What mods could you not see driving without? Bang for your buck? and Practicality.

 

I tired of waiting for Aaron Cake to show up so now I drive modless.

 

Is that even possible *rubs eyes* O_O

 

stainless oil cooler lines and clutch line. If you've ever had one break on you then you'll understand why they are necessary reliability mods.

 

good Tires,Shocks,Brakes,..
change out the 25 pound exhaust manifold to a Header,then good flowing exhaust components.
Good Steering wheel,Short throw shifter.Decent Stereo(but NO 80 pound 2 foot Subs!).
Aftermarket intake to get rid of the big Plastic "mouse house"(winter storage.they live rent Free.The Buggers!).
Aftermarket Coolant temperature Gauge.
.........and last but not least..STICKERS, That Say,My other Car Doesn't work!,and If you see this Sticker,I am AHEAD of you!

 

+1

+1

+1

+Lulz!

 

as much maintenance as you can possibly do.

that's always first, once all of the maintenance is done on the car, your free to do whatever you want to it.

 

a decent size turbo

 

+1 on gauges. gauges are your best friend if you are pushing it at all, especially FI of any type. water temp, oil temp, oil press, fuel pressure, WBO2, EGT. on a high performance rotary you can never have too many gauges when talking about reliability

 

These cars were designed very well. Unlike a Honda Civics and other economy cars that teenagers like to pretend are sports cars by installing pseudo performance parts and stickers, the RX-7 drive great with NO mods.

+1 on maintenance as specified above. Many people focus on mods so much that they neglect the basics. Fancy mods will not make a broken car go any faster.

1. Exhaust. Make sure you use non-turbo exhaust parts for a non-turbo car, and turbo exhaust parts for a turbocharged car.

2. Intake. Cone filter (with ducting to keep the radiator discharge air out of the engine) for highly-modified non-turbo engines or for turbocharged engines. Stock non-turbo engines don't need any intake mods, but a drop-in K&N filter is nice because it lasts 10 years or 1,000,000 miles if you clean and re-oil it every 50,000 miles.

3. Synthetic oil in the manual transmission and differential. I like Red Line, but other brands are fine too. Be sure to use an oil that has "90" in it somewhere, e.g. 75W90, 80W90, MT90, etc.

Other things that are nice to have: Stainless steel clutch line, Fumoto oil drain valve (without nipple), aluminum radiator, fire extinguisher, new suspension parts (replace the dampers, springs, and mounts/bushings at the same time).

Waste of money: Turbo timer, high octane fuel (unless needed due to high boost or a severly worn engine), fuel additives, oil additives, synthetic engine oil, cross-drilled brakes.

 

+1

 

These were things I was thinking too, although Im a fan of oem/jdm stuff (steering wheel), but I drove my friend's rx-8 and after a bit I started to really like the short shifter. ^_^

Any recommendations on what brands for tires? I tend to like yokohama's. But if others are better then I will commit seppuku, and switch loyalty in the afterlife, lol.

Shocks and brakes. Im just lost in this catagory. I know Tein is pretty well known, also G-Stance, and PBM are the "slammed". Which are better(or another I havent listed)? Only company I know that makes brakes is Brembo, but I think they like it like that, probably the only brakes marketed in america. Again, what do you guys think?

I was also thinking just a pair of good seats, I know from dinnercoat, he really like recaros, and being I just went from owning an s13 Sparcos were always nice. This just being the seat, no like crazy harness or anything.

 

Yeah I guess I should have specified "not avoiding maintenance". And just as a heads up Ive never driven an economy car. But otherwise I totally agree!

 

Falken Ziex ZE-912 if you want a cheap, all-weather tires that perform fairly well and last a long time. Yokahama ADVANs are great for competion if you don't mind paying three times as much for tires that last only about a year.

Shocks - See Racing Beat for good street-level parts. For autocross, most people use KYB AGX, Tokico Illuminas, or Tokico blues. Common race-level brands suitable for a coil-over setup are Bilstein, Koni, and JRZ. The shiny Japanese stuff (Tein, Stance, HKS, etc.) is more suited for show cars, but should still handle pretty well for street/autocross. Budget drifters seem to prefer the cheap Chinese junk like D2, Megan, Ksport, etc.

Brakes - Common brands are Hawk and EBS for pads. Brembo blank rotors are a good bang for the buck. I like ATE Super Blue and Castrol LMA fluid.

 

Essential mods

Get a good exhaust for one. Something Racing Beat is always good. This will improve power.

Good gauges oil pressure and water temp (mechanical) the old gauges are not reliable enough to count on.

Take out your oil cooler and get it flow tested and cleaned (oil cooler is essential).

A good intake, something cold air. This does not mean an open filter inside of the engine bay, it tends to be hot in there.

If you have a turbo model than a good FMIC.

Once you have done this and made sure that all of your maintenance I would replace vacuum lines, and also as many of the old hoses (coolant and fuel) as you can.