AWD 4-Rotor Turbo Mazda RX-7 Drags 1,200-HP 2020 Audi TT RS, It’s a Surprise Win

Everyone probably knows the ‘Hoonigan’ guys because of their involvement with the dearly departed Ken Block, who was the man, the driver, and the legend Head Hoonigan In Charge (HHIC) until his untimely demise earlier this year. Of course, in the jester spirit of their friend and mentor, the good yet slightly unhinged folks have continued the ‘party’ with the same poise and aplomb – and that includes lots of content on their channel.

In between Ken Block homages and monster projects, they are now back with their well-respected ‘This versus That’ series, which took a short break a couple of months ago to find a new pace and additional composure. As such, their new party trick is labeled as ‘This vs Dahm’ because the famous Rob Dahm has joined the ranks as a recurring guest, along with his rather unique project car, over the past couple of races against an 850-hp Jeep Trackhawk and Ford F-150. Now, though, the tough are ready to get going.

But first, let us meet the contestants. On the left side of the airstrip, we have Rob Dahm’s masterpiece, as the guy who rotary-swapped a Corvette finally accomplished his childhood FD3S Mazda RX-7 dream and now has a green hulk of a billet 4-rotor turbocharged coupe with 1,000-horsepower (on the dyno), a six-speed sequential, AWD, and a 3,500-lbs (1,588 kg) weight. Next to it resides Hank from Iroz Motorsport with a NOS-boosted Audi TT RS packing a reworked 2.5-liter turbo inline-five.

The figures don’t look great for Rob, be sure of that, as the ‘Skittles’ from Ingolstadt – as one of the guys called it – comes in lighter at 3,000 lbs. (1,361 kg), has more power with a claimed 1,200 ponies on top with the NOS installation, and is also AWD plus equipped with a 7-speed DCT. Besides, there is also the subjective factor of Iroz being the tuner of Rob Dahm’s car, so they know the ins and outs of it, plus Hank has ‘a tad’ more experience with fine-tuning and racing. However, they are going in with split decisions about who takes the win from the sides, so it must be a balanced race – at least from a distance.

Round one saw the unique RX-7 and the heavily tuned TT RS go for a head-to-head over 1,000 yards (914 meters), and – surprisingly or not, the bonkers Mazda claimed victory by around half a car’s length. The second race was over 1,500 yards (1,372 meters), and this time around, the TT RS came up on top by around four car lengths. To settle the dispute once and for all, they rekindled the initial distance but again the Audi was quicker. In the end, as always, there can be only one, which is probably why Hank bewildered everyone after he admitted to using the party trick (aka the NOS boost) during the last couple of runs!