review of 81 RX-7 that won 24 hours of Spa
 

Great ride along...

Great to see an FB stretching it's legs!

very cool, its what every 1st gen should be

thanks man. great stuff!

i love how in the side profile of the thing you see the back end is almost half muffler. :D

Thank you thank you thank you for bringing attention to this priceless video. So much Fb race history is becoming unknown and ignored with the passage of time. So wonderful that the current owner keeps the car healthy and isn't reluctant to have it revved to 8000!!!!!

Aww, I was hoping to see onboard footage AT Spa. Spa is a mental track...

I love how it's "just modified" and not a crazy tube frame racer.

220 odd hp and still beat V8s, just like the 13Bs did at Daytona when they were down 300hp the competition.

:icon_tup:

yeah its really cool to see how stock it is.

i looked into the race, and its a 24 hour race. the Mazda's finished 1st and 5th and one crashed. the car the got pole position, and had the fastest lap in the race was a camaro, but it failed to finish. the highest finishing camaro was 22nd. there were another 4 camaros in the race, but they also DNF'ed.

apparently the camaro did a 2:51.250 lap, vs the Rx7's 2:54.000. which was good enough to qualify second!

Spa 24 Hours 1981 - Photo Gallery - Racing Sports Cars

thanks for sharing the video!

Thanks for sharing. Awesome video. That YouTube channel has some other good stuff too. One good YouTube video deserves another.

those damned, unreliable Rx-7s! :)

I think they would of used that exhaust for comply with decibel limits on that track aye!:lol:
Attachment 622606
Now we're talkin!:egrin:
Pics borrowed from another forum:nod:

I got to sit in this very car last month at Goodwood Festival of Speed :fawk: haha.
Attachment 622607

The guys were cool as and spoke to us for about 30-45 minutes. Telling us how the car couldn't be modified too much from factory for the class rules and whatnot. Still has the factory dash if you guys didnt notice:icon_tup:

Very enjoyable; thanks for sharing.

oh i understand why. seeing it just made me laugh, so i posted the comment.

Some more good early 80's RX7 racing came out of Oz (Australia) and you can watch those video's on YOUtube also.
look for the races run at Bathhurst and driver Alan Moffett. He really puts the rex through its paces!
The RX7's really keep pace (in those races) with the larger V8 Holdens and Turbo Nissans of the day.

What type of porting was done on this motor? 225hp atw or fw?
Thanks!

I suspect it was a bridgeport and the HP is at the flywheel. Bridged 12A are known to top out
at about that range.

You will never, ever see anything remotely professional rated at wheel horsepower. Wheel horsepower is something for Internet fanboys and low-dollar amateur racers.

Dyno's use this measurement though.
That being said, I've always used BHP / flywheel hp. I am interested in half bridge porting and rebuilding one. Run dual rotary eng. webers.

Chassis dynos measure wheel horsepower. Engine dynos measure engine horsepower. Professional race outfits and anything factory-related use engine horsepower because they use engine dynos.

Almost all drag racers and circle track racers who do dyno testing also use engine dynos, too. You can't properly instrument an engine for testing on a chassis dyno.

he race series we do is RWHP, they give use a maximum hp, and minimum weight. sounds pretty neat, but the dyno varies by 30hp depending on the day. we've dynoed 120 to 150hp on the same dyno with the same car, on different weekends.
the funny part is that the officials think that since a dynojet uses a fixed drum, it cannot vary that much between runs, even when it does.

the other point, is that the BMW guys have an ECU that is smart enough to know its on the dyno, so they had a map for the dyno, and one for the track. the officials figure that one out, and put some box in the car that uses lap times (or something) to come up with a hp number

Interesting. I had no idea dyno tuning was that technical.

Next trivia question:
Anyone know the size tires / specs / ride height on the rx7 spa?