"[IMG]" at the beginning, and "[/IMG]" at the end. . .

thats what im saying!!!! also, i wanna see that photochopped rx-7/chrysler concept. . . :D

I don't think I've seen a single FD that was track tested and REALLY ready to compete. Every effort seems to be last minute. A real shame.
Crispy
- let my subscription to SCC expire. Mag has gone to pot IMO. Certainly not what it used to be.

I can think of one in particular that might actually be sorted enough to win or show well this contest... driver has some experience too.

Unfortunately he just so happens to be 3400miles away...if it's the car you are thinking of.
Crispy

Yea I agree w/ you, but I thought I'd leave that part out. Didn't want to make it seem like I was ragging on anyone's car...

Peter, it's funny, but the standards they're judging by seem to coincide w/ EXACTLY what I'm aiming for my FD to be. Yes, it's a good bit away, but I think within a year or so (and some crazy amount of money later), it'll be finished and ready. Gotham's going to be performing most of the work on my car (in house)... This thread got me tinkering w/ the idea of actually FINISHING the car 100%, and entering it into the competition. Of course, I'd have Steve drive it, not me... ;)

That car is not an RX7.. I don't mean to bash anyone because what you do w/ your money and your taste is up to that individual. I am stating one type of car versus another here. Putting a v-8 motor in an rx7 body defeats the purpose in terms of true definition. If your going to put any car against another I think the powerplant should remain. Yeah, go ahead and modify to see what kind of performance that platform can yield. Dont stereotype it by its outer shell. Take a look at the alignment of the front clip and headlight covers. That is disgusting in itself. That is an embarrasment of even representing or beloved rotary. Oh, I forgot its not a rotary!!

I agree.

That car looks like shit. The nice RX-7s get a bad rep. by that one being in such poor shape. They could of had so many nicer RX-7s that not only look better, but perform better, are more 'complete', and are more finished and sorted out..

I might have missed the whole point of the article but I would think that you would have to compare a car stock for stock or mod for mod. In those conditions I would have thought the RX-7 would perform very well.

Personally my top 2 cars are the Mazda RX-7 and Nissan Skyline GTR R34.

You and many others on this board are missing the point of this competition completely. The Ultimate Street Car Challenge is a measurement of who has built "The Ultimate Street Car". It's not some Car and Driver Comparo of new cars. It's who can take any car of their choice, and modify in a tasteful way that makes it very good, if not the best in about 15 categories.

In this car's case, it was just incomplete. I do hand it to the guy for entering in a car that never once broke or faultered in the competition, but some small things could have made a HUGE difference.

1. Looking at the brakes. The braking system was basically FUBAR. No ABS, etc. Hurt you in bad in braking and road course tests. Two tests that you could have placed top 3 if not won.

2. The drivers seat. Couldn't even have a sliding seat bracket? Somehow having a car that is tailor fitted for only one person yet has to be judged by many just blows me away.

3. A car wash seems like it would have been sensible.

I know I'm being a monday morning quarterback here, but some of these things should have been more than slightly apparant. I greatly look forward to a car that is much more complete and on a level playing field as most of the other cars that show up to this competition.

Jesus, a lower power, slower S2000 blew its engine the night before and still did better than us.

Yes Yes Preach Lol Thats What I Was Trying To Get Across. Thank You

i think that's a good thing. it keeps the FD away from other people who don't see a very good car overall. :cool:

That's a good point!

Great Point !!!!!!

Give the guy credit, my roommate's red FD was in last year's competition and getting a car prepped and 100% ready for that competition basically requires that it is your full time job, with mucho money available. It's easy to sit here and blast him, but I applaud Mark. Pistons in the car or not, he did a helluva lot better in the competition this year than any of us.

I'd like to enter into the competition......my FD is basically ready, would just need water/methanol injection installed and Genghis Kan behind the wheel and I'm set :D

Well for me i'm more mad at the MAG for not entering a complete car, its like who ever was in charge dislikes the FD's every year. Most will agree that not having a rotary is not having a rx7 totally. Like if NIKE was your sponsor and you ran with ADIDAS shoes and you lost the race, would you say "hey he didnt have NIKEs on that why he lost" or would you say "no mater what he is still a great athelete its allways next year', we that love our rx7's hate to loose. So please no one is bashing the owners of the cars its just that there not fully RX7FD's.

I've been in Mark's car before and I think the whole point was that he wanted to enter HIS car because he did everything. He wasn't backed by a team, had barely any sponsors (tire rack comes to mind but thats all), and more importantly he did it on a budget like many people that might actually read the article. The car is a beast, its a race car, and he tried to show that. I hope maybe Jason's LS-1 FD can make it next year or something, just to show what more time can do to the car.

Props to Mark.
Neil

I know of a few very nice RX-7's that might do well in that SCC competiton, although one of them isn't exactly streetable. It's almost too bad the owners are busy racing them and not caring about teenager magazines. To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed in the RX-7 crowd for getting all worked up over an article by SCC. If they can't see a good thing, then too bad for them. Would you rather see a riced-out RX-7 win the competition due to its $7k paintjob, neon underbody lights, and dual 15" subwoofers?




7 BOUND, do you ever get tired of bashing the V8 swaps? Have you ever thought about why someone would trade the rotary for an LS1? I admire the rotary engine also, but it's not even close to perfect. To be very honest, the LS1 has a lot of good technology and materials built into it. The 13b-REW is cast iron with chrome plating, for crying out loud.

-s-

Here comes the novel:

7Bound- you are a closed minded jack*ss and anyone with half a brain after reading your initial post will realize this. Start making some real power and when you finally blow your motor a few times after adding that T-78 turbo you will see why many of us go LS1. The best tuner in the world can't stop a turbo rotary from having a sensor go bad, get a bad batch of gas, bad ground, or other malady and lose an apex seal instantly. After seeing my die hard rotary friends spending thousands of dollars on engine rebuilds a few times per year and always worrying about it blowing up again... I went LS1 for simplicity, torque, reliability, and cost effectiveness.

When you list in your mods "cold air box," stock size slotted rotors, and a turbo timer.... start to actually make some real power and put on some real mods and then talk shit.

It is true I built/drove this car and it wasn't finished for the competition. It still needs work actually. Lots of it. If you realize how much time and money it takes to get a car fully sorted then you would understand the results when pitted against cars in a very high caliber competition. Maybe you can send me some of your money and I can finish my car.

I had a little over $22K total including the car being very resourceful... the next competitor had well over $40K in their car (Integra)... after that it went $75K (MR2- sponsored by K&N) and then $100K-200K. I drive my car to work everyday.... rain or shine.

MY FD started life as a shell, blown motor, NO INTERIOR and a wiring harness that had been cut thru with lockcutters. I resurrected it in a matter of months working full time as well. The LS1 making 440rwhp on 91 octane n/a I built in my garage (flycut pistons, installed heads, cam etc). I did ALL the work aside from the electrical where a friend helped me greatly as I hate figuring that stuff out. 90% of the parts in the car are used since I am a real person without a bottomless budget. The only new parts were the JimLab bushings, cylinder heads/cam and clutch/flywheel.

3:90 gears, combined with 300rwtq at 2,000rpm, and "street" tires make for a traction challenged car without the assistance of traction control or AWD. If you reread the article I crushed all the other RWD cars in anything performance oriented. When building my car the choice went with performance parts first.... then the pretty paint/interior which I didn't have the time or money to get to before the event. I prepped/painted the engine bay Silverstone in my garage... the exterior was silver as the previous owner simply shot over the red. Time was my true enemy in not finishing up the car.

Is a pumped and fully sorted AWD Skyline and 2 Evo's plus an Audi TT with $150K+ each in them fast at the drag strip on street tires? You better believe it. Did you ever notice a trend that the AWD cars finished well in traction oriented events on street tires vs. RWD/FWD cars. Probably not since you are such an internet virtual genius regarding cars and performance with your many years alive on this planet.

To those that actually care:
My main goal was to kick ass in the handling department and do well on the road course. I did just that. It was actually to prove to jack*sses like 7Bound that an all aluminum V8 swap doesn't affect the handling of the FD... one of the best race car production chassis designs available. The car actually went 1.13g's in one direction and 1.06g's the other. Average was 1.09g's... the reason for the difference is that I have found out I have a failing shock up front in my $600 used coilovers I purchased. Used.... well used.

As far as the road course.... I finished 4th.... behind drivers like Samuel Hubinette (professional racer sponsored by Viper) driving the Skyline, the Evo driven by a flown in Japanese professional racer, and a Le Mans racer in his mid 40's driving the S2000. I have raced 3x in my life EVER prior to this event. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back too much... but you can at least give credit to where it is due. I did beat 5 other professional hired guns on that track as well and the other 2 amateurs.

The writers of SCC Mag I feel were more disappointed the car wasn't finished than anything. I expected to get ripped in some categories and deserved it. They expected it to do a lot better. It felt great to have a home built "supercar" smack around the tuner built entrants in their "open checkbook money is no object" machines.... I did at least do just that in a few events anyway.

I had a blast being there and especially talking to some of the other people there and checking out some of the other cars there. There were some amazing machines there with the expected 1 or 2 arrogant pompous pricks. Some cars had more in brakes/rims/tires/suspension than I had in my ENTIRE CAR. Many entrants didn't build, drive or do anything to their cars during the event... aside from saying... yup... that's my car and "we" are kicking ass.

Had more things of been sorted I would've easily placed higher. Anyone can see that. The top finishing competitors there were true show cars with infinite amounts of time and lots of money in them and were kick ass well sorted setups. They are also in many other publications constantly since they are so bad ass.

The last place result in the car show, poor driveability (The fact that I drove 1100 miles to Sevenstock and back without a hitch should say something against that), last in fuel economy over an unfamiliar windy/hilly course at night time I could give a rats ass about. Just remember that my 440rwhp LS1/FD burns cleaner than a Honda S2000. A four cylinder!!!!

Anyway- sorry about this post being a bit negative as it did ruffle my feathers.... To those that actually appreciated seeing an RX-7 in the USCC whether it was rotary powered or not I hope it was an enjoyable article. We are all car enthusiasts IMO no matter what is under the hood. If not having a rotary really makes an RX-7 a different car and "soulless," then so be it. Mine was the first to actually finish the USCC event without blowing up or having problems as well. The one part that did fail was a torque arm (PPF) with shitty cold welds. Aside from that Hinson makes a nice kit.

I'm happy with my results. I did great in the performance testing which was my goal. I'm saving to buy a house and didn't want to dump in crazy money into my car for paint/stereo/interior simply to be a hero on the internet and in magazines. My stereo is now an iPod with headphones.... One of the truths about racing... it takes lots of money to win and it is he with the most money who typically wins. Bottom line. $10K coilovers were not in my budget as well as $3K+ engine management systems.

7Bound- when you actually build yourself a car that can pull 1.13g's on the tires you drive to work on and can beat motorcycles on the highway.... doing all the work in your garage, then maybe you can start talking shit. Until then... STFup.

Thank you to those that gave me props. I love my RX-7 no matter what is under the hood and hope to put 20-30K miles on it yearly.

I think my fingers may be bleeding from all this typing. I'm exhausted from working a 50+ hour week and am going to bed.

Cheers,

-Mark

Congrats on meeting your goals Mark. You're daily driver is very admirable.

SCC notoriously dogs mazda cars...they made a mockery of the only pgt they ever put in there and they never post mx-6's, 5's or 3's...sometimes 5's thats about all though...they are bitches

Hi Mark,

while I am in agreement with your 'novel' (hehe) I just wanted to point out that the red FD from last year's USCC finished fine with no problems. It is still running to this day on the same motor, as a matter of fact.

Rucg

1 Point of reference, How soulless is a car that's not driven 50% of it's life due to motor problems ??

That my friends is the question of the day!

did you break the rear end piece. which had to be repaired? technically that is a problem

A rotary engine can be SUPER reliable but people somehow think they can pump outrageous amounts of power out of them and never have them break. The fact is, like it or not, a large 450hp V8 will be more reliable than a 450hp turbocharged 2 rotor engine.

However, keep your boost and horsepower down to realistic numbers and a rotary should last a long time if properly tuned and taken care of.

Anyways, congrats to gnx7 for being a "regular guy" putting up a good fight against high budget tuner cars.