Bang for the buck out of a first gen....please help....
 

I am new to this forum, and new to the rx-7 world so I need a little help with my 1983 Rx.
I bought the car with the intention of making it into a competitor for the grassroots motorsports challenge (I have to make it into a competitive 1/4 mile racer, and auto-x car, and a councours car all for 2002 dollars, i'm not concerned with winning the concours, but I would like to compete in the other two).

Anyway I am going to strip the car down, no more carpets, radio, ac, ect... but after that I don't know where to start to get a little more h.p out of the car.
As far as handling goes the springs are going to be cut down and I might go with some new struts, but i'm not sure what will bring me the best bang for the buck.
Will these cars get a good boost from n.o.s.?

Thanks for your help in advance

ian

What are the rules in this challenge?
See what you can remove and what you have to keep. Do you have to keep emissions on? Does the carb have to be factory? You have to give us some guidelines to help you, man, BUT you did come to the right place.

The rules are simple:
keep it street legal (that includes keeping the windshield and dash)
but I can swap out what ever parts I can come up with as long as I keep the price under that 2K barrier. I can put on different carbs, exhaust, I think I could get away with hollow cats, as long as it is licenced on the street it can run.

if you go to
http://www.grassrootsmotorsports.com
the rules are listed on that website.

but basicaly almsot anything goes.

I'd do the exhaust, first. My biggest gain was with my RB racing exhaust. No cats, just a header, presilencers, and a muffler.

How can they prove how much you paid for something, for example....what if you bought something used and it was half of the new price?

I think you have to supply a expence list, and if another competitor things you have spent more they can challenge you, and then they will go through your car and scrutinize it. I think if they don't belive what you say they will disqualify you, and I also want to keep this thing in the budget, it is a challenge.

The exhaust is not cheap, I believe mine was $750 shipped to my door. Can you get a hold of used parts? The parts trader is an excellent source for used parts. Try that out.

don't cut the springs. a better set of shocks will be MUCH better.

if you cut the springs and you bottom out in a hard corner or a bump, you can kiss your shock goodbye.

I wouldn't mess with shocks and springs at all. If your car has a rear sway bar, take it out. This will limit the tail happiness our beloved 1st gens are famous for.

If you need it even less tail happy, consider a used front sway bar thicker than the one that's on there.

Only $2002 to work with guys. At $100+ per corner for shocks + the price of the car, the price would already be hitting the top of the chart. ;)

More ideas: gut the cats; get a header; remove anything that is not needed to make the car move, turn or stop (a/c, p/s, spare tire, carpet, sound isulation, sunroof, passenger seat, emmissions equipment, stereo (including amps and speakers), cold start assist equipment, etc.), get some used autox or drag tires (preferably some that can double); do the ATF treatment; make a cool air intake out of Home Depot ducting parts; make sure you have no more gas in the tank than what you will need (8lbs./gallon!); wire any accessories in the car to shut off at WOT (see http://home.mn.rr.com/linnihan/efan.htm for a simple WOT cut-off switch setup on my car); look into NOS, but don't go to crazy if you want to drive the car there, or take it home with you. :)

Good luck,

See you at there
 

Working on my RX-7 for the event.

Currently I have under $500 in my car and $65 in the parts car. (God aren't Police impound auctions great we have two a week here)

Currently running in total stock form. I will leave it that way so that I can stay in CS class for autocross events with my local SCCA group.

I will be working on the concours aspects of the events. In stock form, I am only 2-4 sec's slower than the street perpared cars, on cheap street tires.

See you there....
CB

:cool:

Tires are a good point.

It's where the car meets the road isn't. Without them holding, it doesn't matter how tricked out the rest of the car is.

If I recall correctly, this is an all around event. Drag, autocross, and even concourse. So you want to keep her pretty.

Rotary's get the biggest gains from opening up the intake and exhaust. More so than on the piston engines. Too bad you don't have more experience with them. I would imagine if someone where to do their own porting on a 12A for this event, they kick some royal boottaah!

Other RX7s were run in the previous $1000 challange. But they appeared to be in stock trim also.

Port it! If you can do it yourself? Even a mild porting job should do wonders.
Open the exhaust as much as you can. Straight pipes are cheap, if the rules allow? Run dual pipes (long primary system) as far back as you can.

K&N on the intake side.

Just get everything clean and running nice.
I'll be a good ride even if you don't win.

The editors of GrassRoots Motorsports just LUV rotaries.
They even publish an e-mail I sent to them regarding the Rotary Midget convertion. This was around the time they were publishing the Rotary Spitfire project car.

Can you fabricate? If you can, get a j-Spec T2 motor for $850. These usually come with intake, turbo, intercooler, altenator, Water pump, ect. You will need an ECU wich can be found fairly cheap. Since you just need it to perform for the event I think you can use stock tranny and go a little easy on it. Depending on the engine you get you will get anywhere from 180-200 hp stock and by time you build that custum exhaust you will have 200-230 hp. A few other misc items and you will be good to go. I think if your careful you could do this within budget. Something to consider. I have thought about doing this myself for the contest. I might could help you get an engine a little cheaper than 850 if you want to drive down here (atlanta) to get it.

Mike

a J-Spec T2 motor WHERE THE HELL FROM STINKFIST?!?!?!?!
TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! TELL ME!! I REALLY WANT ONE!!!! :stick:

I may take you up on that one day, I'm only about 3 hours away :D

corksport.com has j-spec tII LONGBLOCKS w/ partial wireing loom in stock

~850 for the first series (~87-89) and ~950 for the later 200HP ones. (~90-91). Definatly worth looking into.

Ecu's on the partstrader for like 60bux.

Jap Spec TII motors
 

www.japperformance.com - aprox. $1400 *SHIPPED* complete motor only needs radiator - comes with MicroTech ECU. GSL-SE Oil Pan aprox $40, front cover aprox $40, front mount aprox $10 (junk yard prices). Turbo back exhaust $200. That'll get you loads of power and be smogable - if you put a cat in :)

Kamal

weber 51 idf, big street port and 100 shot nos!

I'd like to point out that www.japperformance.com is an austrailian company if you look.. Are you sure shipping from them is included in that price for USA orders? I'd be questioning if it was... Sorry to burst anyone's bubble..

This thread may come in handy to some of you here. :)

https://www.rx7club.com/vforums/show...threadid=19814

Take care,

Considering I received my setup from them about a month ago and paid a total of $1436.82 - breakdown as following:

motor/ecu/export/packaging: $1184.32 - to JapPerformance
shipping/import: $252.50 - to shipping/trucking company

The price is real, only down side was the 3 1/2 week wait.

Kamal

Please visit the following URL to leave a feedback rating and comments on the Northstar RX-7 Club's "Vendor Feedback Page". :)

http://www.nrx7club.com/vendors/addr...ap+Performance

Thanks,

a guy here goes to the junk yard and gets good turbos off the cars. then he welds the turbo to a rx-7 header some how. makes a pipe to go over the carb and bam your good to go. i took a ride in a street-ported 12a (with out turbo rotors) that the guy did this to. he had a t-03 turbo with no waste gate!!!!!! i almost shit myself when he took off. it wasn't really the speed it was all the cool noise it was making. we couldn't hold traction at all and i was still in my seat and all you could hear was that turbo spooling to the max. needless to say he blew the motor a few days later. but if you couold put a waste gate on there and turn the boost down a bit you should be in good shape. he probly did the whole turbo kit for under $300. i'm thinking about doing that to my 85 mazda.

Is that rebuilt? or just pulled from a TII and sent you? dirty and all? Because if it's a rebuilt then I would have to say that looks like a great deal.... otherwize do you know any good places to get a rebuilt TII maby even w/ a street port (if that helps a bit for my 1st gen) for a good price?

tia (thanks in advance)

That's just as it's pulled out of the car. I was not interested in having someone else rebuild it for me - going to port and rebuild it myself.

Kamal