ok i need help , i just bought my second rx7, this one is a 88 vert, i know it's like the slowest rx7 but i said "hey it's a 7!" i was gonna leave it stock..but now..im having my doubts..i just got beat by an altima..not the 6 cyl..the 4 one..i thought it was a easy kill..but i think the altima isint stock..but anyways.. i dont wanna port my engine just yet but i wanna see what i can do right now that it's not that expensive.. on my other 7 i took the a/c, power etc..so it would lose weight..but does it really help the car much?? im wonderin what can i do..i just bought the k&n filter but its not much of a power gain persay..so im guessin headers..full catback? any help is good..

 

Header + exaust is the bast bang for the buck on NA (unless you count nitrous)

 

Exhaust alone is the best for a stock-port n/a, a header actually tends to provide less power than the stocker if it isn't ported.

Run your *** around the block!

 

The vert is also one of the slowest and heaviest FC's available.
Please stop drag racing the thing - that's not what it was made for.


-TEd

 

^^^
Unfortunately it's true. I had a customer's vert I was tuning up and trying to get running better a couple months ago. It was street ported, rebuilt, K&N filter, high flow cat, and some custom catback. I must say, it was much less than impressive

I tested the VDI and aux ports, VDI was opening aux ports were not. Took the manifolds off and it seems someone had already removed the aux port sleeves/etc, so the hope/desire that the lack of oomph in it was from non-functioning aux ports got thrown out the window. After all was said and done and it was give a tune up and was driving better, it still wasn't that great. It felt a tiny bit better, but eh... still not impressive.

Verts are more meant to be a nice cruising car in my mind, nothing more.

 

Weight reduction doesn't help much unless you try it on everything. My suggestion is alminum flywheel. I think that gives most significant change to your vert (than full exhaust w/ stock motor). Or go turbo. In my opinion, Mazda should have installed turbo onto ever vert.

 

i will go back into time and tell mazda to make the vert boosted....

then my vert will be faster and pwnz all muhahhahahaa (starts building time machine)

yah, i have yet to experience driving a "fast" 7, my vert has a custom exhaust without the 5/6 ports working, i have yet to fix that too

i was reading up on stock 1/4 times for the vert on different databases

stock time was around a dog time of 18 seconds, with my custom exhaust and torn apart interior due to the fact that my convertible top now leaks it made my carpet all disgustingly icky and yah...i run a good 16.5-16.7 without the 5/6th ports working

 

oh ya, its a s4 with an engine that has 40k on it, also the airpump has been removed, intake without the cold air box mod, it seems the fan shroud is doing a good job keeping the heat away from the cone filter, i still need to make one though

but ima stop trying to do things to make the vert faster and buy a base model coupe and do a RE swap

 

I want a coupe, but I don't squeeze performance out of it every time I drive, just 10% so I can live.

 

Try this on for size. I have an '88 bone stock 'Vert. I also have a '91 not so stock Turbo. I keep telling myself "The 'Vert is not slow, it's just that the Turbo is so fast.... "

Then I think about it and realize that for me it's not how fast or quick I can go from a dig with either car. It's more the whole driving experience of the cars as they were meant to be. If I wanted to outrun everything on the road from light to light I'd buy a motercycle. BTW, my son has a 4 cyl Altima, those suckers have some get up and go but drive like, well you know.
I think all the port this, pull that, upgrade the exhaust, swap the rear-end stuff is pointless for a 'Vert. It handles great, takes my abusive redlining and chicks dig it! If you really want to have a "fast" one, do a full turbo engine/drivetrain swap on it. Otherwise put the top down, crank up some tunes and go cruising.

 

I'm still trying to understand why people want more power so they can race other cars on the street. Please take your hazardous behavior to the track where the only risk is hurting yourself, not some innocent driver.

The altimas are fairly quick even with an auto and you have learned your most valuable lesson: Verts look fast but ain't. Enjoy the top down driving experience. If you want more speed drop in a TII engine, or a turbocharged 2.3L Ford block, or a LS1 V8 block.

 

They were boosted, just not it the states. In Japan, all verts as well as all FC's were turbo. So just wait til the Japanese vert is 25 yrs old then import that biatch. or just do a tII swap, which adds weight, but better strait line performance.

 

Is it true the vert has a better skid pad test than the coupe, I was told it was like .87g and the coupe was .86.

 

full exhaust, header high flow cat( or test pipe!) and high flow cat back, biggest hp gain for the money on a NA,

i have noticed doing full weight reduction made one of my NA faster then my other NA by a few 10ths of a second, i wouldnt do it to a vert, those arnt ment to be race cars, they are ment to look cool .

by weight reduction ive taken out allmost everything that isnt needed, all interior, ( i have part of the dash left, its just bare plastic with no cover( i hate burgendy),i have no cat back( saved allmost 50 lbs!!!) or heat sheilds, removed AC, air pump, some emissions, and everything not neeed under hood, a bunch of plastic and other crap( it actually adds up!) ,no passenger seat, half the cars undercoating is gone ( oil leaks disolved most of it),

all thats left to remove now is rest of emissions, and the tar on the floor boards...

 

weight reduction does help though by gaining WHP less weight the more WHP you get closer to the HP level full cat flywheel pulleys n gear ratios will get you far in life

 

Weight does make a big difference in braking, acceleration, and cornering. If you can stand to loose some stuff, it's one of the best performance mods you can do.

 

I doubt most people could tell the difference.
Why not try this...
Go run some course (autocross?) and see how fast you are.
Drop 100 lbs. of sand bags into the car - does your time change?
I doubt it will significantly...


-Ted

 

weight does make a difference, just like how is a 180 hp honda crx is beating a 300 hp trans am, because the crx weights 1400 lbs less!
acelleration is mostly a factor of weight vs HP
doing a full weight reduction theres over 200 lbs that can be removed from most FC's and thats gonna make a difference.

you might not feel it but it will show in your 1/4 time and stuff like that. it won't be as big of gain as say full exhaust or somthing,but it prolly shows more of a difference than doing a cold air intake for example.

 

You're talking about power-to-weight ratio.
We're not comparing two cars.
The original poster was just talking about losing weight.
So how do you lose 200 lbs. of weight in an FC?


-Ted

 

I took the engine out of my old TII, and it's lighter now.

 

in defense of the weight loss arguement, i noticed quite the difference in my quarter mile times with my turbo SE when i put it on a diet. the spare tire was removed, passenger seat, back seats, sub, amp, power steering, a/c, etc. i got a 13.9 at 101 mph with a stock turbo/motor and obviously no lsd. not to shab i think.

 

It depends on how much weight and where it was removed from. I removed around 500 pounds from my Jetta (about 2600 stock curb weight) and I could definetley feel that. When I do autocross I sometimes carry passengers and I feel the car is slower with them in it, but it doesn't reflect in my times. I am sure it makes a small difference, but the variation in the way I drive the course makes more of a difference.

The biggest difference I felt was moving the battery from the engine bay, to the trunk. It was only about 40 pounds, but it improved handling significantly especially during high speed transitions because the car is much more balanced.

Overall I would say weight reductions help, but there are more important things if you really want to be fast. A good set of tires will give you a much greater improvement so I wouldn't waste $1,000 on Lexan windows if you haven't already put at least that much into suspension.

 

removing 200 lbs is very realisticly acheivable!
at least 60 lbs, no catback at all,hollow cats, and no heat sheilds

about 80 lbs removing: spare tire ,jack,all interior ,stock sterio,all speakers,passenger seat,part of the dash,glove box, center consol.

then last week,i removed the AC, washer resivour, various plastic pieces on front of car and metal brackets that were unnessisary, and that took off 40 lbs off the front of the car.and i weighed all that on a scale

so thats at least 180 lbs then removing all the tar is at least another 20 lbs theres 200

then if your really crazy u could remove the front and rear bumper suports thats another 25 lbs. do full emissions removal and a short striaght pipe and take off another 10 lbs probably, or remove all the dash and heater and crap, and take off another 40 lbs,go with a carb and lose another 30 lbs, but thats goin pretty crazy!

so at the most with stock motor with stock ecu you could probably pull about 250-300 lbs off the car

weight reduction is free! or u can make money selling the parts. sell everything to buy good tires and sway bar set or somthing

 

I wouldn't mod the vert, just sell it and get a base model, GTUs or TII or FD if you want a more suitable platform to start from.

 

Heh..GTU > GTUs in terms of which one OWNS THE HELL OUT OF THE OTHER, yeah. T2 suspension.. OIL PAN UNDERTRAY.. lightest rx7 besides the 87 Sport..LSD..The list of what makes the 88GTU > All just goes on