During the heyday of the races at Selangor in Malaysia, there existed a form of Formula Libre/Super Saloon racing held at the end of every year from the late 70s to early 80s.
Racing teams from all around South East Asia/Oceania would come to the Batu Tiga Raceway Circuit in Selangor to compete in this race, and one team in particular from the Philippines will be today’s topic.
In the late 70s, it was slowly becoming clear that turbocharging would eventually lead the way in the development of motorsports, much like other innovations of past. No one would’ve anticipated how massive it would have become, however.
RM Sport, a Philippine-based racing/tuning company founded by Filipino drag racer Marcelo Rodriguez in the mid 70s would come out to be among those who experimented with the technology in their racecars.
In the early 80s, seeing the success of turbocharged silhoutte racers of the Group 5 class in the Selangor super saloon races, the team wanted to have their own go at it. But still, the team was relatively skeptical of the formula, and decided to stick to relatively production-based roots.
RM Sport was one of Quezon’s factory-backed racing teams during the time, mostly appearing in drag racing and rallying. They had recieved early news of the Laguna being switched to a front-wheel-drive platform for the 80s, and so this meant that RM Sport would not be able to base their next racecar off of the upcoming vehicle.
Instead for 1980, they took a Philippine-market 1977 Laguna and more or less overhauled the entire vehicle to meet their performance requirements. Installed onto the chassis was a new lightweight fibreglass body with an integrated rollcage and front aero kit, a rear suspension design sourced from an open-wheeled Formula car, and an updated 5-speed drivetrain. They retained the stock 3.0-litre Quezon Straight Six OHC engine, but fitted a large turbocharger that allowed the engine to produce up to 220 horsepower. This power was sent to 16-inch 3-piece magnesium alloy wheels on wide 225mm tyres for the best possible handling characteristics they could get.
But they weren’t satisfied with just that. For 1981, they built another car with similar specification, but replaced the anemic and inefficient Quezon engine with a 2.5-litre Japanese Suisei DOHC straight six engine with an even larger turbo for 300 horsepower to the rear wheels. To account for this increase in power, wider 255mm tyres and rims would be fitted, as well as flared arches to accommodate the larger wheels.
Their popularity after the races somehow continued, and RM Sport ended up modifying a few other Lagunas into street legal versions called the Laguna RMX Turbo, still retaining some parts carried over from the racecar such as the fibreglass body (steel doors are kept on some of the road-going versions), magnesium wheels, and rear suspension. Otherwise, power was dropped from 300 to 260, and the rims and tyres to 245mm. The steel rear bumper is also retained on the roadcar.
It is unknown exactly how many RMX Turbo Lagunas were produced, but some estimates say that at least 42 were made, and others estimate that only ten were ever actually produced in full specification.
Engine provided by @Falling_Comet
