DanW

ive been coming to this website for a couple months now and i had my hopes up on getting an rx7. so a couple days ago i went out and got a mint condition 86 gxl. original paint, no rust, everything works engine rebuilt 30 000 ago 85 compression on the rotors. i raced my friend in his car and he killed me. the thing is he has a cavalier. it looks awsome but im having second thoughts if i can even beat a civic in this thing.
i figure i should have more power than this. it is a standard and i start of and drive it good.
would it help if i changed the spark plugs and took out the cats?? would i be able to beat anything if i did. the first 2 days i went 200 kilometers and i put in 31 litres of gas which is only 7 kilometers to the litre. any help you guys can give me would be great. all i keep reading about on here is how fast these things are and how high they rev. hmm maybe its a problem with my car but what could it be. any help would be greatly appreciated.
sorry for such a long post

by the way what kind of spark plugs are good to get. are ngks alright?

Dyre

Well, NA 2nd gens where only about 17sec cars stock, and you basically bought one of the slowest rx-7's...
The only one that would be slower would be a '88 vert i think.

Not that your out of luck, but its going to take some mods to make up the power.
things like smooth intake, full exhuast, ignition box, port&polish, ported motor, and even nitrous...

then there weight reduction (since you have one of the heavier FC's)

KNONFS

iTrader: (14)

Is the car stock? If so I bet those cat aren't helping you at all (clogged). You don't have the second slowest FC, consider your self lucky to have the lightest of all FC (without weight mod.). Get a header, free flow exhaust.....and in the future a 89-91 rotors and intake manifold....you'll be killing Acura GSr left and right, probably hanging very close to stock TYPE R.

Mykl

Civic EX + I/H/E will eat me for lunch at the strip. A Cavalier Z-24 would kick my *** too.

That's why I don't drag much, it's not the car's strength. Now if somebody wants to race me I challenge them to a game of follow the leader on a curvey road. My car may not have the power, but it can sure as Hell handle better than a Cavalier.

I use NGK spark plugs out of lack of options. I can get them at NAPA here in town, they seem to work well enough so I feel no need to find anything else.

When it comes to drag racing, especially the n/a models, launching is very tricky, so work on that a bit. Is the car doing anything peculiar? Dramatic power drop offs up top? Horrible idle? Smells rich?

As far as your gas mileage is concerned, don't be too hard on the pedal. If you want good economy I recommend accelerating slowly and shifting at 3000-3500 RPM's. In the city that should give you ~20 mpg if it's in good shape, on the highway I get 24 mpg @ 80 mph. If my foot is on the floor through the entire tank I get about 15 mpg.

snoopster76

those cat are probably clogged. do something with those. also doesn't 80 compresion seem low to anybody. Keep your head up, my TII couldn't beat lots of things, but then I got rid of my clogged cats and fixed to exhuast leak and it's fast again.

Erik

wait...85 compression??????? is that in "psi"? i realize the 86-88 motors had a little lower compression than the 89-91's...but my n/a was just tested and it had 127psi on the front rotor and 133 on the back.

snoopster76

I thought that 100-110 is decent on a motor with a few miles on it, but anything less, do the atf trick first, then think rebuild.

Roshambo

I bet your 6port actuation is stuck closed and the stock exhaust is a total hinderance. If you want to go faster, get a straight exhaust, intake, and make sure you get the 6PI working and you will be flying. My car was the same way....a total slug (I have a 86 GX). After getting the 6 ports working, exhaust done.....it became pretty fast.

Good luck.

Samps

Come on guys, don't you all think it is about time that we tell these people that the rx-7 is really a slow car and we are all just mazda reps that are trying to convince all the ricers that rx-7s are the cars to buy. I mean, we have ruined numerous lives, and sent many people to the poor house telling them that if they mod there 7 it will be fast, then after they spend all of there money, we tell them that they are bad drivers and should sell there car to someone who deserves it. We should all be ashamed of ourselves.

Samps
Mazda PR specialist
Okylayawahaha, Japan

DanW

the motor was rebuilt like 30 000 kilometers ago so the motor is good. i think im going to take out the cats today and just put a peice of pipe in there for now. the exhaust has a kind of gas smell to it.
can anyone tell me how to open all the ports or whatever that guy said. thanks

PraxRX7

No I don't think we will be telling them that...
Also don't tell them that Initial D is really a ploy to get people desiring older sports cars again in order to spark the market for sports cars which has shrunk by over a %50 margin hindering over $200,000 dollars in revenues for our companies.

Muahahahhaa, you probably didn't see the subliminal messages in the smoke trails being left behind in the tires that said "YOU NEED A SPORTS CAR" lol

supergoat

For a how-to on gutting the cats and the ATF trick(which I would reccommend) go to my site. www.superseven.8m.com

Look in the how-to section.

vaughnc

DanW,

Might want to have it dynoed to see if rear wheel hp is near stock or not. I agree if the catalytic converters are clogged, clogged intake, dirty fuel injectors, or long time since the 60K service will cause loss of performance.

Also - were you launching at 4500 rpms? I'm assuming this wasn't an automatic GXL (ie it's a stickshift).

Samps - huh? My TII beats most 5.0s.

Never said the stock NAs will beat stock type R, v-tech, etc... Just said their a cool/fun/cheap/long lasting sports car and they have allot of performance potential. Main thing is they can rev the hell out of it all day long and not have to worry about blowing the engine.

Allot of people pick up an na, port the engine, perf exh. & intake, etc... and see a good 20-30 more HP without allot of $$$ invested.

vaughnc

Also - didn't the gearing in the GXL add 1-2 sec. in the 1/4 mile times? Anyone remember?

mazdaspeed7

The GXL's had the same gearing as all of the other n/a's. The reason they were slower is because they weighed more from the "luxury options."

DanW, I would definately check out that cats, do the ATF trick, and replace your air filter and plugs/wires if they need it. You really shouldnt be losing to a Cavalier unless it has had some major work. Ive only lost to 1 Civic, and it had headers/exhaust/intake and a 65 shot of NOS. He barely beat me too. I think I could take him now. Im not positive, but Im pretty sure it was an SI too.

SoloRacer

Your 6 ports are probably stuck closed like Roshambo said. His were stuck closed and he did not know it. His performance was so bad he considered selling his car. After a little tinkering he's running great and his car has way more power than before. Now he's only jealous of us turbo guys. Your six port actuators are sort of the rotary version of V-Tec. Think how slow a GSR or Type-R would be if their V-Tec was not working. I would be willing to be with your exhaust opened up and 6 ports working you would have no problems with Cavaliers.

dre_2ooo

1/4 mile 0-60mph
1986 Cavalier Z24 16.7 8.5
1998 Cavalier Z24 15.9 8.0
1998 Cavalier Z24 vert 16.8 8.7
1996 Cavalier LS 16.1 8.3


1986 Mazda RX-7

Base $11,995
Base 2+2 $12,495
GXL $16,645
GXL 2+2 $17,145

Number of Cars Sold 56,243

Weight

Model Base 2+2 GXL GXL 2+2
Manual 5-Speed 2625lb 2645lb 2625 lb 2645 lb
Automatic 2695lb 2715lb 2695 lb 2715 lb

Exterior Dimensions

Length 168.9 in
Width 66.5 in
Height 49.8 in
Wheelbase 95.7 in
Ground Clearance 5.9 in
Track F / R 57.1 / 56.7

Engine Specs

Engine twin rotor
Displacement 1308 cc/80 cubic inches
Compression Ratio 9.4 : 1
Output 146 bhp (net) @6500 RPM
Torque 138 lb-ft @3500 RPM
Fuel Supply EFI
Fuel Capacity 16.6 US gallons

Drivetrain

Ratios 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th reverse
Manual 5-speed 3.475 2.002 1.366 1.00 0.711 3.493
Automatic 2.841 1.541 1.000 0.720 ------ 2.400
Final Drive Ratio 4.100 (5-speed) 3.909 (automatic)
EPA Fuel Economy 17/24 MPG

Steering

Type rack & pinion power rack & pinion
Overall Ratio 20.3 15.2
Turns Lock to Lock 3.5 2.7
Turning Circle 32.2 ft

Suspension

Front Suspension Independant MacPherson strut type with lower A-arm, coil springs and 22mm anti-roll bar (24mm w/sports suspension)
Rear Suspension Independant, Dynamic Tracking Suspension System with trailing arms, Triaxial Floating Hubs, camber control links, coil springs and 12mm anti-roll bar (14mm w/sports suspension)

Brakes

Model Base & 2+2 GXL & GXL 2+2
Type power assisted
Front Rotors 9.8 inch ventilated 10.9 inch ventiated
Rear Rotors 10.3 inch solid 10.7 inch ventiated
Front Calipers single piston floating 4 piston
Rear Calipers single piston floating (all models)

Wheels / Tires

Model Base 2+2 GXL GXL 2+2
Wheels 5.5 x 14 inch styled steel 6.0 x 15 aluminum alloy
Tires 185/70HR14 205/60VR15

Performance

Model Base 2+2 GXL GXL 2+2
0-60 MPH 7.8 7.8 7.8 7.8
0-100 MPH 23.7 23.7 23.4 23.4
1/4 Mile 16.2 @86.4 16.2 @86.4 16.2 @86.7 16.2 @86.7
Top speed 128 MPH 128 MPH 132 MPH 132 MPH


hope this answers ALL of your ?'s
*note that the fastest cavalier is 8.0/15.9
yours should be doing 7.8/16.2
so in the end its DRIVER SKILL

of course you could get some mods... and ...

dre_2ooo

Oh ya...
i got all the specs from

http://2ndgenrx7.freeservers.com/specsmaster.html

and

http://2ndgenrx7.freeservers.com/performance.html

vaughnc

DanW,

I think you would go from "it's pretty peppy" to "holy #@$%# i'm already at 100MPH" using the advice above.

You can litteraly blow through traffic (not that you would, but you could).

PaulC

Do the ATF treatment, gut your cats at the very least. If you dont need AC get rid of it. If you dont need smog stuff, get rid of the air pump. Dont have a girlfriend or a buddy that you drive around a lot get rid of the passenger seat A can of fix a flat and you can get rid of the spare and jack if your not afraid of a blow out ripping your tire. I did this but I dont recomend it for others, Im crazy

LAST, NO BIG STEREO BOXES IN THE BACK FOR BIG SUBS THEY WIEGH A LOT. Well the MDF does

Ive got my car pretty well stripped (except I had to put the front seat back in for the GF) With 1/2 tank of gas and me in the car it wieghs 2138lbs. on the scale at the dump

KNONFS

iTrader: (14)

Before the ATF start with the cat and check your 6ports!