DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Been thinking about this post for a while.

I bought an '87 turbo around 1996 or so after inhaling the RX-7 mailing list for a year or so. I had a good friend at work who grew up working on cars and taught me a lot, also had a roommate that was into cars as well, but no one with an RX-7. I remember wishing I had some friends to talk RX-7 stuff with, hang out, work on cars, etc.

Within a year I totaled that car (learned my "how to drive rear wheel drive" lesson, never been in a wreck since) and bought an '88 10th Anniversary and parted out the old car. Friend of a friend had an FC, we met up and he bought some parts. He's still a good friend 25 years later.

From there, I kept an eye out - if I would see someone with an RX-7, I'd introduce myself, talk to them about their car, and there it went. This started to snowball over time - I'd have some RX-7 buddies that would have a friend that was "man, that's cool" - we'd find one for sale and get him in that car. Before you know it we had a local group of about 20 guys, some would pop in every now and again, some were more into it. We turned wrenches every damn weekend. Some of those guys became roommates, we had an all RX-7 house. Mind you, this was all FC's, there would be only a handful of FD guys over that time. Typically we would meet them, fix up the car some, maybe put an exhaust on, then they would move.

Anyhow, many of those guys were in my wedding and are lifelong friends. Some of them have moved on to other cars from RX-7's and that's fine. I've also met up with some newer FD guys since I bought my FD in 2004, I know about 6 guys or so in the Pensacola area that I'm good friends with.

All that said, I've been VERY fortunate to have a good group to help out on projects, hang out with, etc. Whenever someone needs to make an order with Ray Crowe we'll put the word out and if a few guys need parts we will get it all in the same box and split shipping. When it's time to pull an engine I have a bunch of friends to come help out. Pulling the engine on my RX-8 I had about 7 guys over, did some burgers on the grill and had a great time. I've helped with their projects and fixed stuff on their car and they've helped me out in return.

All that said, get on your local FB groups, go to Cars and Coffee-type events, find other RX-7 guys in your area. It's REALLY hard to own one of these cars totally in a vacuum, having someone to lend a hand or a tool, another set of eyes to look at a problem. or just BS about car stuff is amazing. Even finding guys that don't have RX-7's but are into cars can be a great advantage.

This is something that doesn't come easy, it can be tricky to find people you click with. Also so many FD's remain in the garage and are rarely driven so you may not even know that there are guys in town with RX-7's as well.

If you can make it to any major or minor rotary event, DO SO. Even if your car looks rough, isn't "done", is near stock, WHO CARES, go anyhow! Just as long as you can reliably get from A to B, you are good. I go to DGRR every year and have made awesome friends and contacts there and learn a lot and have a BLAST every time.

Anyone have similar stories?

Dale

SwappedNA

iTrader: (1)

Certainly do. Met most of my car friends in highschool. We were all 15 year old sophomores that each had our own area of interest (Nissans, Mazda rotary powered cars, etc.) As we all turned old enough to legally drive on our own and acquired the means to buy our own cars, our dreaming turned into reality.

I bought my first FC, an 87 GXL (for 2,500. Two owner car, first owner was the second owner's neighbor. Insanely clean AND came with the window sticker, never should have sold that thing.) Our lineup consisted of one friend with a 240sx, the last body style eclipse, an NA Miata, one of those 20 valve GTi's (that thing sounded really nice up high) another 240, and we also had some random people float in and out with some different cars over that time.

Some have moved onto other things, some are no longer living, but the core of us that started in highschool are still into the hobby. The car choices have changed, and though we are all states apart at this point, we still communicate. Geographically isolated, but still talk and will meet up whenever the planets align

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

my story is really similar to Dale's, most of the people i know are in some way related to the Rx7.
i'll second the go to events thing, on the west coast we have Sevenstock, and Mazda is a small company, so i've met everyone over the years.

i've been to other meets, and the Mazda people are the nicest, and most accessible.

arghx

iTrader: (3)

I got my job through having an Rx-7.

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

There's a local computer store that I worked at in the late 90's doing onsite network support. I ended up getiting all my RX-7 friends jobs there (they were all computer nerds too) and it was funny seeing the parking lot behind the store with 4 FC's in a row.

Dale

SETaylor

iTrader: (4)

I had discovered this forum back in 2017 and spent way too much time reading about these cars. Last summer, I was driving down the highway and a chaste white FD passes me. That made my week, as I had only seen three other cars in person at that point. A month later, I pulled into the parking lot at the office where I was doing my schoolwork at the time, and that same chaste white FD was in the parking lot. I left a note on it explaining that I wanted some insight on owning and maintaining these cars and included my email address. Later that day, I got an email back and I met the fellow in the parking lot the next day and got my first ride in an FD, which just so happened to be an insanely fast single conversion!

It turned out that the guy who owned the car had been driving sevens for the past 31 years or so, and was on his fourth FD, and had another one sitting in the garage! so I got a ride in that one the next day, A '93 VR base on twins.
Fast forward to last month, I got a hold of an FD and now we're taking it apart for 5-speed conversion, a new engine, and other fun stuff.

These cars are so much more fun with friends!

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

these things inhabit a funny intersection of early internet people. Napster had an FD, as did Sean Parker. There were a couple FD's in the Winamp parking lot too.
the FD is a little old for internet 2.0, the guy who started Tesla, Martin Eberhard had a Mazda 3, and the designer Franz Von Holzhausen worked at Mazda in Japan for a hot minute (he went to Sevenstock one year, super nice)

if you want the Sevenstock plug, Mr Amemiya sat next to us at breakfast...

HiWire

Our local car group is relatively large (if you include the RX-8 club). The one thing I learned recently is that most of the communication is happening on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, so it's important to get hooked up there to stay abreast of current events.

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

Not really with RX-7, but I have very similar experience when I had 2 MX-6s. Met a lot of people from different states during the college year, some even flew in for my wedding. Actually ran into someone first day of class Sophomore year and realized we have been chatting behind keyboard for months, he ended up standing at my wedding. I was more active with car meets back then, we would drive for a couple hours just to meet up to work on cars.

Don't really have the same connection with the local RX-7 folks, but I do know quite a few of them mainly through exchanging parts, probably have contact info for a good 10+ person in the area.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

we race against a guy with an Mx6, and once you strip the nonsense off the car its really gorgeous
he actually ends up tuning all of our junk too, Performance In-Frame Tuning Napa | About

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

1st Gen or 2nd Gen?

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

LMAO! second. KL with a megasquirt and a probe gear set. we're usually fighting him for the class lap record

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

LOL, I didn't know which type of racing you were referring to. The F2T is easier to squeeze power out of, N/A KL is fun and a lot more fun with a snail Mine went through all kind of mods, then sold it with 265k on the clock when the 10th disty died

Aftermarket support is almost non-existent tho, like 1 company make coilover for us. My buddy actually started the whole MS thing because there's really no aftermarket ECU for this platform, and I think he now tune MS for the Supra guy.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

we are running NASA road racing, and he started in TTE, and then TTD and PTD and now its ST2? 4? we have a hp/weight number, and i dont recall where his car is but we were all running intake restrictors at one point!
his coil overs are some ground control parts, and he probably bought the ECU from your buddy

the engine in his car has had the heads rebuilt, but the short block is original, it sounds crazy, like a dental drill

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

I'm no racing expert, but he probably has to keep the DE block to meet requirement. The only difference is the slightly higher compression anyways, there's no other improvement. I'm not surprised he did all the work in the heads, most of the update Mazda did to the K-series are in the heads and intake, from the original DE to G4 design there were lots of changes. HLA to SLA, intake port shape and IM design etc. Then add some Colts tri-flow cams it will really help it breath. With all that you'll need MS, at least get rid of that POS VAF haha. Not sure if he kept the VRIS system that Porsche help develop, but with all that head work he's going to have to tune the activation point and MS can do that.

Ahh the good old GC sleeve on probably Tokico shock, that was the closest to coilover we can get until K-Sport come along. If you strip the chassis it can be pretty light, my old car weight 2800lbs with 1/2 tank of gas. The college kid me weighted it at a truck stop so I don't know how accurate that is, good times

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

oh he's like ~2400lbs, car is pretty empty, just him and the cage and a tablet for gauges. we're limited hp/weight, so heads are probably stock, and up to last year he was running an intake restrictor to lower the HP enough. Racing is weird, when we had the miata PT/TT car we went to the dyno something like 8 times that season to try and make LESS power AND its quieter than a street car

estevan62274

iTrader: (32)

Bump for a great thread Dale!

I was lucky enough to live about a hour away from Dale back when I was in the military 2008 time frame.
He help me tremendously with my first FD.
Now we are life long DGRR buds👍
Steve

Carlos Iglesias

iTrader: (6)

Indeed, our rotary masochism is most deeply savored in the collective misery of fellow Doritos comrades... wouldn't you say my old friend?!?

cloud9

iTrader: (4)

I feel like this thread is a good opportunity to plug the member map tool I made. Check my signature, list yourself and find some owners in your area.

Jatt

iTrader: (2)

Amazing story Dale and everyone else who posted on the thread. Hopefully we have some cool rotorheads here in the central valley. I know we do, but harder to find people now a days imo.

Awesome tool you got there! Will update mine in a bit

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Community is a big deal.

When I got in, the DC area was something of an RX7 hotbed, with Peter Farrel Supercars local, forum and big list notables like Carlos, Crispy, John Duff and others nearby, and the Mazda Sportscar Club of Washington (MSCW) putting on track events that drew all the big names of the time like Brad Barber, John Levy, Jim O'Brian, John Eppley, Effrem Osborne, Steve Kan, Cam at Pettit, and tons of others from all over the country to participate. It was amazing to hit the event hotel and see the entire parking lot full of "Third Gens" as they were called then.

It's definitely slowed down, and I'm probably the only one that still tracks the car, but just going out to a C&C, seeing the guys or meeting new ones, and the cars, or dropping by Crispy's to see what he's working on (polishing) is food for the soul. Rich Mills and Dave Henning came to help me hook the trans up when I replaced my own motor. Chris and Fritz over the years gave me SO much tech help (and parts) over the years. Rich Farrel isn't local, but we talk all the time.

P

pd_day

iTrader: (6)

I miss Mr. Akimoto and Bambi.

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Also relevant, try and get to one of the bigger events if you can. Sevenstock, DGRR, etc. I've made TONS of friends going to DGRR over the years and it's awesome to see the way other people set up their cars, talk to people about their car, see things in person instead of online, etc. I typically learn more in 1 weekend at DGRR than a whole year of reading stuff online!

And there's also nothing better than being in a group of RX-7's roaring down the road, that's an awesome experience!

Dale

Jatt

iTrader: (2)

Got a hotel for Sevenstock, excited! My car likely wont be able to make it by then is my guess, but who knows. Either way I'm going to go.