Mazda’s rotary cars have a distinctive sound, and when uncorked, you can hear them coming from literal miles away. This 616 sedan (known by the name RX-2 here in the U.S. market) was prepared for hillclimb racing with a wild 12A engine providing propulsion, and it spits, pops, and zooms exactly like you’d expect it to. In the video below you can watch it take on Rod Millen’s Leadfoot Festival, and it’s a spectacular sight.

Originally sold as a simple family sedan, this machine has been given a wild transformation. With giant fender flares to fit massive section-width tires, and about 285 seriously sonorous horsepower sat under the hood, this is an extreme machine. Every effort has been made to pull weight out of the sedan, and now it weighs just under 2000 pounds. That’s a pretty significant disparity from the car’s origins.

Because this car was imported to New Zealand in 2006 still in original street car condition, I like to imagine how the original owners might react to seeing this car in action. Could they possibly have known their family truckster would one day be transformed into a racing monster? Of course not. Nobody ever predicts this kind of thing.

Do you think that your current daily driver will be converted into a race car in forty years?