ok. soo more questions. lol. alright my 90 vert n/a doesnt feel like it has all the power it should. like when i floor it, it doesnt speed up like my audi does. and i have a 100s which is sloww. so any suggestions? anything that i should change or do?

 

I have no idea what the Audi is but... You have a 90 Vert which is the heaviest RX-7 made, around what 3100 lbs? It puts out maybe 160HP at the engine so at the wheels... 125? You also have a lower gear in the rear, great for gas mileage when crusing but prolly doesn't help (and this has been debated to death) on the get up and go.

Other than making sure everything is tip top tune-up wise not much else you can do unless you want to start getting rid of weight or change the rear gear. I have an '88 Vert that is my DD and love it to death.

*edit* downshift and use the RPMs, if you're not redlining you're not having any fun.

 

not to mention that the rotaries shine in the upper half of their RPM range, and pale in the lower half

 

why is it so heavy? and how do i minimize that?

 

It's heavy because the car was built from the ground up so to speak. They didn't take a Coupe and chop the top off to make the Verts. It has a lot more bracing and stuff to make it stiffer, beefier suspension (which is why some guys want the sway bars) and the 4 piston brake setup. You could pull the AC and power steering but I'd rather have them and I really don't think it's worth the trouble on a Vert. Put the top down, crank up the tunes and use the rev factor. I've had a lot of fun chasing RX-8s and 3rd gens as well as 2nd gens on twisty roads where I didn't have to worry about straight line preformance as in HP and had no problem keeping up. Verts handle very well, keep the rpms up and enjoy the car for what it is.

 

idk much about the vert's particularly (so I'm not entirely sure why it's so much heavier than the otehrs), but common weight reducers are removing AC, power steering, interior parts, lighter rims, carbon fiber and or fiberglass body part replacements (especially the hood), and lighter bucket seats. weight reduction would probably be the fastest and cheapest way to make it faster, especially without having to buy mechanical/electrical performance parts. it all depends on how far you want to go with it. just as a guess, you could probably remove at least 200 lbs of stuff, which could make a notable difference.

 

that is good advice thanks. soo should i keep the car how it is. or do what i was planning like putting a 13bt in it? and beefing up that engine.

 

I'd keep it as is if you're really going to do the swap at some point. And if you do the turbo swap you'll also want to change out the rest of the drivetrain for the T2 stuff to support the power. TurboVerts are sweet. If and when my engine goes (137K and still runs great) I've thought about doing the same.

 

ha alright i might do that. and yeah mine has 115k on it.

 

Do you still want to keep it a looker?

The verts already had lightweight parts from the factory. The hood is aluminum, so the cost/weight savings going to carbon fiber would be better spent on something else. The stock wheels only weigh 11 lbs, so again, prolly want to stick with those.

The first places I would probably look to decreasing weight are the stock seats and the motors for the top. I would imagine you could shed a good amount of weight there, and it would only have a marginal style impact (having to manually put the top up and down).

You could probably do some more changing out the stock cast-iron exhaust manifold with a header, and switching to a single outlet exhaust to cut out some metal mass.

Make sure, though, that your motor is in good condition. My vert's got 40K on a factory motor and it drives great, even at low engine speeds 2-4k.

 

awesome thanks man. great advice.