit with a few tweaks and upgrades, with all the latest and greatest gear finding its way into the car. Powering the car is the same Billet By Pac 20B, fed by a single Garrett Advancing Motion G-Series turbo that will be sending charged air through a custom intake manifold, designed specifically for the new car.
While the choice was made recently to switch back to a full manual transmission in the Mazda6, the boys have decided to go with the Liberty transmission, backed by a Quick Drive once again in the new car in an effort to keep things nice and consistent while testing and understanding the new chassis.
“The Quick Drive setup just makes things so much more consistent and enjoyable, without the stress of setting up the clutch, and this allows us to be able to focus a lot more on not only our own cars, but our customers cars as well which can be a challenge on race day,” said Rocky Rehayem.
Controlling the show is a full suit of MoTeC products, based around the proven M150 management system which Rocky will use to keep the monster under control on the track.
The sleek new body and lightweight chassis provides a wide range of benefits over the previous chassis that while still very cable, was dated and after the incident would have required significant bodywork to get back on track. This made the choice to finally get the new car race ready, a very simple one and really lit a fire inside the team, driving them to make things happen in very little time with the help of our awesome sponsors and long-time supporters.
Taking the excitement of the event to a whole other level, Pac Performance had the Sadek Racing Team roll out Sam ‘The Godfather’ Sadek’s new Pro Car as well – a sinister-looking Pro Mod Camaro, running not 3, but 4 rotors, Yes that’s right, a 26B!
In development for the past 12 months, the all-new 4-rotor combo features a host of custom and one-off components as well as many of the same Billet By Pac parts that you will find on our other race and street cars – a mix that so far has proven very effective with the current twin turbo setup, all controlled with the MoTeC M150 management system.
“This is new territory for us, but we’ve had it on the dyno a number of times over the past few months, testing and tweaking things and we’re really happy with how things are looking,” explains Rocky Rehayem. “It makes a lot of torque and we don’t have to rev it as hard which is good, so hopefully it stays together and if it does, it’s going to go fast!”
A proven combo as far as chassis and tyre size are concerned, having been raced in the US and been 3.6s over the 1/8 mile, the team have their sights well and truly set on 5-second time slips once they iron out the bugs and wrap their heads around this new engine combo which, like the RX9 runs a Liberty transmission backed with a Quick Drive which we feel will suit the 4-rotor nicely.
“In the past, we weren’t allowed to run a 4-rotor in the Factory Xtreme class we race in as it wasn’t from a production car however, with all the piston guys now using custom billet blocks and heads, the rules have been opened up somewhat, which now gives us the opportunity to do so which is very exciting.,” Rocky Rehayem added.
It will be a very exciting time for the Pac Performance and Sadek Racing teams as they head into the back half of the 2024 race season, with both cars set to make their track debuts this Thursday, testing at Sydney Dragway. Both camps are set to hit the ground running and make the most of the day, so hopefully it won’t be long before we can see these cars unleashed and running full track passes.
None of this would be possible for the teams though without the amazing support from their crew, family and friends, supporters and of course sponsors – Garrett Advancing Motion, VP Race Fuels, MoTeC, Julian from PE Racing, Connexion Concepts, Gadget Pro Electrics, Custom Bodyworks & Terry for all the carbon repairs & touch ups.
