OP youre missing the point... not all mods are good, and each mod has an application. I personally wont ever go back to stock.

car drives and feels like stock and its anything but. putting parts together that they were designed by a company for reason X doesnt mean that its for your purpose too

 

Best shifter ever made for the car. The Mazdatrix one is great if it doesnt rattle. Other wise feels the same as the Mazdaspeed. I could never have a stock shifter in an FD. Feels like I am shifting a dump truck.

 

Just drove my car. Love me that REA shifter!

 

I'm perfectly happy with either B&M or Cs/mazdatrix/mazdacomp but REA is a joke it's an OEM shifter cut shorter and makes ZERO difference other than having a lower ****. If you prefer those shifters just get a hack saw and cut yours down to size

I once was a stock shifter fan but now prefer the tighter feel of a short shifter. There is just too much slop with a stock shifter.

The FD trans isn't the best and it will always feel notchy when shifting fast it's just a trans you have to be patient with to avoid grinds. The engine also moves quite a bit so when you combine that with the narrow gate a full throttle up shift to 3rd is tricky. Yep the engine torque brace and trans brace help you avoid missing shifts.

 

You were a fan of the stock shifter before your bushings went bad, but the REA one feels like a stocker that's been shortened and it sucks. Got it.

 

LOL

Yes IMO the stock shifter has too much movement/slop even with a fresh lower bushing. The only bushing I've had problems with is the lower nylon bushing which cracks and falls apart.

The REA shifter is a sawed off stock shifter with a brass bushing. Are you saying the brass bushing makes a difference other than wearing away at the trans?

 

LOL, the stock nylon bushings suck because they make the shifter sloppy, but the brass one on the REA sucks too because it DOESN'T get crushed. Got it.

I'm saying I've been in a car with a B&M shifter and I cant believe you like that notchiness better than a shortened stock shifter...which the Amemiya one is, like I mentioned in my 1st post.

All the reviews I've seen and read from 93, not one professional journalist mentioned a sloppy shifter. In fact they all raved over it.

Here's an example, but not from 93

 

Did not see much comment about the trans other than nice to have a manual. May of missed something as I skipped through most of it. However if he is impressed with the FD box he should drive an S2K sometime.

I love the buttery feel of the FD trans but from where I'm standing after driving S2Ks and GT3s it's a slow sloppy box.

 

I agree

Everyone seems to want to keep their car stock for some reason on this forum, or at least the senior members always preach it. That is the bulletproof rx7 apparently.

 

^I don't see "stock" being preached at all. You've been on the forum about as long as I have. 12 years ago NOBODY preached stock...and few are now. Maybe because we're all 12 yrs older, but it seems the pendulum has swung a bit toward civility and reliability over performance.

 

I blame fritz with the whole stock is what brings the most money on resale ha ha . Seriously though the one thing that has become apparent to me is that this forum has always been extreme in its views. Way back in the day it was all about performance and zero about amenities. People modified their cars so extreme that they were a chore to drive in the street (and yet never drove it at the track). No ac, bucket hard *** seats, solid engine mounts, engine braces, 50 million gauges... And the vast majority of members was more than ok with that. Serious about the over the top gauges... I remember seeing some member's rides and thinking ' damn, I swear that I've seen 747s with less instruments to read '. Just ridiculous.

Now the tide seems to be moving towards 'stock'. It's like there is no middle ground. The fact is stock cars are pretty slow and therefore underwhelming. But in my book the best on the world's is somewhere in the middle. Modded but not too much to affect the joys that this car brings in stock form.

 

The mod list below is from one of my cars and it's close to what I'd consider the perfect street FD. 15 years ago these mods would be considered extreme or this would be a heavily modded FD. Today this is just a typical FD setup with reliability mods. I think you guys have it backwards. Or today people are doing ridiculous things to these cars. The build threads today are a lot different than those back in 2000. It's refreshing to see the reliability builds cropping up but those same builds would be considered power builds many years ago and they in fact still are. A nice SMIC, exhaust work, injectors and a PFC easily net you 300 rwhp which is a 75 HP jump from factory power or a 30 percent increase and that's no joke.

I don't think there are many long time members who prefer driving bone stock FDs. I've driven them stock or very close to stock for many years because I typically have a low mileage one that I'm driving until it sells but I don't prefer it. However I definitely appreciate them in stock form

Susp:
Tokicos in good shape with new Tein S Tech springs 750
New upper pillow tops 400
Racing beat front sway bar 200
Rotary extreme upgraded front sway bar mounts 200

Exhaust:
M2 down pipe 300
SMB midcat 750 (or more)
Racing Beat dual tip exhaust 600

Engine:
OEM original factory engine that pulls hard. PFC with OLED commander 1000 at PFS and dynoed 343 at 14psi on dynojet: Ray Wilson tune (priceless) 400 rear main seal replaced, oil pan resealed with oil pan brace
99 twin turbos (less than 10k miles at this time) 2800
New coils, wires and hks twin power 500
SS OMP lines 150
Lots of misc hoses sensors and controls replaced

Cooling:
M2 medium smic 1000
M2 carbon fiber intake 500
r1/r2 dual oil coolers 400 (complete with all OEM fitting brackets and ducts)
Davis/mazdacomp radiator 600

Fuel:
1300cc secondaries 400
Supra TT pump 200
FPD deleted
All fuel lines replaced and upgraded (absolutely NO LEAKS)

Interior:
Overall very good condition 8 out of 10
AC is ICE cold
Nothing missing or broken (map pocked repaired) everything working as it should
99 steering wheel 300
94 consoles
New OEM shift **** 175
Nice Kenwood stereo system 500
Defi boost and water temp gauges in a dual center channel pod 400

Exterior:
R1 front lip 125
Shark tooth mod (see picture)
aluminum door handles 200?
Rotary extreme hood struts 125?

 

Again the tide is still extreme unless the car has low mileage and then absolutely it's worth more stock than in any other form.

A car with 100k miles is worth a lot more with a fresh engine and all the reliability mods than an original engine car with no mods. Probably worth 10k more.

That said an FD with 20k miles is worth more bone stock than one with reliability mods or it's a wash. By wash I mean the mods typically won't increase the value and may decrease it.

 

I think the average FD owner age has risen now. I know I prefer a more stock car(though my current build is the exact opposite) as I get older. To me the perfect FD is 3" downpipe, stock clutch, banzai trans brace, nice short shifter, pettit ecu and 13-14lbs sequentially.

 

Until you own one just like that for 2 or more years. At some point the car will win and you'll start modding it

At age 50 I still enjoy this car the most in a pretty raw form because that's what drew me to it to begin with.

 

Unless you have the real MazdaSpeed SS with the aluminum bushing, sold by MazdaSpeed Competition.
It's short, super precise and yes, the engagement feels very mechanical, not mushy like the nylon factory bushing.
Like everything in life, to each his own.

 

I tried the Mazdaspeed bushing in my FD and it felt great at first (replacing worn out stock bushing), but it didn't even last a season of auto-x before it developed some slop.

I put a new stock plastic one in and it lasted great and felt 95% as direct as the aluminum bushing did new.

 

Again years ago I was really fussy about aftermarket shifters so I understand why others hate them but I've grown to prefer them. They tighten the throw and side to side motion which I now enjoy or as DJ said the lever feels less like a shifting a truck. The stock shifter just feels too loose to me.

The lower bushing isn't the problem unless it's busted and the metal bushing can wear the control shaft socket which develops unwanted play and can even cause the shifter lever ball to pop out if the top side of the shifter wears or becomes loose.

The OEM bushing is nylon for good reason and works great because it fits nice and snug.

 

IIRC you were one of the pioneers back in the day. Back when people weren’t really sure why their engines blew, 400 RWHP FD’s were HP monsters and single turbo cars were rare and therefore multitude gauges were necessary. The people that I am referring about are the ones that followed years later. The ones that had minimal mods and for some reason felt the need to have like 14 gauges. I’m talking 2006 ish time frame.


Wow thanks. That was I was aiming for but I still have some engineering ahead of me. As for me the car drones, wastes too much gas (when I floor it), and after messing with the fuel system it has the ‘be careful don’t flood it if it doesn’t fire up the first time’ issue. But I am extremely happy in the performance aspect though. Quick spool, decent top end, and IMO the car is finally as fast as it looks.


You are on a whole different level… Your car is what should come out of the factory in the first place. If I had the funds and the patience I would parallel your build.


I haven’t met any. I’m not saying that they don’t exist I just haven’t met them or I completely missed it. The people that I met that have highly modified FD’s have their cars rather raw IMO. Bridge ports, no AC, loud as heck, hard *** bucket seats. In my opinion, their cars resemble a race car more than a street car. Which is fine, since that is what they were going for. And yes I am in full support of any FD that can keep up with a new stock Z06 and can retain a decent level of streetability.


I agree with both you. I was just picking on Fritz for fun


Now that I am older an FD with boltons and only a couple of psi above stock boost is perfectly acceptable. The car would be relatively quiet, decently fast, and very reliable with minimal work involved.

 

I like lightly modded FDs, I put an engine in a stock FD a couple years ago, it was so stock it still had the pre-cat. The car drove quite well and was comfortable and quick. I liked some aspects of it like that.

I think the biggest single issue I have with modded cars (not just FDs) is that many owners modify the car poorly and it becomes much worse to drive and is less reliable.

I am working to make my car a very well put together lightly modded FD. I have twins running 12psi. I have turned a 12.6, I had a big single turbo FD w/~425hp that I bought wrecked, the owner managed a 12.3 with it, yes poor launches. In the real world that car is slower or barely faster than mine on the street.

 

Uh...if I'm one of those "guys", re-read the post of mine you quoted. I don't have anything backwards. My car isn't that much different than yours.

 

Exactly our cars are FAR from stock and that's how we like them

 

Another cough cough lightly modded FD

 

Well sort of. It has the stock fuel system, block, turbos (ok 99 turbos).

 

That's basically why I made the OP. A lot of people might consider mild mods "boring" but even a 280whp car that weighs 2700lb and handles like the FD does is FAST in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing. And if that car can also have AC, be fairly quiet, not stink, run reliably, not shake you to death, look civilized, and otherwise act like a normal car, that's a pretty hard setup to argue with for any application outside serious competition.

Just stating that as I work on this car that previous owners have modified with varying levels of forethought, I'm finding a lot of satisfaction with putting certain things back to stock, and there is a lot to be said for stock with some basic reliability and power mods. As compared with the 400+hp ground-up re-engineering efforts that I see so many of in the build threads (and which seem to spend months or years in the garage only to surface for three months and then get torn down again).

Hopefully goes without saying that none of the above is to suggest that this is not a big world with infinite different ways to enjoy these cars.