uh, sorry to rain on your parade there dude, but Ryan sold that car (T-66 single conversion) several months ago, I almost bought it

 

hmmmmm...very interesting...I wonder why Ryan's old buddy Gavin is selling the car after he JUST BOUGHT IT a couple of months ago!!!! must of racked up a few tickets with it, ha

btw Jim, I'm pretty sure that is the same motor that Ryan sold the car with (1500 miles now, it had about 500 miles, or less, on the engine when Ryan sold it, I believe)...that engine was ported by Mandeville in Sparatnburg, SC....he does great work...Ryan had it tuned way rich, so it should be reliable at only 15 psi

I'd love to buy it, but not for 26k...and I don't really want a red car again and the wheels are freaky lookin

 

ok, do you know Gavin then or did Ryan fill you in? what's the story?

and that was no BS before, I do know a couple of guys that have been running single turbo for at least two years now, so it can be done

how many Vipers have you killed so far?

 

called Gavin himself and got the skinny...he says that the HKS foam air filter that came with the car when he bought it from Ryan had apparently never been oiled and there was all kinds of dirt and crap coated inside the IC piping and IC, which no doubt accumulated inside the engine and blew the apex seals...he also said the rotor facings had really heavy "deposits" for such a low mileage engine

dirt in ANY engine is catastrophic, not just a rotary....looks like Ryan screwed up pretty bad there

whew! glad I didn't buy it!!!!!!!!!

 

I might be late to the party, but that doesn't make me guilty as charged.

The Single Turbo FD I sold Gavin was definitely set up properly. Those who know/knew me understand my design philosophy and approach I used when converting the car from stock to non-seq twins to Single Turbo w/ Haltech. The bottom line is that at the point when I sold the car, that car ran like a champ. Gavin and I spent all morning on a shakedown run and high-boost runs before he committed to the purchase. We ran the car at 16psi, pedal to the floor all the way up through 4th at one point. At no time was I ever concerned that the car would blow up and why would I be? I had a certified clean bill of health from KD Rotary and Dave Barninger was personally familiar with my particular setup. To quote Dave when I picked up the car from KD... "You could run that car for 100,000 miles without a problem. Just get in and drive." I later chanted that mantra when I posted the car for sale... "Just get in, Sit down, buckle up, and drive it like you stole it." The dyno curve shows a richening curve after 10psi, getting way fat (10:1) after 15psi. Rich is good. Rich = Long Life. Speaking of which...Rich Farrell...how are things my friend! :-)

Unfortulately, I cannot speak to the condition of the car after Gavin bought it. I spent the better part of $40k modding my car, bringing all systems (cooling, IC, oil, and fuel) up to specs and then some. The car was overbuilt - a Spearco IC big enough to run front-mount duty, twin 25-row Setrab oil coolers with -12AN line (as big around as a quarter!), MazdaComp radiator, and RP fuel system with NEW Nippondenso 550s and big Bosch 1600s. It was my daily driver and I truly did take it to and from work every single day. Women and children winked and waved respectively, and male drivers moved right to let faster traffic through. It was a great experience to floor it and not wonder...and why not?...for added comfort, I had a 12-month warranty against any ofthe work KD performed.

Heavily oiling the HKS filter is worse than not oiling it enough. That said, the filter had been cleaned and oiled to spec. The carbon buildup on the rotor faces is normal with break-in as I used organic oil until the 1000-mile mark. Organic oil mixed with the premix that we feed our Oil-Metering-Pump-removed cars would cause a small buildup, but nothing that is in the least detrimental to the apex seals. Eventually it burns off anyway.

I've been following RX-7's for over four years now and I have seen a lot of things (not everything, but a lot nonetheless). 9 times out of 10, people are only parroting what some tuner they've never even met said to them in an email and are taking the word as gospel.... Here's a newsflash for you: Every tuner is different and every tuner has a different approach to the way a car should be set up. It took me three years of sorting through the BS to get to the real "meat" of what makes an RX-7 powerful and reliable. All that "meat" can be written on ONE sheet of paper. In that time, I spent HOURS with Dave Barninger, HOURS with Roger Mandeville (factory Mazda racer in the 80's), HOURS with Peter Farrell and Cameron Worth on the phone, and HOURS with both Brian Richards and Ray Lochhead at Laguna Seca. I've met a lot of people, shared information and learned a lot. No one will accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about when it comes to rotaries because I only speak on what i know...(hint)...not of what I do not know.

I think it's great that after selling my car there are some people that are willing to stick up for me. Thanks to Jim Swantko, Jason Occena, Rich Farrell, and I was gonna thank (Mark Strong) GSXR1000 but his confidence is swayed too easily.

Respectfully,


Ryan W. Schlagheck
Raleigh, NC
http://schlagheck.com/rx7/

 

There's no reason I can't have both!

Hohenester in Germany makes a twin turbo kit for the A8 4.2q. Hoppen Motorsport will import a supercharger kit for the A8 as well. I'm saving up. The only issue is the ECU modification for the Tiptronic transmission. The Tip can only handle 325ft.lbs of torque, so the real issue is how to map the ECU for that limitation, or how to modify the valve bodies/gears/etc. in the tranny to handle it.

We will replace my wife's car, a 180,000 mile '94 Honda Accord, with one of the following:
2002 Passat W8 Wagon (278 hp/275 tork)
2002 WRX Sti
2001 C32
1999 C43 (and mod it out)
Mitsu Evo if they bring it over here.

It's a short list, but a good one. :-)