Hola,

I'm looking for a First genearation RX-7 as a Group 5 Club Rally project car, and had a few questions I'm hoping that somebody here could help me with...

What sorts of problems plague the pre-1980 first Generation cars? I see a whole bunch of stuff about leaky seals in the generation II forums, but not so much in the first generation forums. Are there arny "major" problems I ought to be aware of?


What is the difference between the GSL and the GSL-LE? Is there a difference? Is there a difference that would mean anything as far as getting beaten around in the dirt? The both come with a LSD, right?

Why would a first generation be a better car to go with than a second generation? It just seems that most the prepped race cars out there are Gen I's. Is the second generation to fragile?

How hard is it to wrench on a rotary engine? Could a guy with some mechanical aptitude, help from the internet, and a set of manuals figure it out?

Most importantly, how hard is it to change the clutch?

Any help would be greatly appreciated... I really don't want to have to buy another Turbo Mopar!

Matt.

 

gsl-Se is the fi version of the car. for simplicity and cheap repair i would go with the gs since it won't have as much crap and then be a gsl/se rear end out of a junkyard or somewhere and transplant. its not that hard and well documented.

as for the 2nd gen vs 1st gen, the 1st gen is lighter, cheaper, easier to fix, etc. but it doesn't have the irs so it won't handle the rough stuff as well in rear grip.

rotaries are easy to work on. 1/3 of the moving parts.

never had to change mine, yet.

here is your best setup. 79-80 body (solid steel bumpers but lighter body) with a gsl/se suspension and rearend. 79-80 tranny mated to a 2nd gen tII for power (complex and pricey) or 2nd gen na w/carb for simplicity, good powerband, and lower cost. of course you will need to check all of this against the prorally handbook rules for group5.

 

Thanks for the response.

I'm actually looking at a couple of '82 GLS', and that doesn't look like a bad way to go.

For what it's worth, G5 is "open" for 2wd drive cars. There is very little I couldn't do! There are actually a couple of older Rx-7s already running.

Matt.

 

Hey, is were you at the 100 Acre Woods Rally back in Feb over in Salem, MO? That green rex was there and I got pictures of it and the white one that was also an entrant, also talked with the white rex's owner, cool guy! I've got pictures of them at my site http://www.milisake.com/~mike since I was start control for stage 2 and 13 (which never happened due to cancellation, stage 13 that is...stage 2 was awesome!).

Take a look over at http://www.bensrallypage.com as it is a nice place to start and has lots of links to some very good pages, plus he has a good classifieds board as long as he keeps it updated!

 

The 1st gens have a shorter nose and tail than the 2nd gens. In a rally you want all the clearance you can get anywhere. GSL and GSL-SE both have LSD. The others do not. I'd do at least a GSL rear end in any of the other models excluding the GSL-SE. If you change to the GSL-SE rear end you will have a 5 lug bolt pattern on the back and the 4 lug on the front.

 

The first gen has been done for 15 years now, that is why you see them the most. I think a 2nd gen would be a nice rally car as well.

SCCA is looking at a rule change that makes the older cars ineligible for PRO rally events. You want to make sure ALL you want to run is club rally before you build a first gen.

You want to start with or convert front and rear suspension to GSL-SE. You need the bigger brakes on a rally car. Also this give you a better bolt pattern. It is going to be difficult to find cheap wheels for the 4 X110MM pattern of the non-SE suspension. 13" Rally tires are harder to come by as well. You can use the 14" or 15" wheels from Z cars with the SE setup. These wheel can be found CHEAP. Say a set for $100. in the new age a all wheel drive rally cars 14" and 15" tires are easier to get a hold of as well.

-billy

 

GSL-SE's are still 4 lug, just 114.5 as opposed to 110mm.

 

Yeah, I'm well aware of that stupid rule. And, I think they just recently came out and say that they're not going to add any further age restrictions... not that it matters. With the cost of entering a Pro Rally nearing $1000 per event, I doubt I'd ever want to do that anyway, (Hell, it's already $600 to do the Obijiwe Club Rallys).

Alien RX-7-

You better believe I was at 100AW! I was also at The Sno-Drift Pro Rally in Feb., and I'll be at the Lake Superior Pro Rally in October. For what it's worth, the shots of yellow and green Rx-7's were both taken at 100AW (by Jesse Mullan, www.jpmullan.com). The white RX is Doug Dill at a rallysprint in Arkansaw Wisconsin last weekend.

And, Bens Page is actually my start-up page. I think that it, and www.specialstage.com actually take up about 75% of my internet viewing.

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. I think I'm going to look at a couple of cars this weekend.

 

Thanks Felix, forgot about that. I was referring to the lug pattern and confused myself. Pretty bad seeing how I have a GSL-SE. Oh well.