In 1981 an RX-7 was entered in the RAC Rally of the World Rally Championship and finished 11th overall. This great result led Mazda to begin development of an RX-7 that would conform to the International Group B category. In May 1983 it established the Mazda Rally Team of Europe and participated in that year's Acropolis Rally with a Group II RX-7 with a 12A engine.
  In 1984, the team mounted an evolved 13B engine and participated in Group B, with one of the cars finishing in 9th place overall in the Acropolis Rally.