If there’s one thing that’s severely lacking within our online automotive communities, it’s a good sense of humour.

The irony of it is that pretty much every car human I know in real life is great craic. Even the most competitive & professional people I know have a side to them which they often let out away from prying eyes. Has anyone read Adrian Newey’s book ‘How to Build A Car’? I think that’s maybe all the evidence needed for someone who looks terribly serious all of the time, but has a wild side too.

I know this is just the nature of online communication, where it’s difficult to detect certain humour triggers and most people just avoid even trying to be funny in order to avoid the almost guaranteed misinterpretation and subsequent argument which will follow. It’s just how it is.

However, when Daniel Piker submitted these photographs of Tim Pardue’s Mazda RX-7, I have to admit that I got a decent chuckle from them. Behind the humour, there’s a pretty cool car with an interesting back story, too. 

I’ll let Tim take it from here…

Tim Pardue: The car was imported from Japan by C&S Performance in Cranbrook, BC. It had a complete overhaul upon its arrival.

The C-West N1 bumper and sideskirts were added along with a Shine Auto RE-Pro style Rear Diffuser and Carbon Spoiler. A VIS Racing Carbon Hood and Hatch were added to complete the carbon accents. The sideskirts were molded to the body and the car was painted GM Arctic White with custom flake and blue pearl added.

The Enkei RP01 wheels were also finished in GM Arctic White. Megan Racing coilovers were chosen to get the proper stance. The engine was upgraded to a large streetport 13B-REW with non sequential twin turbos, custom FMIC and radiator, throttle body secondary butterflies deleted, emissions deleted, Racing Beat pullies, upgraded to 850cc Primary injectors, Walbro 255lph, all controlled by the Apexi PowerFC.

The transmission was rebuilt with longer gears and an Exedy clutch was installed to help with the added power.

I had the opportunity to purchase the car from Craig at C&S Performance last November 2017. I had met Craig a couple of years prior when he had come down to Seattle for HIN and brought the FD along having completed the car not long before.

I had sold my previous RX-7 in the fall of 2014 and decided it was time to look into realizing my ultimate goal of owning an imported RX-7 just like the ones I always covered as a kid playing the original Gran Turismo.

Our mutual friend Brian of Phantasy Kolors found out I was looking and it just so happened Craig was trying to find the right buyer to move the car so he could begin his next project. Everything just sort of fell into place like it was meant to be.

Then, came the month long wait until I could drive up to Cranbrook to get the car.

I really wanted a custom plate on the car that was rotary related. Something catchy. Something unique. Easily identifiable. In the rotary community we have an ongoing joke about the cars being powered by Doritos. Obviously, because the rotors are triangles.

It was a no brainer when I looked online and both “DORITOS” and “DORI7OS” were available. Due to the car being an RX-7, being part of the F7LTHY family, and 7 being my favorite number I had to choose the latter option. What I didn’t expect was it to be such a hit.

Surprisingly, many people can’t decipher that the 7 is a T. About 50% of those that can decipher the plate think I really like Doritos, the others get the rotary joke. And, that’s exactly what it is. What better way to express my sense of humor than through my passion for cars?

I had a friend invite me out to meet a couple of his photographers and I thought it would be fun to show up with a few bags of Doritos and add them into some pictures. We had a good laugh about it and it turned out pretty well. Then, I decided to one up myself.

I showed up to the next shoot with a few different photographers and surprised them with a trunk full of Doritos. About 35 bags. Completely blew their minds and I couldn’t stop laughing at their reactions. It was so funny.

The conversations that I’ve had with cashiers when buying so many chips make it well worth the price, too. I decided to take the car to a few shows and again filled the trunk as part of my display. The reactions of people walking by and seeing the trunk were so entertaining.

Some get it. Some don’t. Regardless, who doesn’t like Doritos?

I have a very strong affinity for puns and the car has become part of that. I think it turned out even better than I had expected.

Truth be told it kind of brought me out of a really tough few years that started when I had to give up on my dream car and it feels good to be back. I can’t and won’t take credit for the build because that’s all Craig and he’s now a good friend, but I’m honored to own a beautiful machine that people seem to love.

I can’t wait to put my vision to it, though. She needs my unique flavor.

Spicy Nacho coming soon…

Words by Tim Pardue
Instagram: buildabonfire

Photos by Daniel Piker 
Instagram: pikerphoto

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