Revelation

REVELATION

What would Jesus ride?

INSPIRATION WORKS IN mysterious ways. A friend’s sand rail sent Rodney Aguiar spinning. It was powered by a Mazda 13B rotary fitted with short straight pipes. “The sound was something that you felt as much as you heard—it blew right through my inner ear,” he explains. “Ever since, I wanted to put a 13B in something.”

Aguiar’s job as hired-gun custom fabricator for the likes of RSD’s Roland Sands meant he was uniquely equipped to handle the task. A neighbor’s crashed 1988 RX-7 provided a convenient starting point. Four months later, “Revelation” was on the road.

Aguiar began by cutting down the Mazda’s bell housing to mate with an adaptor plate he made to fit a 1995 BMW RI 100GS transmission, after praying that the single-plate clutch was man enough for the job. The Beemer also donated its driveshaft/swingarm and rear wheel. A 2005 Suzuki GSXR750 sacrificed its front end for the cause.

Tying it all together, Aguiar fabricated the steel framework and started on the sheetmetal that would transform his creation into something resembling a motorcycle. No simple task considering the twin gas tanks-1.5 gallons each-are split by the frame’s backbone and had to be formed around the distributor sticking straight up on the left side of the motor. Other obstacles like the water pump and massive motor mounts made the work even more painstaking. It took hour after hour of metal cutting, hammering, grinding and welding.

The inside of a rotary engine-if you haven’t seen one-doesn’t have connecting rods and reciprocating pistons, but looks more like a torture chamber meant to chum flesh and bone into gruel. It gets hot as Hell, too, hence the quad array of belly fans to suck air through the under-engine radiator. Click on the ignition and the fans spin up furiously, threatening to vault the bike skyward like a Harrier jump-jet.

Hit the starter button and the term “fire it up” has never been more appropriate. Revelation lets loose with a blood-curdling wail that shakes the very nerve center in the base of your brain. It’s even hard to focus your eyes during the neurological sonic assault.

The 13B was Mazda’s most prolific Wankel motor, built for 30 years. In stock, normally aspirated form it made 148 horsepower. Revelation is cranking out 250-plus thanks in part to the gaping maws of the 48mm Weber double-barrel side-draft carb. Downside to that state of tune is that at full apocalyptic fury, it nets all of 6 miles per gallon-18 miles ’til the tanks run dry! And that poor BMW clutch? It stands about as much chance as a backslider in a brothel.

One ride on the beast was enough for Aguiar to get religion in a hurry. Hardly a holy-roller, he hedged his bets by covering the bike in scripture.

Says Aguiar, “Now that it is done, the only place to go is Bonneville.

The goal is 200 mph. I can only hope that if I crash, God knows I'm running him as my sponsor."Mark Cernicky