‘Fast & Furious’ Mazda RX-7 auctioned
After setting the record price for a Fast & Furious movie car sold at auction in 2023, Bonhams almost exceeded it this past July with another car from the famous franchise.
At their Goodwood Festival of Speed auction on 11 July, Bonhams sold a 1992 Mazda FD RX-7 with a Veilside ‘Fortune’ bodykit for a staggering £911,000 (AU$1.86 million, approx.). This comes close to the AU$2.02 million Bonhams achieved with a 2000 Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R that had been used in Fast and Furious (the fourth film in the franchise) and personalised for the late Paul Walker.
This RX-7 with an extensive Veilside bodykit had been screen used in The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift and claimed to be one of only two surviving cars from the 2006 film.
In a precis of the film, rebellious street racer Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to live with his father in Japan. There, he is introduced to drifting and clashes with the Yakuza connected “Drift King” Takashi over a shared love interest. Mentored by Han Lue (played by Sung Kang), the enigmatic former drifter and friend of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Boswell learns to drift and eventually beats Takashi in a dramatic drifting finale.
In the film, the RX-7 is owned by Han and features in several sequences before being destroyed in a chase scene. Veilside’s Fortune bodykit makes the car virtually unrecognisable as an RX-7, increasing the width by more than 200mm and only leaving the roof and glass area untouched.
The Fortune kit, in the style of what Veilside had already produced to suit an A80 Supra, instantly caught the attention of representatives from Universal Studios (the film’s producers) when they travelled to Japan to get car ideas. They reportedly purchased Veilside’s own fully kitted-out Mazda RX-7 show car, along with enough Fortune bodykits to build six more cars for use in stunt and drifting sequences.
All were painted in the same distinctive high-gloss black and pearlescent orange livery that the auction car wears, rolling on 19-inch Andrew Premier Series Racing Evolution 5 wheels (12 inches wide at the rear) with Pirelli P Zero Nero tyres.
The car auctioned by Bonhams has resided in the UK since 2008, being acquired directly by the sole UK owner from New Era Imports, who had been involved on the film with Veilside and Universal Studios. Employed primarily for stunt and static scenes, rather than drifting sequences, the car was said to be one of only two surviving examples of the Veilside Fortune-kitted RX-7 used in the film.
Described as being in generally excellent condition, the RX-7 came to auction still carrying numerous Universal Studios markings, including '#71 HANS' labels on the passenger door, engine bay and firewall, as well as marks left by camera mounts.
Prior to shipping to the UK, the RX-7 was comprehensively overhauled, with a new clutch, brakes, suspension and Blitz Nur-Spec exhaust system fitted. The car's 1308cc twin-rotor turbocharged engine was rebuilt by RE-Amemiya in close-to-stock tune, producing a claimed 280hp (208kW). Around 5,000 miles are said to have been covered since the aforementioned works were carried out and 66,785 miles from new.
Inside, the auction car was fitted with Veilside racing bucket seats, along with custom carbon fibre, aluminium, velour, vinyl and chrome trim. A multi-speaker Alpine sound system had been installed, as well as a passenger-side viewscreen and a NOS bottle between the seats, although this was not plumbed in.
In April, this Mazda RX-7 went to auction with another UK company but failed to meet its reserve. At the Bonhams auction in July, the car carried an estimate of AU$520,000-$720,000, with documents provided by the owner regarding its provenance, authenticity and screen use, plus UK rego and roadworthy. Given the final AU$1.86M final price (including buyer’s premium), that estimate proved to be conservative.
The result comfortably makes this RX-7 the most expensive Mazda road car sold at auction, beating the old record of US$246,000 (AU$282,000 approx.) set by a 1967 Cosmo Sport in 2014. However, it falls short of the most expansive Mazda auction price of all time; US$1.75 million (AU$2.29M approx.) achieved by a 1989 767B endurance racer in 2017.
Photos: Courtesy of Bonhams
