Just thought I'd post an update on how the 7 turned out and how it's running for anyone that might be curious or interested.

We went to Gateway International in St. Louis last weekend for a drivers school on Friday and Saturday and our first regional race on Sunday. The school was great. Got about 80 laps in between the two days which allowed me to learn the track very well. By the end of Saturday we were turning consistent 1:15 lap times. The track record for my class is a 1:10. I was VERY pleased with the car. Very neutral, some understeer under throttle, VERY stable under braking. My junk yard motor was performing remarkably well despite an uncooperative fuel pressure regulator. Got my liscense with flying colors and didn't put a scratch on the car.

Sunday we hit the track for the 25 minute practice/qualifying session with alot of confidence. We were the fastest ITS car there by far (there were about 6 or 8 cars in the class and they were all novices like myself, guess the Easter holiday kept the regulars away?). On one of my first laps a couple cars had a bit of a moment in front of me and I got on the brakes real hard to make sure I didn't get collected. As it turns out I flatspotted the left front VERY badly. Even with a bad vibration we went on to qualify at a 1:13. We took the 4th grid position. We sat 4th overall out of 37 total cars in our run group. Only 3 ITE cars out qualified us. We out qualified all the V8 AS cars in our group! Only three seconds off a track record on our first weekend with a new car, new driver and zero wrench turning all weekend. We were VERY pleased. Next closest ITS car was 18th overall and qualified at a 1:21.

We had to mount a set of sticker tires for the race on the front because of the flatspot. Wasn't too happy about that but it was my fault. Anyway at the start I dropped back to about 8th. Just playing it safe because we had such an advantage in class at the start. Ended up racing a well driven Miata for about 3 laps before making the pass stick and ending up 6th overall and 1st in class.

My overall impressions of a race prepped 2nd gen are very high! Very predictable handling, decent power though the chassis could certainly handle more than the stock NA we're allowed can make. AWESOME brakes. We were killing alot of the big AS cars (Camaros and Mustangs) under braking coming off the oval. I've got a couple adjustments in mind for May when we go back to Gateway. Maybe we can go after the track record? I know we can get into the 1:12s at least.

Gotta thank my guys, Mike and Joe, for helping me out. Luckily we didn't have to turn a single wrench all weekend except to rotate tires and then to change a couple. We're heading to IRP on the 19-21st. Wish us luck!

Chris
http://community.webshots.com/user/rrxp689

 

Sounds like FUN

 

You are my idle. Congrats on the race. What type of tires and brake pads were you using to begin with?

 

We started on Kumho Victoracers. Can't say enough about them. They were as sticky Sunday after around 100 laps as they were Friday morning. When I flatspotted the one tire we had to mount a pair of Hoosiers to put on the front so we had a matched pair. Don't know if it was because they were stickers and not properly heat cycled but the Hoosiers didn't seem to stick much better than the Kumhos. It was a cool weekend and we never got much more than 110 in either tire so that might be why the Hoosiers didn't offer much of an advantage. They're supposed to stick better than the Kumhos and I was hoping to get the car to turn a little better running them on the front but the balance stayed the same.

We have Hawk Blues all around. And are running ATE Super Blue brake fluid. The track isn't very hard on brakes but I was still impressed with the setup.

Chris

 

Nice job!
It looks like you have a LOT of time invested in that car.

 

Nice write-up, nice results, nice car.

Have you had it on the scales? I'm curious to see what it weighs, guessing 2200-2300lbs?

Jeff

 

WOW. I really like your web page. That car looks AWESOME!! I must say, it is good to an ol N/A kickin ***!!! Any modifications to the internals of the engine?

 

Good job Chris. Really sounds like alot of fun.

 

Took about a year to piece the car together. It's come a LONG way. It weighs about 2410 lbs dry. With me and 50 lbs of ballast it comes in just under the class weight of 2680 lbs. We gotta make sure we keep a couple gallons of fuel in the tank when we finish to make weight. Over the winter I want to remove another 50 lbs from the car. Problem is there's no legal way to do it. We'll have to get creative.

The motor is completely stock. With the rules, the only thing you can do with a rotary is balance and blueprint it and use aftermarket seals. The motor is out of an 86-88 car with the 89+ intake. Six ports and all the pollution garbage are removed. Other than that it's stock. I have the parts to build an 89+ motor with carbon seals but haven't had the time. Probably be an off season project.

Chris

 

Next time you're coming to STL, post something about 2-3 weeks in advance. I'll get a group of guys together and crew for ya

 

Way to go Mr. Ludwig!
good turns and tail-winds to ya

Cory

 

I agree! Very nice, keep us updated, I plan on getting into that stuff in a year or so, for now I'm just doing autocross and smaller track events.

 

Yeah, next time you come let all us St. Louis people know... get something together.

 

Damn good job! Sounds like your on your way to a very good race season.

Have you had your car on a dyno yet? What kind of power are you putting to the wheels?
I saw an ITS car dyno 170hp at the wheels. I was very impressed.

You are right about the Hoosiers. they should be much stickier than the khumos.

Make sure your going straight when you hit that nitrous switch!

Mike

 

Hey Chris,

CONGRATULATIONS!

Sounds like a blast.. I'm about a month behind you, car's getting closer to finish every day.

PauLC

 

Glad to hear you're so close to completion Paul. Car looks great! You'll love it.

Haven't dynoed the car yet. Haven't had the time because of yet another move. Hope to in the next few weeks. It definetly needs some good tuning. I've set the mixture up on the fat side to protect the motor until I get it on a wideband to see just what it's doing.
I've heard some of the big engine builders claim 190-200 crank HP so 170 wheel HP should be in the ballpark. I'll be real happy with 150-160 as my setup is far from optimized.

We have plans to be in St. Louis the weekend of May 11-12 for the regional. As always, it depends on how the car comes through the IRP weekend. If we don't tear anything up we should be there. SCCA is kinda strange about their events. If you're not a member you may not be able to get in. Guess it's for liability reasons? Anyway, anyone who wants to come out let me know. I've got some guys that help me out but you're more than welcome to come out and chear us on and watch the races. Drop me an email and if you're not a member I'll see if I can get you in on a crew pass. I haven't seen the supp. regs for the event yet so I'm not sure how it'll all shake out.

Chris

 

C Ludwig- Very nice car and clean work. So you are running Tokiko's up front and Koni's out back. Why not the same all around. ALso are they adjustable? What spring rates are you running on the coil overs?

The heim joints for the sway bars.... what do they do vs. the stock setup?

What offset rims and size are you running? What size tires as well.

If you could also go into what suspension setting you have caster/camber/ toe in/out etc.

These questions aren't discussed enuf and I need to educate myself more on it.

I particularly like the cold air for the brakes that you fabbed. If you could make another piece to mount the flexible hose to where the brake dust shield was.... I would buy them for the front if they were a reasonable price. I'm sure others may as well.

Nicely done once again.

GNX7
(needing complete suspension overhaul on my car)

 

OK. I wanted Konis all the way around but you have to mate the strut body to either the stock mounts (which require you to cut a stock strut apart) or buy an after market mount from Mazda Comp. I felt lazy and cheap and went with the Tokicos. They are the best/relatively easy to find/cheapest bolt-in strut. Ultimately I'll have a set of Koni double adjustables custom made. Not that what's on it is slowing me down! But when the car is lowered to it's legal ride height I have a real fear that there isn't enough travel left in the stock/long tubes. I'd like something a bit shorter for more travel. The Tokico Illumina that are on the front are 5-position adjustable. The adjustment changes both bump and rebound at the same time. The Konis on the back are adjustable for rebound only.

The heim joints on the front are just stiffer than a stock rubber isolated mount. They just make the bar more precise instead of having to take the flex of the bushing into account. Mazdatrix sells the same type setup for like $60 or something. Guy that did my cage hooked me up for about $10.

Wheels are 15x7 as per the rules. We run a 40 mm offset. Needs to be less though. With the 225/50 Kumhos you can barely fit a piece of paper between the coil-over spring perch and the tire. With 225/45 Hoosiers we get a pretty bad rub. We'll be trying some spacers in 5 and 10 mm widths later in the year. Under the rules we're allowed to kick the tires out to the edge of the fender. Should help the car all around.

Setup is 1.5* camber all around. 1/8" toe-out in the front and 0 toe in the rear. We set the caster at as much as we could get while keeping both sides the same. I forget what it came out to be...sorry. That was the baseline and it worked well. May need just a bit more camber in the front, maybe 1.7-8? Need more track time before I start screwing with it though. I've heard of some guys running as much as 3* in the rear. I don't see the need for it, yet anyway.

The air ducting to the brakes are my interpretation of the Mazda Comp part which sells for way too much IMO. There are several parts we're think about marketing and that's one of them. We're quite a ways off from that though. An easy setup to try is to find a proper sized vegetable can. Cut both ends off and use some snips to make several lengthwise cuts about 1/2" into the can along one end. Kinda make a ribbon of one end. Make each cut about 1/2" wide. Bend the tabs you just made out at a 90* angle to the rest of the can. Rivet the tabs to your dust shield. That's basically what I did except it's all fabbed of aluminum. A production version would be MIG welded instead of rivetted too.

Chris