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My name is Troy, originally from Sydney Australia, i moved to Auckland New Zealand a year ago.
I have been a long time Japanese car fan, back in Aus i owned a mildly modified 2003 Lexus IS300 daily (tein coilovers, trd braces, trd sways, 3inch full exhaust, work vs-xxs and some other stuff) and a 1994 Y32 Nissan Cedric (VIP style car, moderately modified, body work, interior, one off work schwartz wheels, bare metal respray, audi projector retrofit, xbox).
I have always wanted a RX7, on my 13th birthday my grandfather gave me the Haynes FC service manual which i read back to front at least 10 times, around 6 years ago i was shopping around for a FD but they were out of my price range at the time (around 35-40k).
When i moved to NZ i thought i would try something different and picked up my first euro, a 2008 BMW 335i, before picking up the car i had a 7" intercooler, piggyback ecu, intake and full service kit on order. Its been a great daily, comfy, decent amount of power but in the end its hasnt been that fun when getting out on some of the great NZ roads. Its boring.
So that leads me to November last year, when i came across a importer in NZ that brings in around 2 FDs a month. They had imported a very special car which they had been negotiating over for a couple of months.
A 1992 R1 FD RX7 that was used by the RE Amemiya workshop as as promo road car! It features the RE Amemiya AC037 and AC987 body conversions. These are not to everyones tastes but i love unique cars and this FD certainly is! I put a deposit down 3 days later.
I decided to call her Arie
She has a couple of nice extras
Arigosta coilovers
Project MU 2 piece front and rear rotors
Blitz blow off valve
Replica TE37s (these will get sold for something else at some point)
A unknown (to me) catback
D1 Spec shift **** and mazda speed handbrake cover (these will go)
The team at the importer then went to work on the Low Volume Vehicle cert that is needed to get the car on NZ roads. Being so close to xmas this took a bit longer than expected and was not so easy (the front winker lights were not DOT stamped and the spoiler end caps were "too sharp").
On the 23rd of Jan the car was ready! Plates on, LVV cert passed, happy days!! It was a blazing hot day and i was nervous driving a car i had dreamt about since i was 13 so took my 1st drive very easy. I drove for ~45 min taking it up to a max of around 4k. I got it home so i could take a closer poke around and based on what i had read the first think i did was open the bonnet to let the engine cool down (i know it has a vented hood but it also has rain guards installed, those will be coming out ).
This is when i saw a moderate amount of steam coming from the hot side of the motor, it was not obvious where it was coming from but i could hear the coolant boiling so i knew there must have been a leak in the cooling system to cause it to de-pressurize. I had a poke around and could not see exactly where it was coming from (turbos and intake kinda gets in the road!).
About 5 min later the coolant stopped boiling and no more steam. There was a 20c coin sized pool of coolant on the ground.
I called the importers and they sent a towie on Monday to pick her up and take her in to a Auckland workshop the specialises in rotaries, later that day i got the good news bad news call.
The housing was leaking coolant. Damn.
Good news, they quickly sourced a replace motor, a series 6 motor with series 8 turbos and ~45,000kms, 116psi compression and in a car running. This motor when in smoothly and passed leak down and compression.
I already have some goodies for her shipped over from Japan
RE Amemiya shift ****
RE Amemiya intake
RE Amemiya IC hard pipes
Apexi PFC with OLED controller
All FD the hyper revs and ~ 15 RX7 magazines
OEM floor mats
The plan for her is to first up the reliability with some of the standard stuff like a AST, koyo rad, aftermarket intercooler (still weighing up different setups on this). And then get her out for some track days!
Here are some pics in the meantime! Thanks for reading
So one of the things i noticed in Arie is that she had some clunking in the rear end when going over bumps in the road.
Got the chance to get the car up on some stands and started looking from problem bushings. Most seemed to have zero play except the toe links that had around 3mm of play.
First place i checked out was yahoo japan but it turned out all the rose joint toe links i could find were either 2 piece joints OR were over 500nzd.
This is when i came across a post by a Australia fd owner that had success with Techno Toy Tuning toe links (https://technotoytuning.com/mazda/fd...rear-toe-links). The price seemed good at 450nzd shipped and they were 3 piece rose joints. Sorted!
A few days later the new toe links arrived, I used a pair of screw drivers to match the length of the old toe links to the new links (to get it close until i can get a alignment). They feel solid and well built and have teflon lined joint so no need for servicing!
Unfortunately there is still some clunking in the rear end, it looks like the upper pillowballs also have around 1mm of play in them so thats the next job to do. I also need to check on the diff bushings.
Nice Cedric- can you turn the front wheels lock-to-lock? If so, what camber/caster did you need in order to tuck tires and clear the fender, or is it on air suspension?
Love the kit man.
I like the early REA GT kits with the old school signals too.
But; if I could, I would do the same front and rear as yours(maybe a different color ).
Wonder how many know it's a shout out to the cosmo....
There are some fenders with the same kindof swoof-fold that really tie it all together, too. If you can find them.
Nice Cedric- can you turn the front wheels lock-to-lock? If so, what camber/caster did you need in order to tuck tires and clear the fender, or is it on air suspension?
Thanks! I miss driving it around. I was running JIC coilovers (no air) and that was the driving height! Caster was unchanged but the front was between 4-5 deg, rear was 6-7.
Full lock was not quite possible, some round abouts resulted in 3 point turns.
Originally Posted by Narfle
Love the kit man.
I like the early REA GT kits with the old school signals too.
But; if I could, I would do the same front and rear as yours(maybe a different color ).
Wonder how many know it's a shout out to the cosmo....
There are some fenders with the same kindof swoof-fold that really tie it all together, too. If you can find them.
I wasnt aware that it was a shout out to the cosmo but i can see the similarities when looking at the older REA kits! The orange suits the car better in person but is quite rough due to age and may need to respray it at some point, i really like the idea of yas marina blue.
I have done a couple of changes since the last post, I have switched the oem wheel to a Orange Works bell Rapifix and chrome Nardi deep corn. I also replaced all the shifter bushings, they were in terrible condition! The white plastic bottom bushing had completely disintegrated!
I have pics of both on the camera, ill upload them this weekend
Last weekend was the first track day / shakedown of the car!
Overall performance of the car was great, the aragosta coilovers felt very at home on the track and even though there was some moisture and i was on street tyres the car hooked up.
Unfortunately on the 2nd session of the 2nd day i was hit with a clutch drag issue (clutch pedal stuck to the floor and cluck fully engaged, happened when shifting down from 3>2) so had to call it quits early. I couldn't see any leaks so still need to diagnose.
I also encountered some axel hop on take off, speaking to another FD owner i got some advise on how he was able remedy this (solid diff + engine bushings + spool rear diff), not quite sold on having a full spool in a road car but would be interested in more feedback.
I was able to cook the current pads (again street pads). I havnt bought race pads as i have the new Sake Bomb Willwood kit ordered along with some Hawk DTC 30 pads!
So my "To Do" list post shakedown for next track day is:
Saw you at chrome man . Nice car! Not everyone's cup of tea but as long as you are happy with it , who care. A shame about your issues but good luck with the car and your future with it !
Saw you at chrome man . Nice car! Not everyone's cup of tea but as long as you are happy with it , who care. A shame about your issues but good luck with the car and your future with it !
Hey thanks! Let me know if your ever keen for a cruse! (im up in Auckland)
Been away for a couple of weeks but before going bled the clutch and the fluid was not great but even after bleeding its still off. Next step im going to take is to replace or rebuild the clutch master / slave. Drivable as it but wont track again till its sorted.
Diagnose Clutch issue (bleed + inspect lines + inspect linkage + inspect clutch) - Post bleed the clutch is behaving but a new master and slave just arrived thanks to rockauto.com as well as a stainless clutch line from Sakebomb garage, will install these soon
Trans Service (got some grinding on 3>2 shifts off the straight) - not done
Roll rear guards (some scrubbing at high speed corners) - not done
Solid diff and engine mounts (the greenbrothers in NZ do some made from machined plastic) - not done
So on to the brakes, i have set my goals for this car to make it a more reliable than OEM road registered circuit car. With that in mind i figured one great place to start is with the brakes.
Most of you have probably seen the Wilwood kit Sakebomb garage has put together and i am happy to confirm that this is a awesome kit, all the Sakebomb made parts were great quality, instruction that came with the kit were very informative (covered a lot more that just what bolt goes where!) and the Wilwood calipers are super nice!
I chose to go with the Hawk DTC-30 pads which have a wide optimal operating range (100-800F, 1200F max) this means i can use the on the street but they should still handle track temps.
The only unexpected part was the need to grind the sides of the backing plates on the pads by ~1mm each side. This issue may not happen with other pads. I panted the sides of the pads i grinded off with some ceramic 2000F paint so they dont rust out.
Other than that the install went very smoothly, all the lines fit nicely, the adapter was a perfect fit!
So far i have only taken it out on a quick test drive (i still need to bed the pads which i will do this weekend). And what a difference! The pedal feedback is great and its easy to feel how much pressure is going to the wheels, without much force i was able to lock up the fronts (time to get some better tires!). Post drive check showed no leaks.
Another track day! This time with the NZ Rotary Racing Enthusiasts.
The day went quite well getting more confident with the car but i did have some issues with the SBG Wilwoods.
Once they are up to temp there is a lot of shuddering through the steering wheel. Only happens when they are hot (400F+). I think ill start by checking run out unless anyone has any good ideas?
Went for a touge the other night with no vibration issues at all! Heath at SBG is helping to diagnose and it does seem like pad material transfer. I took the disks off last night and they seem clean to me but this was after the touge so its likely that that cleaned them out.
For reference i am using DTC-30 pads which seem to have a reputation for doing this, if the issue comes back next track day ill switch. I am also unsure of what the rear pads are so it is possible that poor pad bias is causing the fronts to overwork.
wow nice find
i was in NZ for three weeks in september and didnt come across any RX7s at all. I only saw RX8s
Remnds me......Gotta pay that speeding ticket i got down in Invercargill on NZ National Highway 6 though.
Thanks! There are a few FDs here but you dont see them often. We actually have a RX7 only series called Pro7!
Update on the car, i need to re-bed the disks and pads, it looks like i did not bed them enough before hitting the track OR over cooked them when bedding.
Worked on the suspension todo list over the weekend and got quite a bit done! Unfortunatly some parts didnt quite workout as i expected.
The ends of the rear sway bar had to be cut of, they fouled the bottom of the Arigosta shocks.
The front supernow swaybar caps are too thin to work with the racing beat bushings so i used the racing beat caps.
The supernow front mounts are 22mm shorter, this means that the steering rack holes on the racing beat brace are too low, i flipped the bar and am using it without mounting to the rack for now. Ill probably get some longer bolts and spacers so i can.
The bolt that the front feed hook mounts to is rounded, i might have anohter crack at it with some vicegrips
The rear feed hook and oem tie down plate dont fit with the AC987 rear bar, ill trim some of the bar so it will, only ~5mm and it will be non visible.
Went for a touge the other night with no vibration issues at all! Heath at SBG is helping to diagnose and it does seem like pad material transfer. I took the disks off last night and they seem clean to me but this was after the touge so its likely that that cleaned them out.
For reference i am using DTC-30 pads which seem to have a reputation for doing this, if the issue comes back next track day ill switch. I am also unsure of what the rear pads are so it is possible that poor pad bias is causing the fronts to overwork.
Most likely you're just working the brakes to a hotter temp than the DTC-30 can handle and it's causing transfer. You can try a different compound to be sure.
I dig the project, so keep with the updates. Post up the model number on the Racetech seat when you get a chance. I've considered going with a Halo seat, but was unsure if I could find one to fit both the car and me.
Rotary eXperiment 911 Thinking of picking up some RX 911 number plates to match
Originally Posted by Smokey The Talon
Most likely you're just working the brakes to a hotter temp than the DTC-30 can handle and it's causing transfer. You can try a different compound to be sure.
I dig the project, so keep with the updates. Post up the model number on the Racetech seat when you get a chance. I've considered going with a Halo seat, but was unsure if I could find one to fit both the car and me.
Thanks! I am most likely going to switch pads, i had been talking to Sake bomb garage about this and they were very helpful. Ideally after a pad that can take 30min of road racing abuse I have a temperature gun now so i can check. I also do not have any brake cooling ducts currently so thats a project ill have to look at, i still have the OEM brake backplates on which might be keeping the heat in.
Ill keep you updated on the seat. This racetech on is a RT4009HR, they have a few sizes (normal, wide, wide tall and tall). I went with the normal one as i dont think i could get the others to fit in the FD cabin. I am a big guy at 6'2", around 100kg and it is a tight fit. To get the seat as low as possible we are going to get it mounted on weld in mounts and cut out the OEM ones. The bottom cushion is removable which puts you 45mm lower so ill take that out when wearing a helmet.
04-04-16, 02:58 AM
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