A friend in San Francisco, Wendell Yamado, sent me pictures of the new 500th issue of Option Magazine featuring my car. I hope to get a copy soon and get it translated.

 

Woah! Be proud!

Congrats.

 

Thanks, Matt. I can't wait to see what they said. When they were here, there was a real language barrier.

 

 

That's well deserved coverage of car that all enthusiasts need to see. You have built one of the most unique and high quality RX-7s ever. Not to mention all the other madness in your garage. Good on you.

 

Whoa!

Congrat's Gordon, looking forward to hearing what they wrote!

 

That's really cool Gordon. Congrats and post up a translated article when you can.

 

Thanks, David. Wasn't sure it would be used. They visited me in April and its the October issue. Wendell Yamatto got me one copy and I snagged 2 on eBay. I emailed the publisher and asked for more but haven't heard back. Someone told me they weren't selling any more. Maybe its the 500th issue thing? Anyway, 2 people have volunteered to translate it and I'll merge the two and post it all up at some point. I found that when the Japanese translate these kind of articles, there can be a lot of differences in the translations...

 

Option put some pictures of my car in an earlier edition I got in March. Probably the May edition. Taken at Sevenstock XX. Not sure I ever posted them here. Rough translation thanks to Colin Dyvig..."ITB attached to 30 - tar! It is surprising to see the engine room though it is FD 3 S which is not much impact and looks good! It was converted to 20b type 3 rotor and turned out to be the NA specification equipped with 50mm independent throttle made by EFI Hardware. By using the 13B type side housing with side port machining and controlling with MoTeC M 800, the maximum output is about 400 hp. I heard a story about an elderly owner like a veteran who was slowly crawling around the car and heard a story, he said that he participated from Pennsylvania all the way to the east coast."

 

I've been lucky enough to sit in G's Rx and his car is amazing. It truly is and it doesn't surprise me one bit that it got featured.

Gordon,
Well deserved my friend

 

Very cool, Gordon! It was great being able to see your car in person at last year's sevenstock, will be interesting to read what their takeaways on it were.

 

Thanks, Elliott. It was great meeting you after so many years. Coming from you, the compliment is greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry, but I don't link your name to your screen name. Damn. Old age. Damn old age. Yeah, I am really looking forward to seeing what they said. I answered all their questions, but just not sure what they came away with...

 

Gordon,

Thank you for sharing snippets of the article. Congrats on being featured in the magazine! I have yet to see your FD in person but perhaps our paths will cross in the future? It is always a pleasure to see photos of your FD. Do you have any photos of it with the Testarossa?

 

Congratulations!

It's nice to see that even 25 years later the FD is still admired in it's homeland. Yours is a beautiful example; one of if not THE best in this club. Definitely well deserved.

 

Did they just call you elderly? ;P

 

Thanks, George. Maybe you can make it up here for next year's BBQ in August. Love to see you. Here are a couple that show the TR and Rx7together.

 

When your US car is covered by a japanese mag you've built one hella cool FD

Congrats!

 

Thanks, Natey. I really liked that the Mazda engineers I've met like the car so much. At Sevenstock they were crawling all over it, in it, around it... I had no idea what they were saying, but they all wanted pictures with their arms around me. They were very nice.

Damn. I am NOT elderly. I am OLD.

 

Thanks, Fritz. When they said they wanted to fly out here and visit, I wasn't too sure they would. Especially since it was cold and raining in April. I know one of the guys actually came from Japan. And, yes. Having the car chosen best FD at Sevenstock and then Option doing this really makes me very happy and very grateful. As you know, this took forever and cost an arm and a leg and some people didn't like what I was doing, whether it was the aluminum grill, the wrinkle finish stuff, or the na motor... which is okay, but was occasionally discouraging.

Btw, there are more than a few Flynn-provided parts in there.

 

Gordon,

Thank you for the future invite. And thanks for sharing those pics. Both cars are sharp looking! I am envious on many levels...the car collection and the garage to name 2. Are you looking to adopt a son? Because I am available!

 

Thanks, George, but, I'm so old, I'd have to be your grandfather...

 

Looking at those nice cars then riding around on my Ducati, I gotta ask.

What kind of bike is that? It looks vintage and it looks big.

 

There's a very small Moto Guzzi 254 on the bike lift. It's the smallest 4 cylinder production bike at 231cc's. Have 10 bikes now. Mostly smaller. I sold my 900SS and my 916 2 years ago or so. Limiting my bikes to smaller displacement, lighter weight bikes only.

 

Congratulations and beautiful garage set-up - I'd love to have something like that someday!

Are your ceilings tall enough to stand up straight under the FD ?

 

Not quite. Several guys who also work on my cars can stand up all the way though. I'm maybe a few inches too tall and have to stoop. When I first built the garage in 1991, I never expected to put a lift in. So, the ceilings are only 9 1/2 or 10 feet tall and I don't want to knock a hole in the ceiling for the extra few inches. I'm adding another 2 bays next spring built with more than enough headroom.