Cory Abbott in action at Meremere Dragway with his New Zealand record-holding Mazda RX-7. Photo / Colin Smith
Cory Abbott in action at Meremere Dragway with his New Zealand record-holding Mazda RX-7. Photo / Colin Smith
The flame-spitting Mazda RX-7 of Pāpāmoa's Abbott Brothers' drag racing team is showing plenty of pace in preparation for this weekend's Brisbane Jamboree sport compact festival in Australia.
Wednesday evening test runs at the Willowbank Raceway near Brisbane saw Cory Abbott power to a new personal best with the 13Bturbocharged Mazda RX-7, which is tuned by his brother Jeremy.
The Abbotts sliced almost two-tenths of a second off their previous best with a scorching 6.636secs quarter-mile run at 189.92mph. The elapsed time eclipses their previous best ET — and New Zealand class record — of 6.829secs but falls short of their highest finish line speed which remains at 197.16mph.
The team are competing in the Pro Compact class of this weekend's Jamboree.
The Abbotts shipped their Mazda to Queensland a year ago for the 2018 Jamboree and qualified number two in Pro Compact before the event was rained out. Bad weather has also cut short several other outings in Australia during the last year.
Cory Abbott says recent updates to the Mazda include a revised rear suspension set-up plus a new turbocharger with improved flow that has yielded a horsepower increase. The starting point for this week's 6.636secs run was a career-best 1.03secs launch increment to the 60-foot timing beams.
There are 20 teams entered in the Pro Compact class — rotary and four-cylinder cars — this weekend with the Abbott's RX-7 ranked among the quickest contenders.
The other New Zealander in action at the Jamboree is Auckland's Rod Harvey with his six-cylinder turbocharged Toyota Camry racing in the Factory Xtreme category.
At a Willowbank test earlier this month Harvey unleashed a new 5.708secs/256.08mph personal best run that consolidated his rankings as the third quickest and second fastest "import" drag racer in the world.
