whats going on with everyones cars? it seems kinda quiet lately. mine hasn't been driven much lately it has no heater and no wipers, its almost tuned, i'm kinda waiting for it to get colder to dial it in more

mike

 

My car is parked for the winter at my friends body shop,
have to build a nose that lets more air in, and do
a full paint job, might even look good for next year

matt

 

My car is in my head.

 

Reasons why my car is quiet:
1) I can't find a transmission that I like.
2) I'm concentrating on finishing the 1Gen so I can get my Mazda sponsorship back. (BTW, now it's freakin' "Mazdaspeed", and the old decals sets aren't good anymore).
3) It is not smart to throw money into expensive car mods right now. The depressed stock market and lowest home interest rates since 1959 make for very attractive investments. There is a reason why some people can afford expensive car mods here and there, while others live their entire lives paycheck to paycheck.

LOL

 

It just made it back from the paint shop...now my car is at Pineapple Racing and Corksport. After my minor engine fire last summer, we decided to yank it, repaint the engine bay and fix ALL of the deficiencies from the original install. It's going to be gorgeous!! The engine is apart. I am doing a small streetport, going with ceramic apex seals, a level 3 oil mod, replacing the housings with FD housings. All steel is being powder coated blue and all aluminum is being performance coated. Steel braided lines throughout. The turbos have been freshly re-built. BTW, my car was insured as an exotic. As a result, the labor to pull the engine, paint the engine bay, re-install the engine, get it back to "stock" condition and tuning is being covered by the insurance company. The rebuild and the performance coating/powder coating plus extras is on me. Evil Aviator may remember my asking him about insurance some time back. I am glad I didn't give up looking for a policy, because this would have been devastating without classic car (or in this case exotic) insurance.

 

May I ask where you got the "exotic" insurance because I can't seem to find anyone locally who will even touch mine or appraise it since it's "too new"?

My car is still in the shop being plugged away at as time/money allows. Not too much left but at least another couple months of straggling along.

Evil hit it perfect. With this economy...paying off the car to invest in things with equity is top priority

 

I have the card and policy in my desk at work. I'll post it in the morning. I tried to do an internet search, but came up empty.

 

Yes, I remember. Please post the info. Everything that I have seen so far is extremely expensive and requires the car to have very little annual mileage. Show car insurance dosn't appeal to me, as I fully intend to drive my POS-looking road terror on a regular basis.

 

Here is the info, although some of the particulars are going to disappoint Evil Aviator and others. This is Show Car insurance. My car is insured as an exotic primarily because of it's age. I am limited to the numbers of miles (I picked them and that determines the premium) and I am limited as to the use. You could always have the car insured as both a daily driver with your regular insurance and as a show car and collect on whichever policy would benefit you. I have two RX-7s insured under this policy and my premium is around $600 a year. The 20B I am allowed 3000 miles per year and the stock 10th Anniversary I chose 1000 miles. Since my incident occurred on my way back from an official event, I was covered. I am basically allowed to drive the car to and from club meetings, club events, car shows and mechanical work, diagnostic work, etc. NO track events. For me, this is not a problem. I live in Tacoma, WA but belong to the club in Portland. I also use three shops in the Portland area. So it is a nice 2 plus hour drive to these events. Mine is not a daily driver. So if you can live with these types of restrictions here is the info:

Sandy Charvat
PO Box 414
Leo, Indiana 46765
219.627.3355
219.627.6317 (fax)
800.787.7637
sandy@collectorcarins.com
www.collectorcarins.com

Hope that helps.

 

Actually, 3K miles per year isn't all that bad, but those other restrictions don't sound all that great. The other insurance plans that I looked at limited the mileage to around 400 per year, which is absurd, and the car had to be parked in an enclosed garage so that it was insured by the homeowner insurance 90% of the time. Unfortunately, I will drive mine about 8K miles per year, which will include at least 2 track events per year. I can fix the inevitable collision damage myself, so what I'm really looking for is theft and vandalism insurance.

LOL, if I could get the car insured as a daily driver, then why would I need show car insurance?

Thanks for the info, and I'll check with that insurance lead once my car is finished (in about 10 more years, lol).

BTW, how much did you insure your 20B car for, if you don't mind my asking?

 

Well the daily driver insurance would obviuosly only be for book value to offset a collision and/or SOME valdalism, but would allow you do drive it around and be partially insured when it wasn't covered for the higher amount at the specified events. I asked for more, but the insurance company would only agree to $20K therefore I am taking some of the risk, just not all. Once this re-birth is done I will either be taking on more risk, or I will ask if they will accept an appraisal so we can bump the value up. Again, with what happened to me, I am happy with the outcome. If it would ever be stolen, then they write me a check for $20K and I'm out a car. Once these cars hit 15 years (ie., next year for me - it's an 88) there will be a lot more options. Most of the companies I checked into didn't want to talk to me until the car was at least 15 years old.

 

Hehehe, the Blue Book value of my car is a whole $2,030, so it's hardly worth paying the extra comprehensive coverage. I'll have over $40K in my car once it's finished, so I would like a little more insurance than you have, but I would be quite willing to pay a much higher premium than what you are currently paying. Hmm, my car is also an 88 (er, mostly, but that's what the VIN says anyway). Very interesting.

BTW, apologies to j9fd3s for hijacking the thread, but I think this is good info.

 

it actually is good info! i have mine unsured as a regular 88 rx7, if it was totaled i think they would give me $27 for it.....
i also wanna add, if you have to have the car in an enclosed garage, under the homeowners policy, make sure your homeowners will cover the car, some policies have a no automobile coverage clause

mike

 

That's the main problem I had as well. Companies didn't want mine until it was 20+ yrs. old or I had to have no tickets on my record for the past 5 years...oops. Or I had to have an official appraisal on it, and the appraisers wouldn't touch it without it being X years old as well. How do people with exotics (Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo, Lotus, etc) insure theirs? Or they're so rich they don't need to?

 

well presumably since its a ferarri it insured as a ferarri, it not like ours where we have made a "ferarri" out of a mazda. so i dont think they have to do anything wierd. you know the place to ask this would be like a redneck forum, where someone has made a custum one off show car out of an 83 tempo

mike

 

Like I told someone in this forum awhile back that thought he could make a bundle from a lone 20b conversion done to the tee; the only way to get money back from a car like this is to have some really good insurance, total it and pray for the best. Nice to know it has actually worked out for someone. btw, my car is on stands just as it has been forever it seems. Suspension is done. I will have the engine end of next week from pineapple (finally).
Has all the goodies: ceramics, large street port, 13rew housings, polished and powdercoated, all the oil mods with a dry sump. Big plans over the holidays for my idle project.
Make sure everything fits then remove it all for paint after the cage is done.
Here is the immediate list I'm hoping to have done by the end of January:
Engine
Radiator
FMIC
Turbo (Still don't know what tubo to use cuz I suck at figuring that shat out) Any suggestions. Primarily a road race car that I don't want to run more than 15psi, but we shall see.
Piping
Plum dual oil coolers with dry sump system
Fuel cell
Install RE Amemiya fc-2000 front bumper (I'm praying it will work with my TPE flares)
Weld in full cage and keep as much interior as possible (after all, it will be a 'street car')
Then remove it all for paint.
Someone someday somehow.
Plan on having it done for SS-6 if there is one, but then again,I also planned to have it done by SS-5.

 

Watch it - you really don't want to go "messing" with the insurance industry.&nbsp If you're looking for pay-out over $10k (which most 20B conversions easily cost), be prepared for a fight with the insurance company.&nbsp You either had to have gone over the fine print with a magnefying glass or have a very competent lawyer in your corner - or both!&nbsp You're building something that's basically not street legal, and if you're not up-front with most insurance agencies, expect a big fight for a claim.

Personally, unless you have a show-quality vehicle, don't bother telling the insurance company.&nbsp They base their premium rates by the VIN of your vehicles - that's really all they care about, unless you start asking for special coverage.&nbsp If you're a good enough driver to keep the totally idiotic stunts (i.e. 160mph blasts on the freeway) to a minimum, any "unexpected" accidents should be paid out by the other party's insurance policy, not your personal policy.&nbsp I'm not going to even go into uninsured/underinsured drivers!!!&nbsp Any minor accidents should be addressed with swapping your entire engine and drivetrain into another chassis - the prices of FC's and even FD's are reasonable enough for most people to do as a practical option.&nbsp Please, no arguments about availability of spare FC and FD chassis'.



-Ted

 

My car has just been transported from Vegas to Tito in Texas...need to upgrade for the racing season next year! The 20b will probably end up losing one turbo, new management system (links system is now for sale), and whatever else I can think of to waste money!

 

I sold my E6K and am replacing it with a TECIII. I also sold my rims and tires. I am also picking up Greg's old drag race suspension (that he never got to use). In february, my car is going into the chasis shop to get backhalved & tubbed, ford 9", 10 pt cage, fuel cell, other junk that you need... This year, I'll probably STILL be running the dumb twin turbos until I can upgrade the tranny with something I like... most likely a T56, but I dunno... definitely need more research there.

After the tranny, in goes a single turbo. Also, in comes a pretty quick street car

 

That can't turn corners with a tubbed rear end

I can't wait to race you in clover leafs, auto-X and road races

At least our cars won't look similar anymore!

 

After driving it to SevenStock 5 and back home (probably the only 20B FD literally driven to SevenStock), the beast is hibernating and waiting for a new set of coils to fix the high end missed.

 

Just wait till you realize how much power the T-76 on a streetported 20B is going to make... and then start thinking about transmissions.... its all downhill from there

I've actually been rethinking my approach. I know I won't be happy until my car is so stupid fast that I can't drive it... I think I'm just going to do the transmission and rearend (still a ford 9") but not tub the thing yet. That way, I'll at least be able to drive the bitch in 2003, unlike 2002 when I got to put 124 miles on it.

 

I know I know At least I can push it downhill!

I've got a local guy that builds custom differentials for "hot rods" and they are supposed to handle 1000 ft. lbs. of torque but will still be an independent rear. I need to research that more but sounds promising.

Not sure yet on the gearbox. Probably looking at the Guru dogbox out of Aussie or at the least the cut gears as one possibility. Or the W6 6-speed with custom cut titantium and hardened gears.

Either way, it won't be until my current stock stuff breaks or '04 either.

 

I talked to the guys at Guru about that tranny... is good for 500 rwtq... I hope to be making more than that and I don't want to blow 5k on a tranny that isn't going to hold...

I'm probably looking at the T56 tranny as well... either that or the Gforce. Big price difference though.

I have a Kaaz rearend that is several years old, but never been used. I have no clue how much power it can hold... I may use it this season... who knows.

I change my mind every 15 minutes. I think the best thing for me would be to give up RX7s for a year

 

thats why it was fun insuring the tr3, i give them the vin ts-30xxx and they get confused

mike