jorts17

Earlier this year I decided that purchasing a C6Z was a good, but not great decision. The Corvette was surprisingly fun to drive and sounded great, but never felt special to me and did not have the "edgy" feeling that some of my favorite cars have had.

So...I decided to put the Z up for sale and think about what was next. I always had the idea of an FD in the back of my head, but never assumed I would own one because of the general state of most of them. I was leaning towards going back to an Evo 9 (I had a white 9MR that was probably the only car I've ever missed after selling) when I found out a friend of a friend had a clean "CYM" (actually a Giallo Orion respray on the outside and CYM everywhere else) that he would consider letting go........

When considering the purchase, my requirements for an FD were:

• LHD
• Rotary only
• No sunroof
• Not a complete pile
• Not so stock that I would regret modding it
• Not so clean that I would never ever want to pull it out of the garage

Lucky for me, the car in question more or less checked all of the boxes and already had a ton of well thought out parts put on it. In fact, most of the work had been completed 2 owners ago and was documented on here. The 2 subsequent owners had spent most of their time replacing small parts and cleaning up things here and there.

After salivating over the car for a few weeks we finally hammered out a deal and I had it shipped to my house. When it arrived, it was even cleaner than I hoped. It was clear that multiple owners put tons of time and thought into keeping the car in good shape, and most importantly keeping the spirit of the FD intact but turned up to 11.

Part of me felt weird buying a car with so many mods and work done that didn't come from me (aka bought not built inferiority syndrome LOL). But like any car there is still more to do here.

As the next steward of this FD, the goal is to fully transform this into my "Perfect FD street car" by:

• Maintaining the original spirit of the FD, with the wick turned up and some more modernized parts
• Replacing some of the existing mods with others I prefer
• Making it even more fun and more responsive to drive (where possible)
• Continuing to keep it clean and in great shape like the previous owners did

Anyway, thanks for reading this novel... Here are some pictures of the FD the day I got it. I've had it for a few months so will be posting some updates very shortly.

jorts17

Recaro RS-G Alcantara
One of the first and most important mods for a car IMO are the seats. Especially for, uh, Japanese-sized people like me putting in a proper seat can totally transform how a car feels. I've had personal experience with multiple Bride seats in past cars (Zeta III, Zeta III Type-L, Stradia II, Zieg III Type-R) and sat in a few of your more typical Recaros (Pole Position, SPG III, SR-7) and nothing has ever fit me quite as perfectly as the RS-Gs. Plus, I think that Recaro Japan uses nicer fabric (at least when talking about the Kamui and above) when compared to Bride's seats.

This time around, I knew I wanted to stay with the RS-G but opted for the Alcantara version that covers the entire seat in gray Alcantara, some of it punched. In person, these seats look flat out awesome. I'm not sure I'd want to sit in Alcantara seats if this were a daily driver, but at 2,000 miles per year or so the wear should be manageable.

I paired these with some PCI brackets and sliders. Being a first-time FD owner and not having spent a ton of time around them before my purchase, it was pretty crazy seeing how difficult it is to fit seats in this car. Like, it's definitely harder than an S2000 which is certainly not the easiest. But once they got in, the RS-Gs fit great and don't hit anything.

IRPerformance

iTrader: (41)

Congrats on the purchase. That car has been through my way before. Its a nice example.

TwinCharged RX7

iTrader: (14)

You got one of the best FDs out there. Old build thread was great.

Manny_Apex

iTrader: (1)

As soon as I saw the CYM on those Work Meisters, I went thru my subscribed threads and its the exact thread you shared on your first post. Congrats on the pick up, very well thought out car!

c0rbin9

iTrader: (2)

Very nice looking car

jorts17

Thanks - I have you guys to thank for the new turbo and working AC! As well as some premix and oil I ordered recently haha.

Thanks guys - this car has really been taken care of and thoughtfully modded for sure. Proud I can (hopefully) continue the trend.

Akomix

iTrader: (5)

The original build thread was a huge inspiration for my own. Super excited to see what you do with it.

ZE Power MX6

iTrader: (157)

Nice pick up! I remember that build thread, would love to see what have changed since the last update we saw and what you have plan for it.

jorts17

Thanks! Honestly not a lot has changed as far as I know, mostly because everything was so thoughtfully done the first time around. Some more interior panels have been replaced with OEM items and a complete new engine harness (motorsports style not OEM) are the two most significant changes I'm aware of.

The largest item I want to address is redoing the turbo system. I'll still keep the EWG EFR 8374 (which is the exact turbo I would have chosen if doing this from scratch) but want to improve some of the hard parts and re-plumb most of the lines.

I'm also going to tweak the suspension a little, change the clutch and swap in a shorter 5th gear. Just to make it drive even more how I'd like it to.

suzukisteve

iTrader: (4)

I'll trade you for my 5 speed Rx-8 transmission . Personally not a fan of the short 5th gear. Love the car though. Sub'd

aplscrambles

iTrader: (7)

Awesome car. I remember following zoom-zoom's original build a couple years ago. A number of things I took inspiration on for my own build. Agree 100% on the jdm .806 5th gear. Did the swap on my 8374 equipped fd, perfect ratio spacing now. Still reasonable hwy rpms.

jorts17

That is great to hear. Based on plugging everything into a gear calculator it looked like things wouldn't be too bad but it's even better to hear someone else agree. Since the car is not driven all the time I would rather have some proper spacing than a really tall/quiet-ish top gear anyway.

Resuming the backlog of updates here -- It seems like a lot of you really liked the Work Meisters on the car but they were actually one of the parts I liked the least. I thought the stagger was too much (8.5" fronts, 10" rear) and I have never personally cared much for wheels with either a polished or diamond cut lip. So I sent the Meisters back to the previous owner and threw on a new set of wheels:

Rays Volk ZE40RW, 18x10 +38
What's worse to keep clean than a wheel with a polished lip? Oh yeah, a white wheel. Lol. These look excellent though and fit my desire to have a set with a lot less stagger, lose some weight and suit my eye more. The white really pops against the yellow and the Redot detailing looks great. I had a set of Bronze ZE40s on my Evo and since those, the CNC work that Rays puts in around the lip with their name has grown to look even better as well. Pretty cool.





I had the wheels coated with OptiCoat and then threw on a fresh set of Dunlop ZIIs. These tires are not the most aggressive 200tw out there, but since this is not a track car or anything they should be just fine and will live a little longer than something like an A052. I usually go for the AD08Rs when possible but the Dunlops had better sizing for my needs.



When installing these, the front fenders were already rolled so there was no need to do any work there. A couple friends of mine helped do a light roll on the rear though - but you can tell these fit great even with a big 275/35 on the rear. It's crazy how much tire you can fit on these cars.


After the car was on the ground I was definitely happy with how it looks. The ride height needs some tweaks since the tire heights have changed a little bit, but that will come soon. The white is great, but my dream spec is still a simple silver 5 or 6 spoke wheel. Unfortunately, nobody seems to care about making a wheel in a really nice silver off the shelf and special order times are nuts right now.

JP3 Motorsports

We know this car well .. congrats on the buy.

c0rbin9

iTrader: (2)

What do you think of Desmond Regamasters? Seems like those fit the bill as a simple five-spoke wheel that comes in silver... they're also forged and very light. And they're currently remanufacturing them, I believe. S2000 offsets will fit FDs, though the center bore is bigger - not sure if that would present a safety issue.

jorts17

Thanks. I just put in an order for some JP3 goodies a few days ago btw!

I like the Regas and was looking at a staggered 9.5/10 setup with them. The larger centerbore is not a big deal - they're pretty much all a 73mm bore on the Rays too. The only thing that stopped me with the Regas is I was able to special order a set of Advan GT Premiums in Hyper Silver....although the lead is like 12 months.

IMAGINETHAT

iTrader: (1)

Congrats man ! A pocket listing on one of the most beautiful FD's to grace these forums. Like many, it was an inspirational build
and attention to detail was second to none. Enjoy !

V8FD3s

iTrader: (2)

I've never been a fan of CYM until this year. And this car helps reinforce the new found fondness of it. Great color! Nice find - congrats!

TwinCharged RX7

iTrader: (14)

This one's not actually CYM haha

jorts17

Yep, the exterior on this one is actually Giallo Orion, although the bay, jams, etc are CYM. Honestly the current color looks a little better as it’s less pale than CYM, but if I cross 5 years with this car I may do a complete CYM repaint for originality’s sake.

jorts17

Small update here - one of my plans over the winter is to change up the turbo system on the car a little bit. Nothing is completely wrong with it now, especially considering the EWG 8374 on the car currently is exactly what I would have bought with my own money. However, the fit and finish of the kit aren't quite what I am going for and there are some other various things I want to tweak to my liking. So a few parts to help this plan along have shown up:

Turblown Cast EWG Manifold
I'm not really a huge fan of the current manifold for a couple of reasons. One is that a few of the welds around the wastegate are pretty undercut and could be a cracking point over time (although being honest there are 0 signs of cracking and this is more of a nitpick). More importantly though, my current manifold has a single 50mm gate and I really want a twin gate manifold to take complete advantage of the twin scroll effect. I may be losing a small amount of response since the existing manifold is a single gate and the wastegate merge is not divided. The twin gates should in theory also give me a little more fidelity when controlling the boost as well, which is nice because I'll be adding a trim switch along with the new turbo setup. So, enter the Turblown manifold.



Overall, the finish on this piece is really solid. The flanges are all nicely machined and the casting quality is pretty good. This will provide the base for an updated turbo setup and will have a downpipe, charge piping, etc. fabricated by Origin Fabrication in North GA. While I was at it, I decided to snag a new hotside heat shield for the 8374 as well. This should ultimately perform a little better and save a lot more space compared to the blanket that is currently on the car.

jorts17

Ok, another exciting (for me at least) update to hand out. With the weather getting colder, the timing was great to get the car into the shop and make a few changes. There are tons of great parts on this car already, but I wanted to change a few based on some of my preferences and make this into my ultimate street FD. First, we dove into the suspension and brakes:

JRZ RS Pro
The FD came with a set of Ohlins R&Ts on it, but it has always been an ambition of mine to own a set of JRZs. I doubt for mainly street and mountains use the difference will be significant, but this is something I have always wanted to do and represents something very close to a true top-tier motorsports shock that can still be adapted well to street use. With that goal in mind, after consulting with JRZ I chose 10k rates front and rear, which are actually softer than the OTS Ohlins rates. In person the shocks have a nicer finish than the Ohlins (to be expected, since Ohlins is able to offer such a great shock for a reasonable price) but at the end of the day it's what is inside that counts, so I'm looking forward to driving on the JRZs. Just need to figure out where to mount the canisters first. The only downside is that I want to buy Japanese parts where possible, but even most of Japan doesn't run Japanese shocks on their vehicle...ha






Endless Mono 4
I am 100% an Endless fanboy. Their brakes have about the highest level of finish of any single part I've ever seen or owned. The finish on the rotors, the anodizing on the calipers, etc is just next level compared to your typical Stoptech, AP, Project Mu, etc. Of course this does not mean they're better performing, but wow do they just feel cool to own. The piston sizing on the Mono 4s is also closer to OEM, which should bring the brake bias more into check when compared to the AP 8350s, even after you account for the 355mm rotor on the Endless kit. My kit was spec'd with black anodized rotor hats to better match what's in the rear of the car and will use MX-72 Plus pads to keep things reasonable on the street.







Sakebomb Rear Rotors/Endless lines and MX-72 Plus pads
When the car arrived in my hands, the rear brakes needed a little love. One side had the nice JDM vented dust shield, one didn't. One side had a black painted caliper, the other didn't. Both sides had some cheaper drilled rotors and mystery meat pads. So to solution this, I added the sakebomb rear rotor kit (nice 2-piece, will help correct brake bias with some extra leverage) and called in Endless to replace the pads with MX-72s to match the front and also added Endless rear brake lines for good measure. On top of this, I rebuilt and repainted both rear calipers so they're about as fresh as possible and matching in color.

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Top notch kit! Got me waffling on my coilover and brake choices. Those wheel wells deserve a degreasing, if you're gonna put art in there.

EREBUS

Beautiful hardware!!
I also try to always buy Japanese parts where possible!

You will be very happy with those JRZs!
10K will be plenty nice for the street

silverTRD

iTrader: (36)

Nice parts man! I was looking at those coilovers yesterday actually, drooling I should say. I just don’t think I’ll ever notice a difference over Ohlins. Your brakes are just pure parts ****!