i have a 84 s totaly stock. when its wet out some times the *** end tries to come around on me. i am not taking the turn very fast cause i can take the same turns in my corvair (rear engined car) the same speed and not have that problem. so my q is: is this normal and i just need to slow down a little or are my tires not doin their job well enough.

 

could be either or both.

 

what kind of tires are on it

 

you can't really compair it too much to your Corvair, because like you said, its rear engine. It has much more weight over the rear wheels unlike the rx7. Without the weight over the rear tires you have much more of a tendancy to fish tail. Thats why many people put sandbags in the rear of their rx7s over the winter. Some better tires may help, but its the nature of these cars to fishtail.

 

yea, its a tail happy design no matter what you do to it.

 

Yep.. Makes for some great drifting fun in parking lots though!!

 

I don't think the RX-7 is a tail happy design. On dry it is amazingly sticky . 3rd Gen's are just as tail happy (actually more) than 1st Gens and it has state of the art suspension design (I have owned both so I know). The problem is with any light rear wheel drive car you are going to slip and slide under power around wet or icy corners, and even in the straights.

 

get a camber kit :P:

 

My tail came out around a wet corner and cost me my car. Drive safe!

 

Luckily your car didn't cost you your life.
I lost control of my tail pulling out on a highway narrowly missing a semi. As Manntis said "Drive safe!"

 

sorry to vere dramatically off-topic here but what's the bumper in FB II's sig? I've seen it a lot but don't know what it's called or who makes it...

 

If it isn't the "Erebuni" airdam, it is similar.

www.erebunicorp.com

 

again...off topic...but what happened to all the kits that eribuni offered? There were some that made it look like a slantnose and just some bad *** kits...

 

thats the IMSA airdam
it was a factory option in 84-85
there are a few a/m replicas though
-greg

 

cool...wasjust curious. thnx

 

np

 

Does anyone know where to get ahold of the widebody they offered? (not the CPRacing kit)

 

Some interesting information about the pre-84 FB's and SA's is that the lower trailing arm mounts were lowered in 84 and 85 cars (all models) to help with 'tuning out' some of the tail-happy tendencies found in the previous design. My 80LS was notoriously bad about getting the rear end loose during even modest cornering speeds - when combined with water, sand, or anything that would induce loss of traction, that looseness turned into fishtail very quickly and taught me the art of countersteer.

Whereas on my 84SE, while there are more suspension changes to the SE than others (4 wheel vented disk, different front struts, etc.), the rear is much less likely to come around during the same manuevers. This may be attributable to the lowered connection point of the rear trailing links, and possibly also due to different weight distribution in the SE (still very close to 50/50), but there is a difference.

The modified rear geometry is a sign that Mazda recognized a tendency for this car to get loose in the rear end due to the solid rear axle design, and was making changes to assist with driver control during hard cornering. Is it any surprise that they went with a fully independent multi-link strut rear suspension for the FC's? In comparison to one of the RX-7's competitors, the 280Z and 300Z had always had independent rear suspension...

 

mine used to be ***-happy, but then i got better tires (htr 200's) and it cured that. the only thing is if you are driving at the extreme limits (autox) i run alot lower psi in the rear becasue it will be *** happy. but even if i am "spirited" driving on the street, i have no problems. i think its all in the way you drive. ive heard alot of people complain about the fb's being *** happy, but i just dont see it.

 

If your car still has the rear anti-sway bar, remove it.

 

ive heard of people doing that. i think im going to try it and see if it handles any better. i just dont see the reason why mazda would put it on if it would have an adverse effect on the car.

 

because nimble wasn't an objective when mazda started the RX7...

 

Whoever said it first above is right about the sumitomo htr 200 making a big difference. I got my set last spring, months before I redid my suspension. Huge difference, the limit is much farther out there.

 

Not to sound like a dink but do a friggin search it has been discussed MANY times. And if you are still too lazy for that just send a private message thats the reason its there in the frist place.

 

Can anyone explain (or direct me to an old thread) how the removal of the sway bar would increase the FB's ability to corner or reduce the tendancy for the rear to loose grip? I'm curious about this..