suprfast

im curious as to who races the 7 for the reason it was built in the place. the TWISTIES. who takes their car to laguna-seca, willow springs, buttonwillow, thunderhill, etc...sorry im in CA and these are our tracks. im not neglecting the tight *** EAST coast tracks though. they are just as sick. anyways, what kind of mods do you have. what did you do to make it more relibale of the TRACK since its not a quick 13 seconds down a quarter and that is it. im want to start doing this for next year but want to make sure that i get the car up to PAR and then some.
kris

dis1

The guys in my little group do track days all the time. I do some too but not as many because I can't afford it right now. I suggest you take a look at my friends CrispyRx-7's site. He has a very well prepared track car. It's linked on my site as the 7-up club.

VTAOE

I guess I'm one of those people on the East Coast. I'm going to be running my car on the track this year at the MADS event. I have a Black 94 PEP. My Dad has run his car (Red 93 Base) for the past 2 or 3 years in these track events. We only run with the MSCW club though ( http://www.mscw.com ). I had shared track time with my Dad until I got my own car this year. The only thing that we have done to our cars is that we have a downpipe, catback, new tires and a boost gauge.

I really would NOT suggest you do a whole lot more than that until you get used to driving the car. Even most of the instructors at these road courses advise you to spend your money on track time and lessons instead of modifications. The only reason we have the downpipe and catback is to keep the heat down in the engine bay. These cars really have to much power for the average person. I've seen a lot of people do some crazy modifications to their cars. The problem is that most of these guys have not spent much time on the track and these guys usually end up in the dirt a lot more often than the guys with the stock cars. The reason being is that a lot of these people have so much power that they can't control it and sometimes the turbo's kick in at the wrong time and they end up off the track.

As a check before you go to the track you should probably do the following (assuming you have a mostly stock car):
1. Top off and or change all of your fluids (oil, transmission, brake, etc.). I would suggest using Redline oil for your transmission at least.

2. Check your brake pads (Hawk HP Pads are the best that I've found if you want to replace yours)

3. Make sure that you have most of the tread left on your tires. I would suggest that you run a Z rated tire (or better). My Dad uses Bridgestone Potenza S02's on his car and I think that I'm running Potenza RE730's. I would suggest S02's and not S03's (if you can find them anymore). The S03's just don't handle the same as the S02's. You can get them here http://www.tirerack.com You wouldn't believe how much difference a tire would make as far a handling goes.

4. Make sure that you zip tie or put a metal clip on the two vacuum lines going to the pressure chamber. I can't count how many times I have seen the vacuum line closest to the nose of the car popped off during a track event.

5. You should replace the rubber hose that connects the y-pipe to the large grey/black (depending on the year of your car it is a different color) plastic hose that feeds air into the turbo's. The best thing that I've found is an orange colored replacement hose. Pettit sells something similar to this. Go to http://www.pettitracing.com/Frameset.html and click on "Maintenance and Lubricants." You will find a similar package there. I think that we got our hoses from PFS, but he doesn't advertise most of his stuff on his website. A lof of times these hoses pop-off (especially the one to the y-pipe) during your track time. It is best just to take care of it and forget about it.

6. I would suggest running NGK Spark Plugs also (you can buy these at your local Mazda Dealer if you want to). A lot of people that I have talked to have tried different spark plugs for Autocross events and Road Racing and they just don't perform as well as the NGK's.

7. As for the rest I would suggest that you follow the guidlines that we have to adhere to when running on the road courses ( http://www.mscw.com/m02sp/02sp_tech.html )

If you do those things that I just told you about then you will have a LOT of fun on the track and you will be safe doing it. I would suggest that you run with a couple of clubs at various tracks (where they have instructors) before you get to crazy. I feel like I have written way too much already. If you have any more questions then email me at coanders@vt.edu

- Cody

maxcooper

These are the clubs/groups I run with:
http://www.touringcarclub.com/
http://www.open-track.com/
http://www.wurthmotorsports.com/

I used to live in Michigan, and I am loving it here in California because of all the great tracks and the fact that you can do events all year.

Start out with your car at its current level of mods (whatever that might be), but with all the little things squared away. Check your brake pads and fluid, throw in some fresh oil and plugs, change the fuel filter, get the cooling system flushed and refilled if it is old, etc. Your first few events will be more about learning how to drive on the track safely than pushing the car to its limits. Elect to attend the driving schools at the events -- it will help a lot, and most groups make you start there anyway. Dont get me wrong about all this basic prep and safety stuff -- you are going to have a great time driving on the track, even if you are only using 60% of the car's ability.

You'll also need a Snell SA rated helmet (Motorcycle helmets are not enough for most clubs), possibly some racing gloves, and cotton long pants and a long sleeve shirt.

It is most fun to have some people to talk about your experiences on the track with, and help with prep between sessions. One way to acheive this end would be to join the SoCal7s club, and go to an event that some club members are going to. There are a few of us that go fairly often. Join us!

-Max

sheaa

I live in NYC, besides the autocross season I've been going to various BMWCCA driving school events. 6 hours is my limit to get to tracks and last year I went to Lime Rock, Summit Point, and New Hampshire International Speedway.

I blew my engine earlier this year (broken seal) so I didn't start until later on in the season. I have no performance mods, except the downpipe (OEM cat was clogged), and cooling mods (Fluidyne radiator and Crooked Willow oil cooler). Even with stock suspension, the car feels neutral and fun to drive. I think the OEM suspension is kind of in the soft side (my front spoiler rubbed the floor during corner), it sill holds very well and pretty predictable.

One of my instructor at Lime Rock had a really nice FD (ton of mods). He averages about 1:02 at Lime Rock with me in the car. For those who don't know the Lime Rock track well. That's faster than 90% of the BMW Club Racers with fully built race cars!! My instructor's is a fully legal, street driven FD from Boston.

In short, this also came from other FD driving instructors, the RX7 is a very strong contender on the track. With a OEM handling capability of almost 1G (I think is .95G). The race track is where the RX7 can really shine. Take good care of it, it will give you great driving pleasure!!!

My two cents

Aaron

suprfast

alright real racers, what do you think can be done besides the normal relibility mods to make the car stay alive for the road races. i dont have a way to tow my 7 up, nor do i want to. i love driving it all the time. for road racing, should i wait to rebuild my motor, of go with this one. it has 93K miles. id hate to see her go on the way up there. that wouldnt be a good thing. let me know guys. id like to meet up with you down the road.
kris

SleepR1

I've been "road racing" my red '93 Rx7 R1 in track days and weekends for 5 years. Tracks I'm familiar with are Mid Ohio (Lexington, OH), Putnam Park (Mt Meridian IN), Gingerman (South Haven MI), Road America (Elkhardt Lake WI), Summit Point (Winchester VA), Road Atlanta, (Braselton GA).

I currently run my own track club and organize my events at Putnam Park. I plan to do Gingerman, Gratten, Nelsons and Black Hawk in the future.

My car is mainly a daily driver (92,000 miles) with a few mods to make it trackworthy.

Brakes: Steel lines, Hawk Black fr, Carbotech Panther rr, Motul 600 F

Suspension: H&R springs, Eibach sway bars, Tri-Point fr sway bar mount braces, stock R1 shocks

Driveline: ACT pressure plate, Bonez clutch disc, 8.5-lb billet flywheel

Ignition: Magnecor 10 mm plug wires, BUR9EQP NGKs all around

Intake: RB intake duct, K&N filter, stock airbox

Exhaust: Bonez High-flow cat and downpipe, Trust catback, 10.5 psi boost control pill, stock IC, ECU, motor, turbos (factory sequential system)

Coolant mix: 70% distilled water, 30% antifreeze, plus 1 bottle of Redline watter wetter

Tires: Hoosier R3S03 245/45-17 fr and 275/40-17 rr

Wheels: SSR Competitions in 8.5 fr and 9.5 rr x 17s.

My current turbos are failing, and will be replaced with JDM twins next month.

God's in the details, and with the FD, you'll live or die by details.

Replace those spring clamps with screw-down.

Zip-tie all your vacuum hose connections.

Replace those flimsy Y-Pipe to IC couplers with SAMCO silicone couplers and use high quality screw clamps. Use some silicone sealant at the joints for the Y-Pipe coupling.

Fresh dino oil (10W-40) with Mazda oil filter is a must. NOTE--Run 1 quart UNDER the capacity to decrease turbo oil blow-by. If your turbos are failing like mine are (due to age and use), you'll have oil blowing throughout the intake air charge, and it will make mess on the drivers side of the motor where the plugs are.

Redline syth oils in the gearbox and rear diff are good ideas, if you haven't changed them already.

New NKG plugs using 9EQPs all around are good.

Run the heater with the fan blowing on high through all the sessions. This helps the motor run cooler.

Cool the turbos down a good 3 to 5 minutes after the sessions.

Try to have a good friend with a trailer go with you to the track events, in case the worst happens. I'm lucky to have a sponsor this year, so my car will be transported inside an enclosed trailer to all my track events

Pay attention to the instructor, and let the track come to you...you won't be Michael Schumacher after your first session.

Be safe, and have fun!

SleepR1

I couldn't agree MORE with this thoughtfully written post!

I am curious about the handling differences between S-02 and S-03s? I was planning to replace my worn Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetricos with the Bridgestone Potenza S-03s. I see that Tire Rack has a few S-02s left for $150 vs. the S-03s at $165 for 225/50-16 size.

Care to elaborate on the handling differences?

FWIW, the Asimmetrico replacements will serve as road tires and wet track tires during soggy track day events (because REAL RACERS RUN IN THE RAIN!), so wet weather performance will be KEY!

VTAOE

It took me a while to find this, but I knew it was somewhere. I checked out this whole thing when I got my new tires this summer. I couldn't afford the S02's or S03's and so I got what I felt was the next best thing. As for the info. Check out these tests that Tire Rack did:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/avs_sport.jsp

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...+Pole+Position

I realize that if Tire Rack were to compare these two tires against each other, then they might be a little bit different. These tires were new when I first started looking at them. It seems that they may have improved a little bit. The S03's weren't gettting all that great results (from the surveys) when they first came it. It seemed like a lot of people complained about them being somewhat slick until they were warmed up properly. I have no idea about this personally. I haven't been in a car with S03's on them so I couldn't tell you. This is what other people thought about these tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/bridgestone/bs_s02_pp.jsp

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/bridgestone/bs_s03.jsp

Personally I think I would still go with the S02's just because they have a solid track record (meaning they are known to be a really good tire). You should probably get the S02 Pole Positions if you can find them though (they are a little bit better than the normal S02's I believe). Not to mention the fact that these tires look down right mean on almost any rim. They really make the car look even faster than it is. Which is pretty scary. My Dad has his S02's on a set of Fikse wheels (similar to the ones here http://www.rotarypowered.com/wheels.html ).

I hope all of this helps.

- Cody

Kahren

iTrader: (13)

any of u guys using stock gauges to watch the water temp and oil press. cau sei know I woudlnt trust those.. and if u ARE aftermarket ones what color combos do u like, i am thinking that it owudl be easiest with white backround and a red needle? any preferences? dont wanna really take eyes of teh road to galnce ateh gauges too long

solo1seven

Hi,

I've been running my rx7 in Solo One track events for one season now at Ontarios main race tracks (mosport, cayuga, shannonville) and have been very pleased with it. I find oil consumption on the track is much higher than that on the street and must be monitored after each run, bring some extra oil for sure. I find fuel consumption is also much quicker and if you're not careful the car will starve for fuel, DO NOT LET IT GO BELOW 1/2 TANK, i've had it sputter on me on two different occasions just below 1/2 tank. this is how SCC took out their first engine. I run hawk HP+ pad a and have been very happy with them. For ultimate track experience R compound tires are the way to go. The yokohoma A032r's have worked quite well and are quite driveable in the rain but are noisy to be used on the street and better to be left on a set of wheels just for the track. The Kumho victoracers are a better tire if you can find them. Hope that helps and isn't just a recap of what everyone else has been saying.

Andrew Wojteczko

solo1seven

one more thing,
my car was running hot after 3 laps, it didn't take much for the stock guage to begin to move, to fix this i have a koyo radiator ready to install but can not vouch for it's results. Even with the heaters on full and using the ac on a cool down lap to bring on the second fan, the car was still running too hot to be driven hard for any extended length. And it has the 2nd oil cooler already.

Andrew Wojteczko,
93 RX7 R1
mods ready to be installed:
Pettit ECU
Pettit AST
Pettit Pulleys
Custom Intake
Mazda Comp Downpipe
Greddy Power Extreme Exhaust
Greddy Turbo Timer
simmons 3 pc. wheels with A032R
Enkei with Michelin pilot sports
autometer boost
autometer temp
dual piller guage mount (not good, smacked hand on it and dented guage at Cayuga in a spin)
etc...

pedro kim

hi SleepR1.

What radiator are you using ?

Are you using stock oilcoolers?

Do you have cooling problems, how hot does it gets?

Are you using stock turbo presure?

and last, what kind of aligment do you use and do you have adjustables camber links?

Thanks

SleepR1

Stock radiator. Removed crescent shaped thingies in the air intake opening in the nose of the car...Stock R1 dual oil coolers...NO overheating problems with heater running, 70/30 water/antifreeze, water wetter mix, and vent fan blowing high, even during the summer months where it gets to 95 F ambient temp. Don't have a water temp gauge, so all I see is the temp needle sitting below the half-way point between "H" and "C"; and the needle never budges from that point once the motor's warmed up.

On second thought--I did overheat once at Mid Ohio, when I blew a radiator hose. The "boom" sounded like a tire blew out, and I didn't look at the temp gauge until half way to the pits!! That was 3 years and 36,000 miles ago, and the motor still pulls strong with 92,000 miles on the clock!

Stock 10 psi. Stock sequential system. The alignment settings (and tire pressures) are a secret, sorry Camber adjuster is stock.

My 93 R1 is pretty much, "all stock",

SleepR1

I forgot to mention...every lap I turn on track is a "Pole Position" attempt. This means I drive the **** out of the R1 to knock off that extra 0.10 second off of the hotlap time, OR to put more distance between me and the Porsche 993 Carrera S that just pointed me by

cwilliiams

I have done track days at Putnam Park w/ SleepR1 and I have done the minimum mods. I want mine to look stock, but handle the track.

1993 R1
Pettit AST
M2 SS catback
M2 SS downpipe
Pettit Boost gauge
stock wheels w/ Yoko AO32Rs

I ran with those last time.

I have on my desk, not yet installed -
SS brake lines
Motul brake fluid
Hawk HP plus pads

and I am ordering Simpson four point harnesses real soon, these can clip on and off.

Charlie

JeffShoots

Wish my car was running:


http://www.k2rd.com/thunderhillevent/

Later, Jeff

SleepR1

You ready for March 23 at Putnam Park?

I have to install new turbos in my R1 before I'll be ready. It's going to set me back some dough!

There will be 4 more FD Rx7s. Terence Ross (nicely setup red Touring KY), Rob Drinnen (black M2 Perf R1 Cincy), Crazy Jimmy (red M2 Perf Touring Indy), and Bill Campbell (bonestock Touring, IN). James Forbis from Cincy hopes to have his single turbo R1 ready, if not he'll bring his Viper GTS (woo hoo!).

See you then!

solo1seven

Hmm, I wonder why my car was running hot last season, it was all stock, 90/10 water/ coolant with a bottle of water wetter with those crescent shaped inserts removed from the front bumper. I guess it can go either way so be prepared to monitor the temperature guage until you get a feel for how the car will react under track conditions.

Andrew Wojteczko,
93 RX7 R1

SleepR1

Remember I don't have a REAL temp gauge...this means my motor could have been running anywhere between 180 and 220 F. Probably 220 F or higher, during the summer months! Also I run the heater at full blast regardless of how hot it might be outside!

What do you consider "HOT"?

I think it's impossible for an FD to run at 180 F all day on track. My guess is that 220 or 225 F is probably common for those of us really pushing the envelope??

Any opinions out there for you track racers with REAL temp gauges?

ArcWelder

I use the Power FC on peak hold, and record max temps(along with other data)for each session. I only have data from Fall MADS with me right now, so with ambient temps in the low 80's I was seeing a peak of 108degC or 226.4F. That's with Fluidyne rad, 60-40 water to coolant mix with Water Wetter, packed off radiator, heater on usually at least half way, all fans running.

Mark

SleepR1

Ahhhh...yes, then my motor's probably running hotter with the stock radiator and 10 psi boost, stock IC, basically stock everything...I'd bet I'm running closer to 230 F...

I plan to have AIM install a REAL temp gauge, so I'll have a better idea of 13B REW motor temps on track this season.

pedro kim

sleepR1

So you have very good fun with the porshes, good, what are the other car's you race with, do you compette with guted interiors cars?

Here in the south west I will race against nsx, 911turbos and non, mustangs, 300zx twinturbos, talon gst, and 1800lbs supercharge vw rabbits, this is like an unlimited class.

pedro kim

SleepR1

I have been racing the second generation , this season I'm going with the 3rd gen, what is the technique you use (braking,downshifting) aproching a curve?

SleepR1

Well technically we're not racing wheel-to-wheel; there's no passing in the turns at my events. This keeps everyone's insurance company happy, and allows my participants to remained covered under their policies; no one's keeping track of laptimes nor are we racing for positions. We're strictly out there for the fun of it... I call what we do, "Gentlemen's Racing"

My car has a complete interior; I drive it daily.

Other cars on track with us: 944 Turbo, 930 Turbo, 911s, more 911s, Mustang Cobra, C5 Z06, Viper GTS, NSX, Shelby 427 S/C Cobra replica, Ferarri 308, Super and Turbo Miatas, 300ZX...