One of our favorite tuner specials in recent Tokyo Auto Salon memory was RE Amemiya’s rotary-powered Mazda Chantez. As Ricky Silverio explained back when the car debuted in 2016, the car hearkens back to the legendary rotary tuning house’s roots, when founder and rotary mad scientist Isami Amemiya built a drag car out of the rear-wheel-drive kei hatchback. The new car is more of a circuit monster, and because Ama-san doesn’t just build anything for show, in this Option video you can watch it roar around Tsukuba Circuit.
With a 276-horsepower peripheral port 13B capable under the hood, it’s one fast kei. In the video, Nobuteru Taniguchi casually slings it around the TC2000 course in just 1:06:425 with engine at full bombination, landing it somewhere between a stock Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A and an R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. For more on the car, see our Tokyo Auto Salon report.
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What I want to know is…what’s up with the Roadster behind Nob when he is doing the interview?