Rotary Amuse Build and Photoblog
#329
Originally Posted by ZoomZoom
Nice to finally see an update and best wishes with the new addition to the family. Hope everyone returns healthy and you enjoy your time off with the family and friends.
Originally Posted by TomU
Yep, those critters have a way of reprioritizing things
Is that your son in your avatar? Cute pic! Any parenting advice? I feel like we've been focusing so much on the pregnancy, but there's not much prep we could put in for parenting
Originally Posted by LO7
Wow, that's a crazy Hendrick seat- I assume that won't fit in your 7..
I'm going offbrand from my decade plus success with Sparco and am going with an OMP HTE-R seat replacement for the Evo. Will be up for sale soon and definitely fits in the FD, if anyone wants to call an early dibs
We checked out a few seats up at HMS, and got to check out this beautiful E30
Originally Posted by Smokey The Talon
Congrats on the addition. As a father of 2 young ones it's tough to find time to work on the car, but still possible.
Any parenting advice?
We're officially one week overdue today, so we're jump starting it all tomorrow. I'll be out of commission for a little while
I'll have some track day and dadchelor party updates posted in between naps, feedings, and the occasional showers and food inhalation
Last edited by ZumSpeedRX-7; 08-22-17 at 08:43 PM.
#330
It Just Feels Right
iTrader: (11)
They don't come with instructions, but you don't need any. If you did, we'd be extinct. Only advice is time will go quick, so enjoy it will you can (even the bad parts). 18 yrs and they are out the door, but by 13, you don't exist (other than as a source for food/money/internet).
#331
Long time on-looker
iTrader: (33)
Young kids are great and they're crazy stressful too. Just remember that everything is a phase both good and bad, so try to focus on the good aspects and weather the storm on the bad.
#332
Originally Posted by TomU
Yes, some time ago. Unfortunately, they grow.
They don't come with instructions, but you don't need any. If you did, we'd be extinct. Only advice is time will go quick, so enjoy it will you can (even the bad parts). 18 yrs and they are out the door, but by 13, you don't exist (other than as a source for food/money/internet).
They don't come with instructions, but you don't need any. If you did, we'd be extinct. Only advice is time will go quick, so enjoy it will you can (even the bad parts). 18 yrs and they are out the door, but by 13, you don't exist (other than as a source for food/money/internet).
You're absolutely right on not needing instructions. There's no other option but to figure it out. I've found there are only so many things she needs: food, sleep, a clean diaper, a cuddle, peace and quiet. I mean she'll scream in my face, but it's always a fun little challenge getting her sorted out.
My wife's out running errands now, so I was able to feed her and get her zonked out and asleep while I catch up on the IMSA GTD/GTLM race from VIR (yea, I'm a little behind on my stories...) and this photoblog. All in all life is good my friend - best thing I've ever done!
How old is your child / children now? Thank you very much for the advice - best of luck with your child/children
My wife did a full newborn session, but in typical me fashion, I couldn't resist setting up my own goofy shot for one
Originally Posted by Smokey The Talon
Balancing the time with the car/track vs. time with the kids/family is always tough. You're going to have times where either gets neglected a bit, but you can still do both. Don't lose your own passion for the car/track, you'll just have to fight a bit harder to get it to work. Hell, I'm about a year behind on needing to make a project thread on my own street/track build..haha.
Young kids are great and they're crazy stressful too. Just remember that everything is a phase both good and bad, so try to focus on the good aspects and weather the storm on the bad.
Young kids are great and they're crazy stressful too. Just remember that everything is a phase both good and bad, so try to focus on the good aspects and weather the storm on the bad.
Thank you very much for the great advice my friend! I know it's going to be crazy ups and downs, but I keep thinking that nothing worth having in life is easy - I know it will be absolutely worth it looking back on the hard times
Shoot me a PM once you create a build thread or dump a few build pics in here. I'd love to see it - always great seeing other track oriented builds! Best of luck with it and stay safe and have fun out on track!
My wife did greenlight one last track day for me this season and possibly an autocross. My younger brother also picked up an Impreza wagon earlier in the year and has been itching for some motorsport fun since I can only imagine how long. He has probably been my biggest motorsport fan since as long as I can remember! He used to draw me Mazdaspeed/Sparco/Mid-Atlantic Trading/Kumho (my original sponsors/contingency partners from back in the day) liveries on a blank FD canvas for my car when he was probably six or so. They used to hang up in the old Garage Rotary Amuse; I'll have to track them down and post up a picture for old time sake. Ridiculously adorable! Crazy to think of how much time has flown by, and that now he's licensed and driving, and now that he wants to race his own car! We're hoping to sign up for an autocross out at Fort Devens with the SCCA in October. Hopefully it comes to fruition
I am also planning on running Palmer Motorsports Park October 29th. The plan is to head out Friday night with the racecar, run all day Saturday, then meet up with the girls and my mother-in-law for some trick-or-treating after. I'm really looking forward to this too, but mostly our first halloween than the track day
In other FD not fully taking the backseat news, I am heading down to Keansburg, NJ in a few weeks to pick up 200 pounds of pure, brand new, RA-937 life renewing / and project refreshing metal! More on that in a little bit - most likely once I catch up on the other updates I've been neglecting
Here's the absolute latest and greatest on the project - rolled out for a start up! Currently rolled back in the garage sitting on a trickle charger
More to come as I get more downtime
Cheers!
Last edited by ZumSpeedRX-7; 08-22-17 at 08:56 PM.
#333
My first event of the season was back in May with COMSCC up at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (seems like ages ago for me at this point, so please bear with me...)
Half day at work Friday before track day, cleaned, packed, and liveried up, trying to beat the early beach season traffic through New Hampshire
Made it up to the track with a lot of time to kill. Spoke with the Security Guard for a while about his time stock car racing, about how he was looking for a new car but it would have to come with divorce papers, and tried to work in a track walk (no go there as they were prepping the track for the next day). Made it out to The Hungry Buffalo for arguably one of the best burgers in the area, chatted up some of the other COM regulars, walked around and checked out the sites, then settled in for a nice workbench night of sleep (there are hotels in the area, but sleeping trackside right next to the FD has a slumber party feel to it)
New curbing around the North Chicane - apparently they weren't fans of the occasional unwanted lawn mower services
Similar view as last year from my garage bay (we are creatures of habit):
T90 class competitor, but I loved this lil Clown Shoe (more on it in a few posts)
Tucked in for the evening
Huge thank you to my sister for the sleeping pad birthday present - great improvement over last year's work bench evening
Not a bad set of bunk mates for the night
A little bit of rain on the tin roof added some nice white noise
Half day at work Friday before track day, cleaned, packed, and liveried up, trying to beat the early beach season traffic through New Hampshire
Made it up to the track with a lot of time to kill. Spoke with the Security Guard for a while about his time stock car racing, about how he was looking for a new car but it would have to come with divorce papers, and tried to work in a track walk (no go there as they were prepping the track for the next day). Made it out to The Hungry Buffalo for arguably one of the best burgers in the area, chatted up some of the other COM regulars, walked around and checked out the sites, then settled in for a nice workbench night of sleep (there are hotels in the area, but sleeping trackside right next to the FD has a slumber party feel to it)
New curbing around the North Chicane - apparently they weren't fans of the occasional unwanted lawn mower services
Similar view as last year from my garage bay (we are creatures of habit):
T90 class competitor, but I loved this lil Clown Shoe (more on it in a few posts)
Tucked in for the evening
Huge thank you to my sister for the sleeping pad birthday present - great improvement over last year's work bench evening
Not a bad set of bunk mates for the night
A little bit of rain on the tin roof added some nice white noise
Last edited by ZumSpeedRX-7; 08-22-17 at 08:45 PM.
#334
Nothing beats waking up trackside with everything set up and the car ready to go. No scrambling - just get out to get teched in and find as much coffee as possible!
It didn't take long for the garages to fill up. My friend Klay (R35 GTR from the Fall 2015 NTD day at Palmer) setup with some new hardware:
New double tiered Voltex wing (Type 5?)
and front splitter making for a more aggressive / sexy look!
Can't get enough of his Advan GTs! ("Oh your TE37s have GTR facing... that's cute - my wheels have concavity and lip for days!")
followed by some of Klay's friends - Matt with a monstrously powered setup R35 (mid 600hp I believe..) The all-season tires might be a bit of a weakness out on track (the car's daily driven - lucky!) - we'll see
and Anthony with a beautiful new Cayman GT-4
We also ran into Anthony ("MrNSX") with his NA1 (who I met and saw last in 2014 at a Fort Devens autocross)
and Dan with his NA2 (who I met at Larz Anderson last fall)
and Jacob with his getting prepped for road racing STi (peaking out behind the NA2)
As for the track day, I don't have many documentary pictures. I kept my head down and game face on and focused on perfecting my lines, acceleration and braking transitions, heel/toe primarily coming into T1 transitioning out of the oval into the infield, and trail braking primarily setting up for getting into the fishbowl / T6 to T7. I had my mind set on getting everything right as best as I could to hopefully get signed off for my competition license with my instructor Dave.
Session 1 went well as I got reacquainted with the FD for the season and NHMS. Great feedback from Dave for where I could tuck in my lines, carry more speed
Session 2 dial it in more; less about speed, more about cleanliness
Lunch and coffee
Session 3 headed out solo
Session 4 I focused on keeping it clean, connecting my braking, turn in, apex clips, and acceleration points. It all came together as Dave had a smile and handshake for me when I picked up my log book with Recommend License! (!!!)
"Incredibly fun ride!" raves Dave LeMoine of COMSCC; "Competition licensed" signs COM's Chief Instructor Will Martins
Doesn't seem like much maybe, but it felt like a lot of time and work to get licensed. Now on to some solo fun out on track!
Fun group photo - not a bad line up for upper New England
and tucked back in at Garage Rotary Amuse
It didn't take long for the garages to fill up. My friend Klay (R35 GTR from the Fall 2015 NTD day at Palmer) setup with some new hardware:
New double tiered Voltex wing (Type 5?)
and front splitter making for a more aggressive / sexy look!
Can't get enough of his Advan GTs! ("Oh your TE37s have GTR facing... that's cute - my wheels have concavity and lip for days!")
followed by some of Klay's friends - Matt with a monstrously powered setup R35 (mid 600hp I believe..) The all-season tires might be a bit of a weakness out on track (the car's daily driven - lucky!) - we'll see
and Anthony with a beautiful new Cayman GT-4
We also ran into Anthony ("MrNSX") with his NA1 (who I met and saw last in 2014 at a Fort Devens autocross)
and Dan with his NA2 (who I met at Larz Anderson last fall)
and Jacob with his getting prepped for road racing STi (peaking out behind the NA2)
As for the track day, I don't have many documentary pictures. I kept my head down and game face on and focused on perfecting my lines, acceleration and braking transitions, heel/toe primarily coming into T1 transitioning out of the oval into the infield, and trail braking primarily setting up for getting into the fishbowl / T6 to T7. I had my mind set on getting everything right as best as I could to hopefully get signed off for my competition license with my instructor Dave.
Session 1 went well as I got reacquainted with the FD for the season and NHMS. Great feedback from Dave for where I could tuck in my lines, carry more speed
Session 2 dial it in more; less about speed, more about cleanliness
Lunch and coffee
Session 3 headed out solo
Session 4 I focused on keeping it clean, connecting my braking, turn in, apex clips, and acceleration points. It all came together as Dave had a smile and handshake for me when I picked up my log book with Recommend License! (!!!)
"Incredibly fun ride!" raves Dave LeMoine of COMSCC; "Competition licensed" signs COM's Chief Instructor Will Martins
Doesn't seem like much maybe, but it felt like a lot of time and work to get licensed. Now on to some solo fun out on track!
Fun group photo - not a bad line up for upper New England
and tucked back in at Garage Rotary Amuse
Last edited by ZumSpeedRX-7; 08-22-17 at 08:46 PM.
#344
Originally Posted by Spirit Rx-7
damn, can't believe i never seen this thread, subsribed! amazing build
Originally Posted by briansfd
Update?
Usually I'd prefer to do full writes up with pictures, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to get to it. Bear with me on the minimalistic approach, and I'll do cliffnotes with some high level pictures for now with full stories to hopefully follow eventually:
Carpet and sound deadening removed
A new set of heat cycled tires on standby
Track day at Whiskey Hill Raceway with Tommy, Klay, Jacob, and Anthony
My last lap of the season under a full course yellow
Dadchelor party go kart session
Brand new 13b
Winter go karting session with the gang
Heading to WGI this weekend for an AER endurance race with the McParland Motorsport S2000 and planning for my first track of the season June 3rd at Palmer
Originally Posted by Ricebox
Beautiful car and great photos
what tow hook are you running?
what tow hook are you running?
Last edited by ZumSpeedRX-7; 08-22-17 at 08:48 PM.
#346
The new engine is a spare for now, and the engine currently in the car (Mazda reman with 47k miles) will be built as a backup once it's pulled
Next on the mod list is a new fix mounted seat
How's your season going? Your FD is coming along really well with the new suspension and single turbo setup
Next on the mod list is a new fix mounted seat
How's your season going? Your FD is coming along really well with the new suspension and single turbo setup