It’s a great time to be alive, especially for pixel masters in the interwebs. In 2022, two digitally imagined vehicles made it to SEMA, giving more hope for cool automotive design concepts still stuck in the digital realm.
If you’ve been following our stories, you probably read our piece on Karan Adivi’s (@karanadivi on Instagram) digitally designed 1967 Ford Mustang that featured in the 2022 SEMA show.
The build by Chris Steinbacher of B is for Build YouTube channel started its life as a film set with a Bugatti Veyron. Its short stint at Hollywood dramatically ended after it got T-boned by a cop car – we can’t blame the scriptwriters for being imaginative.
But that’s not the focus of this piece, but rather an LTO Widebody Mazda RX-7 that also escaped the shackles of wishful thinking and graced the 2022 SEMA show.
The best thing about the human imagination is that it’s not confined by the laws of realism. And as a result, the creative work of pixel master Khyzyl Saleem (@The_Kyza on Instagram) didn’t step into the real world with anything you’d find in a third-generation RX-7 but a 12-pot mill gutted from a Pagani Zonda.
Yes! You read that right! This third-generation Mazda RX-7 doesn’t pack the legendary rotary engine it’s famous for, but an M120 Mercedes-Benz V12 engine. It's the same powerplant used in the former S600 and, you guessed it, Pagani Zonda.
Built by Florida-based Gooichi Motors, this crazy JDM-German cocktail wasn’t as easy to put together as it was to imagine. Most parts had to be custom-made, including the harnesses and accessories.
There are tons of swaps done on this generation of the RX-7, perhaps to avoid using the rotary engine, but there’s none quite done like this. And as you’ll notice in the video below, this custom build doesn’t have a hood, thanks to the V12 centerpiece.
The builders, Yasiel Depew and Sam Morris of Gooichi Motors, in a YouTube video uploaded by Larry Chen, said the donor Pagani Zonda 12-cylinder mill was a junkyard find from Miami initially used as a mock-up engine.
“People see this swap, and they think yeah, it’s a V12, it’s cool, but like this motor, in particular, is really heavily developed,” Morris told Chen.
It’s a pity we don’t get to hear the Pagani-sourced V12 heart scream in the video, but they estimate the power range to be between 850 hp (862 ps) to 1000 hp (1,014 ps).
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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