I was wondering, how good a race car is the 1st gen. What do the guys who have raced them (i don't mean drag, I mean autox,rally or circut) think of them. How do they stack up to other cars for handeling and what mods have to be done to make it a good race car?
Thanks guys.
RotorMotor

 

get a good set of shocks, and some Kuhmos and you'll be quite compeditive in Auto-X... At least with the classes we have setup here in the US with the SCCA, not so sure what you guys run in AUS

 

Also depends on the class you are going to run(autocrossing). C street prepared, you will be competative locally but nationally the CRXs and Miatas are tough, I do think with a whole lot of money the 1st gen. can dominate the class. In F prepared I think the 1st gen is the car to have! I do think it is the most economical car to get going!

 

Just trying to get things straight (since SCCA took the info off of their website, or at least made it night impossible to find with their sucky new layout)

1st-gens fall into CSP, F Prepared, or D Modified. What about Stock?

 

C stock, but if you are new, you can run novice(in Texas). This puts you in a huge class that alows you to run anything until you trophy, then you have to go to the class that your car qualifies for.

 

I'm thinking about rallying the '85 GSL that I'm about to purchase... Anyone done this in a 1st gen before?
Pavement racing is a blast (I have autocrossed in my fiero) but I'm looking for something different...

 

I dont know of anyone here in Texas. Not a whole lot of the rallying goes on here. I have heard of rally crossing? I think it is like a oversized motocross track for cars!!!! Sounds cool. They have done it here in Texas but I didnt go see it.

 

I took my prelude out on a motorcross track before
hehehe
bent the front bumper pretty good
was fun though

 

Interesting concept???(rally crossing) Back in the days(late 80s early 90s) Mazda was on top of the stadium races in their small trucks. They used to run PP 13bs in the trucks but dominated and got ruled that since the rotary was not poduction in the truck it was not legal. These trucks were awsome!!!!

 

I always see 1st gens running in rallies in SCC (sport compact car) And I've seen a couple when TSN ran rally on tv. They actually did really good considering they were RWD!

 

first gens have rallied very successfully. if you have the funding and spare parts get into it. fun as hell. rallycrossing here in the states is mostly an autox course on mud/gravel/snow. at least the ones that scca put on. there are some run that are a small rally course with jumps, hairpins etc. these are a lot like the super special stages you'll see in rally that were created more for the spectators.

 

There a rallycross every other month or so in Dayton Any Ohio 1st-genners wanna take a shot?

Me meither, not with this car Need a beater... something to raise the suspension up a bit, slam some chunky tires on it, put a rollcage in it, put a PP 12A in it... (starts foaming at the mouth)

 

Just out of interest has anyone ever run a second gen. How do they compare handeling wise in racing/rallying?

 

over here they go well some off them give the porsches a really good go and most of the time come out in front!

 

Actually, in the early 80s they had a 4wd 1st gen that rallied. They used a 626 fwd and had a 300hp pp 13b in it. I have a book on the history of the rotary. GM actually was toying with the rotary for the corvette. It was like a 4.6 liter. Talk about bad gas mileage! Even though it was GM, I bet it still made a shitload of power.

 

a 4.6L rotary?

my god, that would be like 1200 hp with NA.

 

Rod Millen raced the 1st and 2nd gen 4wd RXs! He won championships with both cars.....I think he won his classes at Pikes Peak!

 

First decide what orgainization you want to race in (NASA,SCCA, etc). Then decide the class.

Once you have determined the class, then read the rule book on what can and cannot be modifed.

In the NASA events, they run w/ Mustangs 8', Camero, etc....They let the bigger cars go first...you know why...because they get chased down w/in 4 laps...then get passed by all the spec7 rx7's.

You have to see the events. I was going to race this season...but, lack of funds.....

 

race in the SCCA Spec RX-7 class, OR you can race in the SCCA ITA class with the 12A motor. It's a great car, can be a little tail happy if you don't do it right, but that's ok and you can work around that.

Not to mention parts are DIRT CHEAP for them because there's tons of parts cars around. I've got 10 transmissions

 

I auto-x my '85 GS in E Stock. I'm up against Miata's and such. Matrix XRS races his '83 in C Street Prepared and does very well. He's got Kuhmos and a Mikuni carb and RB intake. He also happens to be a naturally good driver. You cna have the best car in the world and still get beat by a better driver.

 

Someone about a month ago posted a thread about rallying a 7, you could do a search for that. Here are some links too.

http://www.milisake.com/~mike

I have two pictures of ProRally rx-7's there with a link to the ClubRally they raced in.

Here is the link for the ProRally schedule for the US:

http://www.scca.org/amateur/performa...lly/index.html

Here is a link for the ClubRally series:

http://www.scca.org/amateur/performa...lly/index.html

Here is a link to buy rally prepared cars and the owner of the page also has some interesting links to other rally pages:

http://www.bensrallypage.com/

Just look in the classifieds for the cars/parts for sale.

Hope this helps you out!

 

what does all this have to do with the Australian race scene?

 

I was thinking about doing some competition next year (after yr. 12) But I want a pretty close to zero chance of damage to the car.

 

then rally is out, lol.

 

That's why Americans like autocross so much... speeds are low (unusual to get over 60mph on the course) and you're the only one on the course. Pretty much all you can hit is cones, and the only thing to suffer is your pride when your well-modded car gets wasted by some guy in a dead stock Neon/CRX/MX-5...