I think it's darling.
This one is in pretty nice condition, the embossed Mazda logo is crisply defined and no real surface blemishes.
I did follow Hyperteks spoiler journey but did not care for the final result.

I half-assed the lights on this morning.
If they stay, bracing will be required but that looks to be pretty simple as there's a lot of structure to tie into.
It was too frigid to tell if they have any effect on cooling, an extended drive did not reveal anything but it was only 25°...




I'm not sure.

Continuing the walkaround:








She cleaned up pretty good.

Today's drive featured the stock steering wheel and it wasn't bad at all.
The "droopy" spokes expose more of the switch bezel, so of course I started thinking of the fuel gauge again and....STOP THAT!

 

I'm sad to say it, but I don't think they work too well on the FC. Those look like they'd fit better on an FB. I think that with the unusual, but curiously sexy, combination of curvy/boxy lines on the FC it doesn't blend well with those round fog lights. Kind of like my box vent that I put on my hood... it didn't fit the theme.

 

I use the made by Wix (51568) NAPA Gold 1568 oil filter. I believe it is the largest that fits the pedestal and yes it has an anti-drain back valve. The application is for Komatsu Equipment with Yanmar Engines.

 

As a point of reference both the Wix 51344 and the 51568 oil filters are the exactly the same size - the only difference is the by-pass PSI rating, 8-11 PSI and 16 PSI receptively.

 

Been using Wix 51344 for several years on my RX7's. Virtually the same size as 51568 above, but stocked locally. Also, the bypass valve specs match exactly the stock specs, if that matters. Slight but negligible difference in gasket size.

I like Wix filters and appreciate the alternate part number. I'll check it out at my local stores.

Thanks!

 

No need for sorrow, I'm ambivalent as well.

Thing is, I've always thought the rally car look, where big honkin, **** you lights would be mounted on the nose/hood, were really neat looking.

Unlike you, Mr. Green, I don't find the front of the FC to be particularly good looking.
I can see what they were trying to do, but the plethora of openings just doesn't line up nicely to my eye.
Stuffing two large round elements into the design doesn't ruin it for me because I don't think it's all that cohesive to begin with.

BUT, as currently sited I think they're not right either.
Gonna try setting them further back, recessed more into the front grill opening.
That should lessen the impact from all angles save the front.

We'll see how that goes.

 

Not sure about the rally fog/driving lamps but the look is unique. I agree that the front end of the FC - even the S5 is still a bit "cluttered". I think the issue is the the flash to pass lenses stacked on top of the turn singles.

BTW, I really like the looks of the Miata Momo wheel. Personally I also used a Wheel Skin cover on the stock S5 wheel because it was a lot less expensive option. The stock wheel was getting pretty slick (but not warn) and the slight increase in rim thickness is welcome.

 

I am not sure if the different in by-pass pressure settings between the 51344 and the 51568 makes a whole lot of difference. The reason I decided on the 51568 was that the rotary engine usually gets rev'd a whole lot and the higher setting seemed to make more sense.

Neither of these Wix or NAPA gold oil filters are typically stocked locally, so I usually wait and place a larger order for both air and oil filters for the whole "fleet" to get free shipping from here;

Wix 51568 & Napa 1568 Oil Filter: FleetFilter Secure Online Store

They have the best prices by far for Wix filters.

As far as not looking cool because the oil filters are white - you can always spray paint the can black

 

The bypass pressure is a differential between intake and exit of the filter media. IOW, the pressure drop. One filter will bypass with only a 6-psi pressure drop and the other will bypass when the pressure is 16 psi. If you are changing the filter regularly it's unlikely either filter will ever bypass.

So does the wheelskin leather completely cover those spokes as pictured? That's nice.

 

I change the oil/filter every 2.5 to 3K miles.

Take a look at the photos in post #522 of the wheel skin on the convertible air bag wheel. That is about the same as the spoke coverage on my S5 wheel. Not perfect but pretty good. I have used the Wheel Skin covers on several other cars. Great product, the fitment is dead on (as long as you measure correctly) and the color matches are pretty darn close as well.

 

Here is the second iteration of the light install (actually it's the third but we shall never speak of the first...):






They've tucked in quite a bit compared to yesterday's effort.
I like this better but not sure if "better" justifies continuing.
See if a day or two gets em growing on me or not.

@Jack...
That wheel that Deacon attached is of my Miata wheel which has no skin.

 

You car, sir, needs a front lip...

Do you have a picture of your car with the circle lights on and the headlights raised at the same time?

 

Confusion removed.

 

Christmas just passed and you again failed to give me one.

Honestly, I think she sits a bit high for a lip to look practical.

The new lights aren't wired as yet.

If I do proceed to the wiring phase, I think at first the lights will just auto engage with the HIGH beam. This would be a completely stand alone harness that only taps the high beam feed for the relay trigger signal, no separate switch.
That would be the easiest and fastest way to get them lit.

 

I like the lights more recessed, but I wonder if a pair of old school larger rectangular lights would look better than the round ones.

 

Intuitively, one might think so but I'm not sure the easy way is the best.

First of all, you'd be adding two more rectangular elements to a design that is already full of (semi) unrelated rectangles.
Unless the size and placement of the new lights somehow perfectly integrated with the existing openings, their rectangular shape would be just as jarring as the round ones when viewing the car's nose as a whole.

Secondly, I already have these lamps (which were relatively pricey-especially the bulbs- when purchased 15 or so years ago).

The iconic Lancia Stratos is the car I always picture in my head:


There's a "Damn the torpedoes!" vibe about rally lighting installs that pushes some primordial buttons for me.
Much as I'd love it, I probably wouldn't go as far as the semi-faired box-o-lights on the nose..just imagine using those as FTPs!...but the underhanging round pair (long beat for "she said" joke) are in the wheelhouse.

Today I'm helping Sigfrid with his TT and tomorrow is football, so I'll probably wire them up on Monday.

 

I keep stumbling across these red S5's with black trim so I've got to pass the pictures along. This one even has similar wheels. I've got to admit, it's growing on me.



A lip can be a pain with a car 6" off the ground, but they sure can look good. After accidentally ripping it off and running it over, I fixed and re-installed this lip on my current FC when I put some S5 parts on and I'm happy for now. I'd like a stock T2 lip, they're not too thick and look pretty nice. I believe that's what's on the red car above. The one I have is Corksport's Odura one.

 

Thanks for your continued efforts, Brett, you've spent more time looking at "blacked out" S5's than I have.

I lack the training/vocabulary to concisely describe how the FC body strikes me (anyone else here follow the "Vellum Venom" entries on Jalopnik?) but I'll give it a go...

Viewed from overhead, the FC has a classic "coke bottle" flair but all that swoopiness essentially ends at the crease line above the wheel openings. From there down, the FC is basically slabsided and featureless till it rolls out at the rocker panel.
On the S4, the black body trim cuts that vast space in half, much diminishing it's visual weight. The body colored S5 trim is not as defined (because it relies on shadow lines rather than color differences) and to my eye, the S5 looks porkier below the window line as a result.

This is also my objection to most body kits...adding extra visual weight (larger side skirts, deeper nosecones w/lips, etc) to the bottom of the car further emphasizes the already poor ratio between the greenhouse and the body.
Two relevant examples would be the Audi TT and the Chrysler 300, both of which have intentionally small windows/greenhouses compared to the body proper.

If you design the car with an exaggerated ratio from scratch, you can use the rest of the body to maintain a cohesive total design but if, as is the case with added bodywork on the FC, you alter the ratio and add lots of visual to the car's lower edge, to me it looks like the body has melted in the sun and slumped down.

Besides, be it age or natural inclination, the whole "stance/hella flush/lowered" trend leaves me cold.
I'd submit the Jaguar XKE- undeniably one of the most spectacular bodies ever to grace an automobile- which does not conform to any modern design conventions:


My first impression of this car is that it sits so lightly on the wheels...looks like it really could leap like a cat.
Add a big front airdam and some sill extensions and that flowing agility (implied or real) goes away. Might look tougher, or more muscular/purposeful, but it won't look as pretty as the original.

Wow, how did I get so far afield?

Anyway, I like the effect of the black bodyline on the FC and am in fact considering going "full panda" and blacking out from the trim line all the way to the bottom of the body.
If I knew anything about Photoshop, I'd mock up a concept pic but I don't, so you'll have to imagine the pic I see in my head.

I was out and about yesterday and several people saw the car with the driving lights. They were almost universally disliked, which perversely, only made me more attached to them.
My only technical concern is that they may block too much of the intake opening (about 50%, I figger) and will degrade cooling performance.
This did not happen yesterday in either city or highway conditions but then again, it was only 40°, so not a very rigorous test.
The efan did not activate once, so I know temps never breached 195° and most of the time it ran at what I'm assuming is 180°, so...pretty normal.

Now it's time to wire them up and see if they actually do any good in that position and if the benefit outweighs the popular derision.

 

you make a lot of points, most of which i agree with. the black line around the S4 should make it look longer and wider. i have always thought the S5 T2 body kit made the car look heavy, so i really don't like the newer body kits, that add big skirts down low, they look horrid.

however the FC isn't rounded and svelte like the E type, its a muscle car. the reason the FC has aged so well, is because when every new car has either been a jelly bean, or like a camaro/challenger where they added about a foot of height in the body, so those cars are really tall.

although like the E type the FC is a teeny car. especially in the 21st century, when the camry a midsize sedan is bigger than the biggest symbol of automotive excess, the 59 caddy.

i had the FC in the driveway next to a 1976 Rx3, and a 1st gen, guess which one is the shortest? the FC.

what does this mean? i dunno, i'm not sure i had a point. or if i did, the FC (like any car) looks best when you make it look longer and wider. taller is bad, and Mazda got the proportions right on the FC, so the other trick is to not screw that up.*

i think that's why everyone likes the sport wing, that mustache visually adds width to the rear


*if you wanna see funny proportions park an FD and RX8 of the same color one in front of the other, the FD looks like a weird bubble car!

 

Sorry if you've already posted this, I've been trying to follow the thread but only recently, not from the beginning. Is that a Racing Beat True Dual? I just recently bought one w/ the presilencer and am waiting to put it on until i get the new motor, wanted to see what you think of it. I'm running a straight through exhaust atm, pace setter header, custom test pipe, and borla catback...It's loud. Not nearly as loud as a corksport or apexi, and without that annoying tone. It's a nice loud, not a deafening loud, but I'm afraid that with this presilencer it's going to be too quiet.

 

I have a RB cat back only...it's all stock from the y-pipe to the engine.

 

Clokker, you would probably love Robert Cumberford's design analysis articles in Automobile Magazine. It is consistently my favorite column in the magazine.

I have a 70 E-type OTS (Open Two Seater) in the garage parked next to the boy's FC so I understand your point.

But (and "but" always invalidates everything I just said! ) cars and mods from different eras don't always work together. Putting a lip or skirts on the E would look and be stupid. And putting wire wheels and chrome bumpers on the FC would be equally stupid.

By the same token, only adopting part of a style mod rarely works. For example, putting Tii skirts on your car sans lip will look wrong; something will be missing. Even a relatively subtle lip like Corksport's Odura look wrong without proportional skirts.

When we put the Odura lip and OEM Tii skirts on the car it was obvious something was wrong with the rear bumper. So we installed the Corksport bumper caps. And while one's personal taste may not be aligned with the "hunkered-down," "race-track ready" or "melted and sagging in the hot sun" look, the shapes and proportions create a unifying and consistent line from the lip to the skirt to the rear bumper. It flows and is complete.





The rear wheel being inset more than the front (but much less than the E-type's) bugs the crap out of me. And I think the wheels should have exposed lug nuts to keep everything in the "race-ready" theme. Every element needs to be...

COHESIVE!

And to me that's the challenge with just sticking enormous fog lights on the front of your otherwise tastefully done FC. If you want to use the Stratos as inspiration for your FC, then IMHO you have to go all the way and turn your FC into a homage to rally cars of the 70s and 80s. What would an FC look like if raced in the WRC? It would be jacked way up in the air, it would probably have flared fenders and wild paint, knobby tires and steel wheels, etc. The Stratos looks right because all of the elements work together.

And sticking enormous fog lights on the front of an otherwise tastefully assembled 80's sports coupe looks incongruous. Not to be too mean but its like putting a giant wing on the back of a 4 door Camry or a coffee can exhaust and flame stickers on an otherwise stock Civic.

Yeah, the Camry and Civic analogies were uncalled for!

Still loving the build!

 

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, VRR, and before I forget...the black vert is beautiful and I'm envious of the XKE (I owned one in my youth but was seriously underfunded and inexperienced, so it did not end well).

Normally, "cohesive" is my middle name/watchword,
I spent uncounted hours fiddling with absurdly minor details to make the engine bay look of a whole. In fact, there is a short hose run that has been infuriating me for weeks that I must attend to but only comes to mind when I view the pics.
This one:



The soft hose transitioning from the (handbent) engine hardline to the evap canister makes a gentle "S" bend. If the hardline end was tweaked up maybe 5-10°, the span would be a single shallow arc, which for some reason is the way I think it should be.
Now it looks like I miscalculated my bends and missed by a hair.
Which of course, is exactly what happened.

Anyway, the point is, I get cohesive.
Thing is though, sometimes a mismatched element enhances the beauty of the whole.
Think of supermodels with gapped teeth or moles... nearly perfect avatars of current beauty standards whose perfection is not ruined but rather enhanced by flaws that would disqualify a lesser contestant.

And, unlike the Camry wing and Honda fartcan, these lights are- at least in theory- functional and address a problem.

Of course I realized before and during their install that the lamps were a giant middle finger to most folk's sensibilities, sometimes even my own.
There is a germ of personality growing in the car now and whether or not these particular lights are a good expression of it remains to be seen.

All would be moot also if I could afford the couple hundred bucks for decent housings/bulbs for the stock headlamps.
Not only would that be more socially responsible but a far finer fix for the terrible stock lights.
The Hellas are definitely a bigger hammer solution than the problem requires.

 

all this e typery reminds me of these two, in the Jaguar tent @ the historics a couple years ago. those two were very very sexy...

 

Ah, the Group 44 XKE.
Not only very successful on track, Bob Tullius was basically the inventor of the modern race team.