The Southern California RX Club held its annual celebration of all things rotary today at Mazda's HQ in Irvine, California. Every conceivable RX vehicle and rotary powered conversion showed up at the 9th annual SevenStock event. According to the organizers, SevenStock is the largest single day Rotary enthusiast gathering in the world. And it would be very hard to argue with them on that. Some 500 RXes had already turned up this morning by the time we had to leave. Last year's crowd was estimated at 5,000, and it wouldn't be too much of a leap to say that this year looked to be at least that big.
Resembling a typical meet with lots of vendors and special displays, the SevenStock event adds a unique twist for Mazda lovers. Showing how dedicated it is to its zoom-zooming enthusiast owners, Mazda not only invited the group onto its campus, but they also brought out examples of their most historical production models and some of their most significant rotary-powered racecars as well.
More info and photos after the jump.
Although a lot of SoCal RotorHeads show up for this event, it is a national phenomenon. Caravans from the Northwest, Midwest and Southeast converged on the Mazda facility this morning. They were greeted by a small army of helpful volunteers pointing them to their designated parking area. They also passed a fleet of transporters giving hints as to what awaited them inside the race corral.
How about a 1986 Racing Beat Mazda RX-7 that sported a turbocharged 530-hp, 2-rotor, which pushed it to a top speed of 244.132 mph and a two-way average of 238.442 mph?
Two of the 1984 Jim Busby team Lola T616s powered by the Mazda 13B Rotary.
Jeff Altenburg's SCCA SPEED World Challenge Touring Car.
IMSA GTO RX-7 and GTU MX-6 from the early '90s.
The big 4-rotor RX-792P from 1992.
This year's B-K Motorsports Courage C65-Mazda ALMS (LMP2) car, fresh from the finale at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Pretty nice reception.
But although these were quite impressive, SevenStock is really a meet for owners.
Whole rows of rotary powered gems were waiting just outside the corral. Grouped by model it was nice to walk through Mazda rotary history, from the R100, Cosmo, RX-2 through the RX-3, RX-4 and –5,
all the way up to the RX-7 and –8.
Absolutely loved the "Godzilla Defense Force" car: "Failing to Protect Tokyo Since 1954."
From stock to strip, mild to wild, and everything in between.
Even a Wankelized MGB, a rotary motorcycle and an original NSU were on hand.
And for those who got tired of looking at cars, there was entertainment, shopping at the vendor booths, a small selection of new parts being cleared out by Mazda themselves (my buddy snagged a Mazda5 cargo cover for $10!), food and inevitably, more cars. Great event with a real family feel to it. Always nice to see how enthusiastic people can be about their rides. Whether they are keeping them as original as possible, restoring them to former glory or modifying them to within an inch of their lives, the Zoom-Zoom spirit is alive and well. This will probably become an annual must-attend event from now on. Note to self: Remember earplugs for the racecar demonstrations next year.
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