Did you stop looking at the tally long ago? A 911 GT3 or R8 wouldn't compare to your FD, IMO. I wish I had my own vehicle when I come to Florida (Flying into Sarasota airport on the 8th) so I could possibly see this amazing vehicle. Hopefully Tuesday you get the call from Jesus and you can finish this thread once and for all.

 

David, congrats with such an epic build. The you tube video will not to any justice as it will in person. It must be really awesome to drive it around. Can't wait for you to really open it up, hear and feel what's it like. Keep us updated. Maybe some day I can see that beast in person?

 

Ys, I stopped looking at the tally of money a long, long time ago. It's probably more than I posted but I can't bear to add up the actual invoices. My guess is about $50K of the money was wasted and spent on items not done right in the first place or on items not needed. If there were to be a next time, I would handle this much much differently.

Regarding driving it, I'm looking forward to this week and to picking up the car. Given my experience though I expect something to come up and delay the project. Hopefully I will be wrong but we'll see. FYI - I am an optimist in life but a realist with the RX7

 

I'm sure your not sleeping well wiating for that call... LOL LOL

 

I am going down to Orlando on Thursday to pick up the car. Jesus has an alternator issue and it was due back from the repair shop yesterday so I deferred going down then. Thought giving Jesus the extra day to ensure everything is okay was a good idea.

Other than that, he says we're ready to go. He's been driving the car around and feels very good about it. I'll be there by mid-morning tomorrow and we'll go through the car to ensure everything is good and then we're heading to the dyno for a few runs and some tuning. It's then on the road back to Jacksonville.

 

Congratulations David. Excellent to hear that it's *crosses fingers* finally done.

 

ME! You guys would be sick to know how very little I have in the car. It's in good shape, a lot of miles, 2nd engine, running good, but of course needs boost control(s). I bought it crashed in the front, but got it cheap. And have done ALL but the body work and painting to the car since then. Not gloating. Just trying to put some perspective to the quote above.

I'd feel guilty spending too much money on this FD. I've got a wife, 3 sons, and a mortgage who have priority. I'll spend money on the FD when reasonable. Helluva car in the meantime, but nothing like the 3 rotor beast that this thread is all about!

 

I've started on my building adventure recently and have put in almost 15k I figure in less than a year. I'll be the first to admit its a stupid move but this has been a dream of mine for a long time so it must be done. I wish I knew how to wrench so I could be more a part of its growth but what are you gonna do, I just leave it to the pros. Owning an FD is awesome and I now understand why we do the things we do. I can't imagine how you must feel David with your 20b. Its been a real pleasure reading this thread. You are an inspiration to me and a poster child for what I can become. Thank You I think.

I salute all of you 100k+ owners.

 

Off to Orlando in about an hour to pick up the car!

 

Good luck David

 

David, we wish you the best! Have an awsome trip back!

 

Congrats and look forward to the trip report and pics..

 

^Good luck!

We the people demand a video of this car!

 

Maybe you covered this in the post already but didn't read it. What about insurance? If you need help I can give you a #.

 

We want a lot of pics! I'm a bit excited for you!

 

Wow I'm excited for you :0

 

I think we need to change the title of this thread to "David Hayes FD 20B Conversion Adventures"

Looking for to ecstatically happy update once David finishes driving it.

 

wow!!! I cant wait to hear the update. This is going to be one sweet machine. I do love 911's but I would seriously have trouble picking one over a well built 20b FD. I am changing careers and once I get up and going and back on my feet, I so cant wait to have a build like this......well, not quite like this but you know what I am saying. Goodluck David.

 

David,
When all is said and done, and you are out enjoying your car, as well you should. Maybe you could start a new thread with the do's and don'ts of the 20b conversion.
I have to believe that you can list a lot of things you would do differently or better next time. It would be a great asset for those of us who are considering, or may consider in the future a 20b conversion.
Anyway, congrats on a one of a kind, beautiful car. Enjoy it. Life is short.

 

2nd. that big time hanman.

 

David, I didn't get to see that last dyno run but I heard it went well. I bet you had a lot of fun driving home downloading apps for your iphone. 0-60?

 

It was nice meeting you David. Your car really looks great up close. I never thought the pettit fender flares were that nice since I had only seen them in pictures. I guess I'll let you fill in the #'s you made, congrats again!

 

So...drum roll please...the car is home! Made it back last night. The trip back was mixed with excitement and anxiety. Had fun but kept wondering, after my four year experience, what would go wrong. Nothing was the answer

Met up with Jesus around noon yesterday. Like usual, he had the car out front ready to go. Spent some time going over the car with him ensuring all punch list items were completed. The only issue we have is the powder coated alternator was not ready to go. I asked Jesus to match the alternator with the powder coating on the rest of the car. Unfortunately when the powder coating was applied, something happened to the internals and the alternator does not work. It is now over at the alternator shop being repaired and when it is ready, I'll go back down to swap it out with the one currently on the car. Bought a trick rotary alternator pulley from Pettit that will look nice on the powder coated unit. For now, the temp unit works just fine but looks ugly.

Hooked up with Noel (Salva) from the forum as he came over to check out the car. Nice hanging out with you Noel. We all drove over to Delirium Racing to dyno the car. As background, I obviously haven't driven the car much and the closest thing I've had to drive over the last few years is my wife's Miata, or her "sports car" as she calls it Needless to say, the triple disc carbon clutch in the RX7 is quite different than the Miata's and much to my shame, I stalled twice on the way over to the dyno place. Got a nice smile out of Jesus though.

Speaking of Jesus, major major props to the guy. The car is tuned fantastically and drives very OEM like. It is smooth with no hesitation. Thought I would throw him for a loop by saying "yeah, but how about with the AC on"? No problems as he turned on the AC and the car still runs flawlessly. Jesus is the consummate professional and his ethics are extremely high. He does what he says he is going to do. I highly recommend him to all of you in FL. Call him at Kilo Racing at 407.438.5467 and you will be very impressed. How cool is he? When I left last night, I needed to take several toll roads and he gave me his e-pass so I didn't have to stop at the toll booths. "Just mail it back to me tomorrow" he said. How many people would do this? He also did a ton of extra work on the car that he didn't charge me for. I am very happy to know he is a close drive away.

So back at the dyno, we had to wait about 1.5 hours on a Neon SRT to get off the dyno. Sounded pretty good but come on, waiting for a Neon? This is life I guess. The dyno place did have a trick 3rd gen race car there that was pretty cool. Finally finally got the car on the dyno and strapped down. Here is a link to the engine idling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYoB2TjF3BA

And here is a link to one of the dyno runs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1_Yrbz_Exg

The results? At 14 PSI and at a max of 6,800 RPMs, the car dyno'd in at 525 WHP and a little over 460 ft. lbs. of torque.



Note on the dyno sheet it says the torque was much higher than 460. That is because the ground clip was not secure and it rattled during the run, throwing off the number. Also, note that HP is a straight line up and doesn't fall off. We'd get higher HP numbers if Jesus continued the run up to higher RPM levels but we stopped there because we weren't comfortable with the AFR readings we were getting. My wideband (brand new) showed AFRs in the low 10s but the shop's wideband was showing AFRs in the low 11s. Our secondary issue was Jesus was not comfortable that he has the Synapse wastegate unit on my car controlled properly. The Synapse unit works differently than a normal unit and has to be hooked up in a particular manner. We have to get back to Synapse on this to verify my Greddy Prospec II unit is controlling the wastegate. Once we do this, I'll be back to the dyno to complete the 14 PSI run and to turn up the boost a little bit more. For now, I'll have to be happy with just 525 WHP

So, that's the end to the saga for now. I'm going to spend the day with "the other woman" as my wife calls it, cleaning and generally pampering the car. I then think I'll go out for a drive!

 

Glad you have it home.

 

Some random exterior shots: