Goodfella's Rotary Garage 1995 BB FD, my take on the Ultimate Street Machine
05-19-16, 07:31 AM
#353
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
Sooooooo:
A short night vid 2nd gear pull off the WG spring in an effort to get sound of the R-Magic TI exhaust, which resulted in mainly dumped gate noise. You can hear 'delighted passenger giggle' at the end of the pull
*Also installed some JDM stuff, need some Yen coins now if there is such a thing
*Also travelled to PA to visit my tuner for some high boost action, ran her up to about 1.35kg on the PFC commander
*Also (and absolutely most exciting) I found a buried treasure under my bed
.
*More details to follow
A short night vid 2nd gear pull off the WG spring in an effort to get sound of the R-Magic TI exhaust, which resulted in mainly dumped gate noise. You can hear 'delighted passenger giggle' at the end of the pull
*Also installed some JDM stuff, need some Yen coins now if there is such a thing
*Also travelled to PA to visit my tuner for some high boost action, ran her up to about 1.35kg on the PFC commander
*Also (and absolutely most exciting) I found a buried treasure under my bed
. *More details to follow
Last edited by GoodfellaFD3S; 05-19-16 at 07:35 AM.
05-20-16, 06:28 AM
#354
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
With my impending move to Florida to join Tom Frascone (Theorie), Matt May (Tiggy) and Garrett (G's 3rd Gen) as they live the dream down in the sunshine state, I've come to realize how many great talented friends I have here in the NYC/NJ area that I'll be sadly leaving behind.
One such friend is Mike Mauro, ZoomZoom here on the forum. He's a real original rotary gangster, and was one of Chris Carlisi's best friends as well. Since Chris passed Mike and I have gotten close, and he made a huge effort to come up to my area last night despite having to be up for work at 5am this morning.
Mike's dangerous with a camera in his hand, and his portfolio really shows his talents. Our buddy Jehan Poco (Forty Ounce) came along to assist and serve as wheelman for rolling shots as Mike hung out the window on the NJ turnpike at 80+ mph
My brother Ryan made the decision to join us all for dinner with his low mile '93 SSM FD, and I'm glad he did. Rockin' his RPF1 track wheels, I think these shots would have been even more impressive with the BBS RG-R mounted on but hey it's a racecar
Mike is editing all the rolling shots, which are jaw-dropping to say the least.
Two IRP-built FD3s RX-7s rolling down the highway rocking a combined 1000 crank horsepower ain't no joke
In the meantime, here are a few examples...... the weather cooperated for a change, and we snuck into one deserted area to get some legit NYC backdrop shots before security arrived
One such friend is Mike Mauro, ZoomZoom here on the forum. He's a real original rotary gangster, and was one of Chris Carlisi's best friends as well. Since Chris passed Mike and I have gotten close, and he made a huge effort to come up to my area last night despite having to be up for work at 5am this morning.
Mike's dangerous with a camera in his hand, and his portfolio really shows his talents. Our buddy Jehan Poco (Forty Ounce) came along to assist and serve as wheelman for rolling shots as Mike hung out the window on the NJ turnpike at 80+ mph
My brother Ryan made the decision to join us all for dinner with his low mile '93 SSM FD, and I'm glad he did. Rockin' his RPF1 track wheels, I think these shots would have been even more impressive with the BBS RG-R mounted on but hey it's a racecar
Mike is editing all the rolling shots, which are jaw-dropping to say the least.
Two IRP-built FD3s RX-7s rolling down the highway rocking a combined 1000 crank horsepower ain't no joke
In the meantime, here are a few examples...... the weather cooperated for a change, and we snuck into one deserted area to get some legit NYC backdrop shots before security arrived
Last edited by GoodfellaFD3S; 05-20-16 at 06:30 AM.
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Tim Benton (12-08-18)
05-20-16, 10:04 AM
#355
^ Legit!
Nicest FD's in the Country are right here in the Tri State area.
It was a long long night and a short nap before work today. It was worth it!! I had to send Rich off to Florida with a bang. I'm going to miss him so we had a send off at the Chart house. Ryan showed up and it made the night special having one last evening with the boys together for dinner and car shenanigans.
Wish we had more time to wear out all those locations in Hoboken for photo Ops.
Rich and I knew of each other thru our common friend and we made the effort to become friends when Chris passed away. I would also add John Burer and Ihor Huck to that conversation. Sometimes having a common loss creates a bond between people you can't really explain.
We look out for each other and last night was no different. I may be working on 3 hours sleep but Jehan, Ryan and I got one last gig with Mazda's biggest fan before he heads off to to work on his tan.
We even got to rifle thru his secret garage full of rare and obscure RX-7 parts before he leaves town. The Range Rover was riding heavy for the drive back south. Jehan drove for me while I shot out the window. In spite of a cop directly behind us Jehan bit his lip and we drove 3 wide down the turnpike. All ended well and Jehan kept his license for another day.
Good luck in Florida Rich. If you ever need someone shot; you always know who to call... Photo's I mean.. Yeah that's what we mean...
Nicest FD's in the Country are right here in the Tri State area.
It was a long long night and a short nap before work today. It was worth it!! I had to send Rich off to Florida with a bang. I'm going to miss him so we had a send off at the Chart house. Ryan showed up and it made the night special having one last evening with the boys together for dinner and car shenanigans.
Wish we had more time to wear out all those locations in Hoboken for photo Ops.
Rich and I knew of each other thru our common friend and we made the effort to become friends when Chris passed away. I would also add John Burer and Ihor Huck to that conversation. Sometimes having a common loss creates a bond between people you can't really explain.
We look out for each other and last night was no different. I may be working on 3 hours sleep but Jehan, Ryan and I got one last gig with Mazda's biggest fan before he heads off to to work on his tan.
We even got to rifle thru his secret garage full of rare and obscure RX-7 parts before he leaves town. The Range Rover was riding heavy for the drive back south. Jehan drove for me while I shot out the window. In spite of a cop directly behind us Jehan bit his lip and we drove 3 wide down the turnpike. All ended well and Jehan kept his license for another day.
Good luck in Florida Rich. If you ever need someone shot; you always know who to call... Photo's I mean.. Yeah that's what we mean...
Last edited by ZoomZoom; 05-20-16 at 10:28 AM.
05-20-16, 01:57 PM
#356
Sweet shots Mike. Had no idea you were friends with John Burer. Never met him in person, but feel like we're close friends through conversations we've had over the years. Great guy! Rich, best of luck in Florida. Hope you can make it out to the West Side of the country some day. I'll keep trying to make it East as well. Hopefully someday soon!
05-20-16, 04:43 PM
#357
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It is a very small world, my friends!
Sweet shots Mike. Had no idea you were friends with John Burer. Never met him in person, but feel like we're close friends through conversations we've had over the years. Great guy! Rich, best of luck in Florida. Hope you can make it out to the West Side of the country some day. I'll keep trying to make it East as well. Hopefully someday soon!
05-21-16, 05:13 PM
#360
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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Busy weekend thus far, lots of changes to the car (much of it small cleanup stuff not seen in this pic) and not a lot of sleep
It's pretty gratifying to see this BB '95 FD take shape and to realize that I'm beginning to prefer it to my old VR R1, not something I expected to happen
It's pretty gratifying to see this BB '95 FD take shape and to realize that I'm beginning to prefer it to my old VR R1, not something I expected to happen
05-22-16, 07:32 AM
#361
Seats looks great!
If I weren't prone to hopping in my car and sweating my nuts off on track with grubby pants on, I'd get my EVOs recovered like that. Austin does great work, and did some nice charcoal alcantara accents on my interior.
Did you say Silver Spring? You should've hit me up. But if Austin is there, that would be a lot easier to drop off stuff than Bel Air.
If I weren't prone to hopping in my car and sweating my nuts off on track with grubby pants on, I'd get my EVOs recovered like that. Austin does great work, and did some nice charcoal alcantara accents on my interior.
Did you say Silver Spring? You should've hit me up. But if Austin is there, that would be a lot easier to drop off stuff than Bel Air.
05-22-16, 07:47 AM
#362
All out Track Freak!
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Have fun in sunny FL and that city photo with the two FDs that have their head lights on is SWEET!!!
The 95 BB is coming along nicely and love love love the rolling jewelry. As you know they are my favorites
The 95 BB is coming along nicely and love love love the rolling jewelry. As you know they are my favorites
05-23-16, 06:18 AM
#363
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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Aw snap, all we needs now is for mah friend MemphisRaines82///Brent Dalton to get in here posting and the VIR-Pimpin' party is REALLY rockin the house
Pete, the seats are just insane and they pop in the interior on the black paint like a damn bomb, I swear. I mis-spoke on the location, they're in Forest Hill MD.
Thanks Fritz, that shot is of my FD and my brother Ryan's FD, Mike Mauro is a damn wizard behind the lense..... Ryan's still rolling with those cherry R1 seats you sold him years ago, joined by the Flynn-spec roll bar
The Profil10 are amazing and my absolute fav, until the time comes to clean them 
Seats looks great!
If I weren't prone to hopping in my car and sweating my nuts off on track with grubby pants on, I'd get my EVOs recovered like that. Austin does great work, and did some nice charcoal alcantara accents on my interior.
Did you say Silver Spring? You should've hit me up. But if Austin is there, that would be a lot easier to drop off stuff than Bel Air.
If I weren't prone to hopping in my car and sweating my nuts off on track with grubby pants on, I'd get my EVOs recovered like that. Austin does great work, and did some nice charcoal alcantara accents on my interior.
Did you say Silver Spring? You should've hit me up. But if Austin is there, that would be a lot easier to drop off stuff than Bel Air.
The Profil10 are amazing and my absolute fav, until the time comes to clean them
06-19-16, 09:08 AM
#370
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
Monster update below, be warned-----
So, the car made it safely from NJ to FL on a covered trailer for the killer price of $800 in less than 48 hours. Anyone needing x-country transpo send me a PM and I'll share my source.
I've been enjoying having the FD in the (very large RV) garage attached to the house we're renting down here and it's awesome to be able to wrench on it and do things like clean the wheels at night before bed. After having it stored offsite away from my house for so many years this is really pretty nice.
I've probably put 500 miles on her just driving around, running errands etc. Seems as long as the outside temps are below 85ish degrees I'm cool with no A/C, pun intended
I've gotta say that with all the tweaks and persistence in fixing phantom issues with the car over the years, it's FINALLY running awesome, smooth, and the driving experience is just sublime.
I'm talking the pursuit of a dude in his (uh, late) 30s who loves these cars too much to choose something else (new 911s look pretty appealing) but wants a more 'refined' FD3s that makes an easy 400+ rwhp while not being a rowdy unlivable racecar.
I really feel like I've gotten there, or almost..... it's never really done is it
?The driving position is so damn important on these cars, and although I rocked the Spirit R seats on my old red FD for many years I suppose I had forgotten how awesome they are. This car has a sunroof---- after only owning an R1, I really do NOT like what the sunroof does for the exterior aesthetics and the interior dimensions of the car.
Having said that, installing the S-R driver's seat was a revelation. Tilt rail is essential, as once I tweaked the adjustably to my liking everything came together-- clutch pedal placement, shifter placement, even the lower seating position really felt so much better than OEM.
One other thing I found that became very important as I continued to mod the car and add things direct to the battery.... grounding.
My battery had been relocated to the rear passenger bin with 4 gauge wire. Initially that was ok with no issues. Added AEM water injection, no problem, added Bosch 044 direct to the battery, and interesting problems--- the AEM water injection LED started to throw a code when WOT tuning, and my ignition (SBG IGN1 grounded to the chassis) showed an odd 'soft ignition lumpiness.' I spoke about this back in a previous post.
I ended up adding a super fatty zero gauge ground wire that I had in a box with a bunch of random parts from my 'Smashed on track real good' VR R1, and ran that from the battery rear bin location forward to the shifter area then under the car until I ran out of slack, ending at the area on the trans where a stock car would have the OEM precat brace bolted to.
WHAM, car ran so much freaking better. It's my belief that the 4 gauge grounding on my battery in the bin was fine when initially done but as more and more demanding systems were added to the car (water injection, big boy fuel pump and most importantly four IGN coils) it just wasn't getting the job done.
Renna and I also took the time to ground the ignition system direct to the battery with some nice beefy four gauge wiring before the high boost tuning.
One other thing I did---- AFAIK all these IGN harnesses don't integrate in the OEM noise suppression condenser that bolts by the ignitor. Small black box with a single black spade connector. I ended up soldering a brand new one procured from Dr. Crowe into the power wire on the harness right before it splits to go to each coil. Did it make a difference? Car's maybe even smoother. Can't say, but I do think it's one of those things (unlike the AST and pre-cat) that Mazda took the time to engineer into the car that I'd like to keep onboard.
It's interesting how each of these cars is different..... I never had a lick of problems in this area with my red FD. That also had the battery in the rear hatch with the previously mentioned serious 'Lex Steele Edition' zero gauge ground wire from day one.
Some random observations on how pleasurable the car is to drive now:
*the tune is just spot on....Renna is a damn master with a laptop. I can lug the car from 2000 rpm and it behaves perfectly. All cells i've spent time in are perfect and show the AFRs you'd want to see. I also love that with these primaries I can lean out idle or cruising with the commander and watch the AFRs change immediately. I've been running low to mid 13s at idle and the car seems to like this better than mid 12s.
*the boost response for such a large turbo is damn nice. Not quite like an EFR I'm sure, but I'm not looking to swap turbo kits right now. Aside from the very good transient response (seems to rival a 35R IMO), I can punch it from 2000 rpm and see 10 psi by 2500 and 15 psi by 3000. Much better than I had expected and I have Sean at A-spec to thank for his attention to detail with creating the turbo kit and the V-mount setup.
*exhaust noise with this current setup is perfect for what i want. At idle and in normal driving, you know it's a performance rotary but there's no drone and you can have a normal conversation in the cabin. When the dual dumped gates crack open you get a little more lovin, but it's still perfectly acceptable. Once they're at full song it's on like donkey kong, but down here with all this wide open space i'm more than OK with it--- it's not echoing off all the buildings and concrete barriers like back home (yes, my tuner has experienced slight hearing loss in his right ear)
*brakes haul the car down from speed with gusto. pedal feel is wonderful with these brembo calipers and the IRP master cylinder stopper. zero noise, dust isn't horrible. win.
*as mentioned, the seating position is just spot on, makes me feel like i'm in a hardtop with plenty of headroom and makes working the clutch and shifter feel perfect.
*all the other little things tie in to make the driving experience satisfying and more streetable/less extreme than other setups I've had in the past. Bosch 044 hot-wired is damn quiet, Exedy twin disc w/light flywheel is awesome to drive and the clutch-in rattling isn't overly intrusive but still there to make you feel like race car driver, the Ohlins are just the perfect street coilover with ability to get on track.
*wheel and tire fitment i really feel is just perfect for a street FD with rolled fenders that actually gets driven on bumpy roads and in real world application. Looks pretty dang flush, zero issues in the back under any circumstances. On the front I've had no fender contact at all, and some minor fender liner contact in a straight line on large bumps when the suspension is pretty soft.
As an aside, I've resolved to keep strict tabs on tire pressure (like I do oil level and water inj level). I was getting quite a lot of contact with the fender liner after adding 5mm spacers in front and once I raised my pressure from 24 hot (whoops) to 34 hot almost all of it went away.
Just to reiterate, (because i'm sure i've posted before) what I've found works for me is
18x9.5 plus 33 with 255/35
18x10 plus 27 with 265/35
This is after rocking thin spacers and there's probably room in the back for 275/35 should you desire a little more width at the expense of a taller OD.
If I really wanted to push the envelope I could probably run plus 25 in front and plus 20 out back and pick up 1/2 an inch more lip at each corner but that would lead to a car that looks awesome in a garage or parked at a car meet but isn't too much fun in real world driving on the street.
On to some poor i-phone photos of little changes i've made, an old school horn button that'll eventually make it's way into the 20B car and the 97th shift **** (ha) that I've tried out.
Oh, and I received a shipment of goodies in from The New Ray Crowe Experience as I continually tweak the engine bay--- replaced perfectly working parts with shiny brand new ones. Things like the water level sensor and the brake booster hardline running on the back of the engine bay firewall. The United States Army taught me the importance of attention to detail and I really think it's the little things that count
Last edited by GoodfellaFD3S; 07-03-16 at 07:07 PM.
