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Not 7 inspired but just caught the start of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in Daytona and noticed a gentleman named Billy Johnson was on the front row. 6 years late but grats on the 2016 championship!
Watching this to stay inspired and motivated on my own build.
Glad to hear it! Stay tuned!
Originally Posted by Tim Benton
Not 7 inspired but just caught the start of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in Daytona and noticed a gentleman named Billy Johnson was on the front row. 6 years late but grats on the 2016 championship!
Yeah, that guy goofed up the start and got a penalty. Unfortunately a bolt punctured our oil cooler when we were back leading the race with ~45 mins to go - causing us to DNF... Haha, thanks!
Billy's link takes me to part 1 for some reason...
@Billj747 are you really switching to poly all around? I really didn't like the vibrations of poly on the grooved roads we have in CA. Especially 5 from Sandy Ego up into LA. Wound up switching to the Mazda Competition rubber bushings and new control arms since the ball joints were worn.
Clicking that link took me to part one also, it seemed like someone had edited the text of a hyperlink rather than the link address. I had to copy/paste the text manually to get to the correct page. I'm no suspension expert, but it's interesting to hear how many opinions exist regarding swaybar stiffness and spring rate selection.
Billy's link takes me to part 1 for some reason...
@Billj747 are you really switching to poly all around? I really didn't like the vibrations of poly on the grooved roads we have in CA. Especially 5 from Sandy Ego up into LA. Wound up switching to the Mazda Competition rubber bushings and new control arms since the ball joints were worn.
Thank you for posting the correct link. I've had this problem twice now on this forum. I'm not sure why...
Yes, I will be reviewing the SuperPro bushings in the suspension as well in a future article. The steering and clunk issues were so bad that they needed to be addressed immediately; before there was a chance to do the whole suspension.
Originally Posted by scotty305
Clicking that link took me to part one also, it seemed like someone had edited the text of a hyperlink rather than the link address. I had to copy/paste the text manually to get to the correct page. I'm no suspension expert, but it's interesting to hear how many opinions exist regarding swaybar stiffness and spring rate selection.
There are an infinite amount of ways to set a car up. There are also many ways to set the same car up and turn the same laptime or win a race. This project is a performance-street but track-capable build, and I am bringing my development experience from working as a development driver on the Ford GT LeMans winning race car, Mustang GT4 racecar, Ford GT street car, and Shelby GT500, GT350, Mach 1, and many other cars to elevate the FD RX7 into modern levels of refinement and performance.
Nice car and an excellent starting point but unfortunately I'm not 15 years old, so you've lost me. There are multiple threads from senior forum members with decades of rotary racing experience on the subject of how to properly build / set-up a reliable rotary.
Also. How does one quantify 'cool'? And. Imo 'oem+' is just the current trendy buzzword of the moment. Everyone trying to milk the 'jdm greatness' cow however they can right now. It's just sad.
There are an infinite amount of ways to set a car up. There are also many ways to set the same car up and turn the same laptime or win a race. This project is a performance-street but track-capable build, and I am bringing my development experience from working as a development driver on the Ford GT LeMans winning race car, Mustang GT4 racecar, Ford GT street car, and Shelby GT500, GT350, Mach 1, and many other cars to elevate the FD RX7 into modern levels of refinement and performance.
Thanks, I look forward to seeing more. My car is a similar spec and use case, mostly stock and get used mostly on street driving plus the occasional autocross or track day. I'm especially interested to hear your opinion on the Tein Flex Z coilovers for this type of car. There are a lot of favorable opinions in this thread: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-gen-gene...nsion-1149308/
Thanks, I look forward to seeing more. My car is a similar spec and use case, mostly stock and get used mostly on street driving plus the occasional autocross or track day. I'm especially interested to hear your opinion on the Tein Flex Z coilovers for this type of car. There are a lot of favorable opinions in this thread: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-gen-gene...nsion-1149308/
Thank you. It appears the Flex Z uses 560/448lb springs (10/8K) which is pretty soft compared to say the Ohlins DFV that has 616/616lbs (11/11K) springs. Another popular spring rate is 448/336lbs (8/6K) which is even softer than the Flex Z. Suspension setups are very subjective and everyone has a philosophy and opinion.
Flex Zs seem like a good coilover for its price point. I am going to upgrade the Ohlins that are currently on the car with a higher-end double-adjustable coilover. Stay tuned.
Great to see you are putting your experience to develop a well built Fd. My 14 year old son races gokarts. Having race car experience will help your build. I am building a similar car and also have a youtube channel. I subscribed to this thread and now going to subscribe to your youtube channel. I am sure it wilk be good.
My comment is still valid and I implore you to read between the lines. The OP appears to be sponsored six ways to Sunday and if not, I'll gladly walk back any incorrect statements I've made.
Imo, I think this would be a much more exciting thread / experience / journey if the OP stated that he chose to invest his own money into something unique / original like partnering with / taking over the TCR program because they believe in the brand and their philosophy, etc. LLR was going to offer them at $130k which isn't bad at all imo especially when compared to the TCR Honda Type-R at $180k. Being such an established figure in the motorsports community I could only assume this would not have been very hard to accomplish. Sad that there is not a single mazda currently being raced 'on stage' anywhere right now. How and where we spend our money speaks volumes and the fact that the TCR program fell on its' face with little to no enthusiasm from the greater 'mazda community' at large to me signals a very large rift in where our true loyalties lie. It is silly to say, but loyalty actually used to matter and to some it people still does. I'm also more than happy to put my money where my mouth is and offer 1/3rd partnership for 2023 season. Send me a pm and we can get the convo started.
FD build threads are always fun / cool but unfortunately I think it was presented more like an advertisement for products instead of focusing on driver education about vehicle input(s) / suspension dynamics and how to increase driver confidence at speed and helping novice owners understand 'tuning' in lay terms.
My comment is still valid and I implore you to read between the lines. The OP appears to be sponsored six ways to Sunday and if not, I'll gladly walk back any incorrect statements I've made.
Imo, I think this would be a much more exciting thread / experience / journey if the OP stated that he chose to invest his own money into something unique / original like partnering with / taking over the TCR program because they believe in the brand and their philosophy, etc. LLR was going to offer them at $130k which isn't bad at all imo especially when compared to the TCR Honda Type-R at $180k. Being such an established figure in the motorsports community I could only assume this would not have been very hard to accomplish. Sad that there is not a single mazda currently being raced 'on stage' anywhere right now. How and where we spend our money speaks volumes and the fact that the TCR program fell on its' face with little to no enthusiasm from the greater 'mazda community' at large to me signals a very large rift in where our true loyalties lie. It is silly to say, but loyalty actually used to matter and to some it people still does. I'm also more than happy to put my money where my mouth is and offer 1/3rd partnership for 2023 season. Send me a pm and we can get the convo started.
FD build threads are always fun / cool but unfortunately I think it was presented more like an advertisement for products instead of focusing on driver education about vehicle input(s) / suspension dynamics and how to increase driver confidence at speed and helping novice owners understand 'tuning' in lay terms.
Have an awesome day club!
I hear you loud and clear. My buddy and great driver Tyler Gonzalez drives the Hyndai TCR car and a Mx5 in the IMSA series. I am a sucker for Fd builds but I do agree that it is sad that Mazda is not really racing like it did back in the days. I almost cried when they pulled the DPI car in IMSA. They still have the mx5 cup which is good close racing but Mazda is still in a financial mess. I hope things get better and they deliver us with a new rotary powered car and go racing.
Great to see you are putting your experience to develop a well built Fd. My 14 year old son races gokarts. Having race car experience will help your build. I am building a similar car and also have a youtube channel. I subscribed to this thread and now going to subscribe to your youtube channel. I am sure it wilk be good.
Thank you for the feedback. I started karting when I was 13. What's your channel? I'll check it out. Thanks for subscribing to mine (OneLapBilly).
Originally Posted by Federighi
That's Mr Curmudgeons to the likes of y'all!
My comment is still valid and I implore you to read between the lines. The OP appears to be sponsored six ways to Sunday and if not, I'll gladly walk back any incorrect statements I've made.
Imo, I think this would be a much more exciting thread / experience / journey if the OP stated that he chose to invest his own money into something unique / original like partnering with / taking over the TCR program because they believe in the brand and their philosophy, etc. LLR was going to offer them at $130k which isn't bad at all imo especially when compared to the TCR Honda Type-R at $180k. Being such an established figure in the motorsports community I could only assume this would not have been very hard to accomplish. Sad that there is not a single mazda currently being raced 'on stage' anywhere right now. How and where we spend our money speaks volumes and the fact that the TCR program fell on its' face with little to no enthusiasm from the greater 'mazda community' at large to me signals a very large rift in where our true loyalties lie. It is silly to say, but loyalty actually used to matter and to some it people still does. I'm also more than happy to put my money where my mouth is and offer 1/3rd partnership for 2023 season. Send me a pm and we can get the convo started.
FD build threads are always fun / cool but unfortunately I think it was presented more like an advertisement for products instead of focusing on driver education about vehicle input(s) / suspension dynamics and how to increase driver confidence at speed and helping novice owners understand 'tuning' in lay terms.
Have an awesome day club!
I'm quite interested in hearing what aspects of my articles gives you the impression that i'm sponsored "Six ways from Sunday"?
From being in the industry for a while and having a lot of good relationships with many different (often competing) companies, I am not sponsored, paid, or locked down by any one company as a paid spokesperson and representative. If you sift through all of my articles, you will see mention of products and background where I have had success in professional and amateur competition using certain products or companies, and that I choose to incorporate said product in a given build because of my confidence in that company and product. This provides insight and credibility of a given component from first hand experience -rather than saying "I am paid to say this is good". I try to bring as much racing background and validation to my builds.
I spend a lot of my own money on many of the modifications you see, but its not a surprise that I get some stuff for free. There has been quite a few products that I got for free that I didn't like, or wasn't good enough for me to be associated with, and I would then buy something else and write about that. I am not paid to review anything in any of my articles, and if I got a product that wasn't good, I would never say that it is. If you read between the lines, you will see that I don't talk about a few products all that much, while other products that I rave about are in fact good.
I try to be as objective as I can and have also done a lot of back to back dyno tests of certain products. Whether I get something for free or pay for it, whatever it produces is what it produces. I don't care to fudge numbers and it would be difficult (expensive) for any company to "buy me out" and try to buy my credibility.
To ease your concerns about the RX7 build, I am not a fan of most of the vendors in this community, which is quite terrible and full of extremely poor customer service. So I would not be worried about anything I do for the FD as being biased. I have personally designed and had quite a few of my own parts machined because I did not care to deal with certain vendors here. I don't plan on or want to be a vendor, but if people like what I do, I could make stuff available through an existing vendor. I'm excited to talk about all of the cooling system work that i've done and the custom radiator I had designed for the car, so stay tuned to see the different things that i'm doing to my FD.
As far as the TCR comment goes, I'm not sure how that is relevant to 3rd Gen Specific FD's. Plus, I make a living driving cars professionally, as a development driver (Ford GT LeMans car, Mustang GT4, Ford GT street car, Shelby GT500, GT350, Mach 1, Bullett, Guntherwerks Speedster), a consultant (Nascar Cup team), driver coach (HPDE on up to NASCAR Cup drivers); so paying to drive or to run a TCR program unfortunately does not align with what I do. I like the FD and I like solving problems and have some pretty good industry contacts to lean on. This is my journey, if you think it's just a paid advertisement then just don't read them If you're interested in my background and what i'm doing with the car, stay tuned!
Karting is definetly the road to learning how to drive a race car. I am glad that you have had success and are now building an Fd. I just subscribed to your channel and cant wait to go through your videos. The name of my channel is Spinningtriangles brap brap. My build is well documented on this forum and I am trying to improve the vids as I go. I really catn wait to see your build. Brap on brother.
Project FD RX-7 Restomod: Part 4 - Stoptech Stainless Steel Brake Lines and Castrol SRF Fluid
If you can't remember the last time you flushed your brake fluid, you're probably overdue! We addressed a surprisingly long pedal from boiling the brake fluid during spirited driving with stainless steel brake lines from Stoptech and new Castrol SRF fluid.
If you love your car and especially if you work on it, Dry Ice Blasting restoration is a MUST.
Dry Ice Blasting is outright incredible. It is a cleaning process that is booming in popularity in recent years and for good reason. Nothing else is this invasive, gentle, yet effective at restoring surfaces to their former glory by lifting decades of dirt, oil, dust, and grime from the original metal, undercoating, and sound deadening material.
I will say for a home enthusiast a pressure washer, degreaser, and a brush can work miracles. Some of those parts can be removed to do a deep clean on. This is something that many people won't have access to, there's not a lot of places in the country that can do this, but it IS very worthwhile and is definitely a VERY skilled process.
03-01-22, 11:34 AM
Unfortunately a bolt punctured our oil cooler when we were back leading the race with ~45 mins to go - causing us to DNF... Haha, thanks!
