All of you guy have gret info on the set up to street race a 7. But....I live here in texas and go to alot of ranches and farms and doing so means I have to hit alot of dirt roads. The is nothing more fun than hotroding a car on a dirt road. Anyways, Heres my question...Can I LIFT my rex. I know alot of you are going to laugh so don't bother replying. I don't want to read a bunch of replys saying that I shouldn't I want to here from guys with Ideas on how to do this. Is this going to be a custom job or can I use Suspension parts from say...a B2200? What do you guys think. i only want it 2-3 inches taller.

 

I want to add skid plates, small all terain tires, baja front grill w/ lights, a small snorkel/ramair, LIFT, and to top it off a wide body kit.

 

Obvioulsy I will hop up the power as well

 

um, just mount a rotary in a 4x4 with a divorcided transfer case. youll be wasting a whole lotta money with a rex. IF you have a 1st gen lifitng the rear is easy using blocks

 

Back in the 80's Rod Millen Rallyed an FB. It was a four wheel drive conversion and was friggin SICK!!! Here's a link.
http://cp_www.tripod.com/rotary/pg15.htm


Here's a newer teams site

http://havspeed.com/?pid=3


I think it's an awesome idea to make an FB into an offroader!!! good luck!!!

 

Pain in the ***, but it can be done. Lift it with the tires I say. You aren't going to want to run stock rubber off road anyway, so re-gear the back end and put some larger rubber on.

 

Agreed - if you're going to do this thing, do it right.

I'd go with some custom springs or maybe perches that have been rewelded higher on the strut to get your increased ride height. I'd also stick with the RX-7 since it can be configured to run on smooth dirt roads with some ingenuity.

I think you'd get a lot of replies on the forum here from people that have always wanted to build up a 'rally' 7. With the right parts, and a smokin' paint job, you'd have a really interesting and unique rotary car.

I'd avoid 'blocks' in the back, however - when you get some travel going, those blocks are history. You'd need longer shocks on the rear, higher springs with softer rate, and you're going to run out of travel on the trailing links, so possibly relocating the lower and upper links to accommodate your ride height change. Modding an 84/85 will yield greater rear height, btw; these came with lower mounts about 1cm lower than previous models to help with handling.

I'd say; why not? - go for it and post back with what you do.

 

When you do this find a local SCCA chapter and enter that car into one of thier rally races. You'll love it.

 

Yeah for the guy that said drop the motor it a 4x4....Obviously you did not read. I do not want to here anything other than an answer to what I asked. If I wanted a truck I would have gotten one. I want a BAD *** RX7 that no one else has. Anyways, I was thinking about using thes shock spacers that I've seen used on alot of trucks around here. and w/ bigger tires it will lift too. I don't want to run spacers, 'cause of the stuff LONGDUCK said ( By the way thats one hell of a bad as yellow Rex) But where can I find taller springs for it? I know shocks/struts will be.....well, not as hard to find, But I don't know what to do about the springs. I think with a 1-2 inch taller spring I would be set with just that and the tires.

 

and It is going to stay 2x4...You think I would drop that much money to change it to a 4x4? 2x4 is more fun anyways. I had a 1979 280zx that I did the same to it had 28 inch allterains on it. It wasn't that tall...It was just bad ***. 7 inches of total ground clearence. that might not sound like much but think about you rex ...the lowest part under you car would be 7 inches away from the ground. Now that car sat up higher anyways but I still want simmilar for my Mini Z(the RX7) and yes I love the rex more than the Z, but come on it really is a smaller version of the Z..... and lighter.... and faster.....with better handeling.....ect....ect.

 

I just stay out of the ruts myself. Only time I got stuck was on wet clay. LSD means both tires spin. Oh, and don't let the spark plug wires get under water. Note to self: Stay off of Water St. during tropical storms....

There is no substitute for horsepower, or ground clearance.

Eric

 

Measure the inside diameter of you rear springs and go to a junkyard. You might be able to find some spings with a lower spring rate that are longer and have the same inside diameter.

 

How many inches are you trying to raise the rx7? I'd get the shocks/struts and springs from a beater mazda pickup and try and see if it'll fit for ***** and giggles. I'm not sure but you might want more low end torque from the motor if you want to run bigger tires. I read allot about how to get the horsepower in the top end but I don't know if anyone has tried to get some low end torque from these motors. I'm thinking that it might look like an old lancia stratos rally car

here are some pics of 1st gen rally cars

 

I would make trailing arm suspension for the back, i think thats what its called. The suspension is farily easy to fabricate and it opens whole new levels of how much clearance you can have. Its really as long as the shocks you put until you run into your driveshaft problems.

As for raising the front end, the most realistic thing would be to but a solid axle in it, IFS cant really be raised alot unless you raise the front end on all the bolts for the IFS

I dont know if a FB is a unibody or not but you could rasie the body with rubber if it wasnt.

if you put a solid axle on the front then 4x4 wouldnt be that hard, it would be a lotta work but not too expensive, you would have to get a transfer case and figure out how to route brakelines and such-not to mentions steering.

I mentioned the bolcks cause they are really cheap

Any other way of doing the back or raising the front will run $ way up and the work would be tremendous, thats why i vote to buy the 4x4 fc on ebay. you can find a link to it in the lounge its reposted so much.

 

I want it to be about the same height as the third pic. I don't want it to large I just want a little extra clearence for bigger tire. That Lancia is extreamly bad *** but I want my rex to have a little more clearence, like the last pic but with the same style tires that are on the lancia to give it a more square look. Do you guys think the b2200 truck suspension might work?

 

I really dont see it working too well, if find longer struts for the front that are kinda stiff to raise it all you can there.

 

Right on ...somone said that there are spacers or something for the struts that are like 1/2 on top, and same for the bottom. and I figured w/ the wide body kit and taller tires that would be fairly high.

 

I think the biggest problem is the measly little control arms on the front. Have you ever looked at them? They are tiny. They don't weigh much more than 15lbs each either, so that gives you a little idea of how small they are. I would say convert it to a wishbone style control arm, but there isn't enough room. And with those small control arms your going to bend them really easy. I don't know how the rally cars stand up to it.

 

Couldn't I just fab up so heavy thicker cortrolarms?. I mean they don't look that complecated and my friend makes his own "upgrages"or"spare"steering and suspension parts for his Jeep and that thing takes 20 times the beating my rex would. Just curious...I could see how there would need to be sertin strength in sertin areas ...but they make som pretty f'in hard steel. and off road I wouldn't beto worryied about weight like that. not if I get strenth in return.

 

My car looks like a lifted 7 in this pic with just my wheels resting against the previous wheels.

I have recently completed the conversion, and the car sits lower.

 

Find an RX-7 rally car fabricator and pick their brains for info if you can.
Most of them run under production rules which means that all suspension components are of stock configuration but beefed up with gussets and bracing so just weld on extra material to every potential weak spot or part under your car.
Coilovers can be used to raise a car as well as lower it.

 

I would rather a control arm crush, then bend the chassis

 

i rally your car doesnt need to be super high get some replacment performance springs that dont lower the car and replace shox with tockico illuminas and set them hard the 323 i run has about 6-7 inches of clearance from the skid pan it does fine it jsut bottoms out cause im cheap and have chitty shocks