Road to the RobPacer EP1 The Chariot

What does it take to create something unique but authentic, fresh but familiar, recognisable yet unconventional? When we invited Rob Dahm all the way from America for the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, we knew we couldn't just put him behind the wheel of any street car. It had to be a rotary and it had to be a statement. After putting the call out to our community, Jay Duca from Low Standards stepped up to the plate to help us realise a vision that pays homage to a legendary piece of South Australian history. We were going to build a reimagining of the Mazda Road Pacer. To bring this concept to life, Jay sourced a 1974 HQ Kingswood and prepared it for a heart transplant that would make the original Mazda engineers blush. We joined the journey with Rob landing in Australia on Tuesday and the goal of cruising the streets of Adelaide by Friday. Things are about to get busy. I'm Jay from Low Standards and this is the HQ we're building for Rob, coming all the way from America to take to the Adelaide Motorsport Festival. It's going to be rotary powered but you'll have to find out more after we go get Rob right now. So I have landed here in Adelaide after 26 hours of traveling from LA and I'm greeted with the most beautiful chaos that for once isn't caused by me. I get to be a bystander. Now I want to point out I was in Brisbane just a second ago and I was looking at the magazine section Burning Time on my layover and I see this car. It had nothing to do with any of these plans. I see a magazine with this car on it and I see Jay smiling. I'm like, no way. So that was funny. Well then I get here and it's the same car and Jay's not smiling. He's with a couple cops and you can see why the real smile has been faded from his face. He came to pick me up in this beautiful car and there's a big speed bump that took out his front splitter or front lip which is now in the back of the car and of course it got attention. So I understand we're here together and I want the people to know that we're both people of the last minute. I just, what it even is today? A few days before the event. That's what I'm trying to say. It's either Tuesday or Wednesday. This weekend is an event and while I normally set a bad example, I think Jay is setting a good example of how quickly you can get a car built but I have not seen this. This is literally fresh for you guys. Not fresh for you but fresh for me. Not only have you not seen this project, you've probably never seen a car like this in your life. No. It's all new so yeah pretty cool and exciting. Yeah so let's see what we're carrying. What's this? So it's a 74 Holden HQ. So it's a Holden Kingswood in Australia. It's just a family vehicle, a family sedan from the 70s so it comes with a six-cylinder. Like an inline six? Yeah inline six with column automatic and it's a very basic, I guess bland vehicle how it would have started life. So our goal, if I understand it correctly, we're going to get a naturally aspirated, beautifully exhausted three-rotor running in this car? Yeah correct. I'm going to work out the day so we can be on track. It is Tuesday, the 24th of February. So a week ago I drove this into this position and I pulled the the motor out, the six-cylinder. So the motor got rebuilt on Sunday, today being Tuesday so two days ago. The wrap got done two days ago so everything's very fresh and as much as you walk in and you're excited to see it, it's new to me too. So we've got fueling, coolant, wiring, tuning, we've got all of that's part of our adventure. Tail shaft or prop shaft, whatever you guys call them. We've got no glass in it, we've got no seats in it, we've got no dash, we've got no clutch pedal, we've got no... Luke now you want to leave? Yeah the funny thing is I can't, you can't. We'll pin you down. I got nowhere else to go. It needs a lot but this is what we do, this is what you do. If your heart's in it, we'll just get it done. You were saying that this car actually is very special to you. Very, very. It's a very big race series in Australia, still currently. They still race them so yeah it's a HQ Racing, it's a very controlled race series and this is one of the old championship winning cars and it's a very important vehicle. So everyone in Australia, everybody knows what this car is. Let's think dream scenario right now. What's the last possible moment that we can drive into the event? I think Friday afternoon because the street parade is such a moment, it is such, that is the moment that we've made it. So we have to survive an idling environment right? Like where the car's just sitting there moving slowly in traffic with the police in front of us, just like before at the airport. I was getting you ready for that. You're perfect. So ideal world, we are tuning on Thursday. That would be the dream. Friday morning if we load up and get to sit in the Haltech stand and just have a cordial or whatever you drink and tomorrow being Wednesday, we're going to start it up. So from this point we're just stuck on the hoist and we're stuck in my dusty shed in the humidity. Rob's fresh from a, I don't know how long your flight was. What combination? 26 hours. You seem excited and awake though which is cool. So our next step now is to build the car. It's so good. Yeah, you're good. I guess.