RESURRECTION OF A TRAILBLAZER

The old adage ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ never rings more true than in the world of cars. It’s through these connections that true gold can be unearthed or perhaps those parts that you simply can’t find anywhere for sale these days magically appear. So, when your circle of friends includes motorsport legends such as Yoshimi Katayama or T Okura, then those little gems tend to be some truly special pieces of Japanese automobilia, as evidenced by the string of Mazdas that Warwick and Andre Mortimer have purchased and imported over the years — cars that would never have been offered to the general public.

Of this lot, arguably the most important and significant piece has been the March 84G chassis No. 7, which Mazdaspeed campaigned for one race only: the 1984 Fuji 1000, with it surviving 153 laps of a possible 226 before a turbo failure