Drag-And-Drive’s Radial King RX-7 Up For Sale?
A unique drag-and-drive ride with a storied history hits the used car market tonight, when Rick Prospero’s Mazda RX-7 goes up for sale.
The Florida-based street car, known as the Green Mamba, was built as an upgrade to Rick’s former car, a ’65 Chevy Nova station wagon that secured three Hot Rod Drag Week titles. With the wagon tipping the scales at over 4,000 pounds, thoughts of relocating the twin-turbocharged powerplant to a sleeker and lighter car danced in Rick’s head for many years, so long as the new ride retained all the bells and whistles of a drag-and-drive street car. Enter a clean 1990 RX-7, which Rick transformed from a stock specimen to a beast ready to tackle not only drag-and-drive competition, but also local street car events and no-time grudge racing.
The RX-7 debuted in 2015, and immediately made a statement by winning Hot Rod Drag Week’s Modified Power Adder class. 2016 found Rick once again battling for the title, but he’d have to settle for a second-place finish.
Rick and son Cole continued to tweak the RX-7 at local events, eventually dipping into the six-second range and scoring wins at tracks around Florida. The Prosperos returned to drag-and-drive competition at this year’s Sick Week, and all their work was showcased as Rick dueled with fellow Hot Rod Drag Week winner Mikael Borggen and his six-second Volvo station wagon in the Modified class. At the end of an epic week, Prospero earned a hard-fought victory, along with a staggering 6.88-second average, the quickest drag radial-equipped drag-and-drive average in history.
We will have more on this epic RX-7, as well as more on Rick Prospero’s racing history, in the next issue of Sick the Mag! Make sure you get subscribed right now.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photo by Wes Allison.
