GPS08 will be moved to the center channel - thanks for the headsup Costas




Not the flush mount I had in mind for the dash - I had thought the bracket would have worked with the concavity, but apparently not




Have a final game plan for the HVAC Panel (one touch HVAC dehumidifier, rearview camera on/off, Elite USB port, OEM hazard button moved over, USB type c phone charger)

 

Wow, coming along nicely. I'm glad to see the older lower brackets are still holding with the lower cross brace addition. I forgot you had the big SS tow hooks with your kit. The inside of your car is so sick, can't wait to see it in some tuner magazines.

 

Thank you for the kind words, Ben

This is the only tuner magazine I'd want to be in - RX Tuner next to you and Amemiya-san




You inspired me to head to my basement this morning and look through my 25-year and counting collection of tuner magazines. Tripped over this pretty cool short lived but a bad *** to have ever existed at all rotary-powered publication

I might have done it in an earlier post, but am going to dust off my magazines and post up some of my favorite RX-7 features over the decades (lookin' at you Danny McVee and one of my favorite cat's to my mouse Clunkers)


I do appreciate the vote of confidence, but I think my obscure corner of RX-7club is about right for my build


I'd say this is my aspirational bar for when I'd agree I am at feature level - that bar is very high these days (my build's at Turbo Magazine 1999 grade - and even that's a stretch)



In other rotary track rat related news,



APB CANADIAN ROTARY RACE FANS NEAR MONT TREMBLANT

Our rotary motorsport friend Jamie needs your help this weekend with an alternator

Anyone in the Mont Tremblant / Montreal / Ottawa area with an FD alternator to spare this weekend through Sunday?

I will throw in a 12-pack of your choice and will throw in one (ONE!) "Go Habs!"


For the low low price of one alternator for the weekend you can help this RX-7 find it's way back to it's natural habitat

And yes, old schoolers will recognize this CYM as John Levy's old car

 

What battery isolator or kill switch and fire system are you using? Really like the attention to detail here! Never though to mount a power steering cooler there.

 

Thanks Simon

All credit on the power steering cooler design to @rotaryextreme / Mr. Ben Meeker three posts up

Awesome add on he did for me (along with the built in tow hook braces) with a custom for twin turbos Monster V-mount intercooler kit





Battery Isolator's a Cartek XR









Fire suppression's a Lifeline Zero 360 Novec 1230 2.25kg FIA Electrical Fire Suppression System






External button mounts for both

 

Wow thanks for the kind words bro. That might have been chuck with the gold lettering rotary extreme I took over in 2008. I wanted to do so much with it but I wasn't that business savvy as Chuck. Still I tried my best. Yeah builds are crazy nowadays. I just want to make my car my dream car from when I was in the late 90s again. And the power steering cooler was placed there because there's a small Gap between the vm that provides fresh air to it and also the vents on the hood helps extract the hot air out. Can't wait to see how you modify it for the single turbo and I'm right there behind you with mine lol.

 

Update - Jamie has been all sorted







We had talked about a few options, and a few Japanese ones came to mind with some recommendations from Costas. I had thought I had secured a 140 amp upgrade with the credit of my OEM core, but was happy to see it was never added.

I went with an ADVANCE high efficiency 130A and Jamie went with an ARD low resistance high output 150amp for his relocated Built2Apex setup


Detail on Jamie's ARD







looks similar to the detail on my ADVANCE using a Mitsubishi 9G coil















Both alternators look like good options, and I'll be happy to test them both and report back on them over the long term



In other news, I ended up selling my remanufactured engine to Jamie. Looking forward to tearing open my old heart with him. That engine and I have had many miles and smiles together and I am excited it's going to a good, new home to be revived and enjoyed longer

Jamie has a set of 18x10 +50 squared CCW Classic wheels that we had talked about a deal for his cash plus wheels for my engine on. I had initially proposed and pushed that deal but had backed myself into a bit of a corner with my rolled rear fenders and +25mm front fenders (shoehorned 10.5 / 9.5 +22's all around) on fitment versus his stock body FD perfect +50 285 all around size.

He measured them up for me to ensure fitment on the AP Racing 5000R's too

 

I considered rebarreling them to better fit, but felt it was more than I wanted to bite off on dialing in the set up and refinishing them to match my previous Brent Dalton sourced wide 17" setup

For me and CCW, it might be better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all




versus TE37's 18x9.5 +22 with +25 fenders




and 18x10.5 +22 rear rolled fenders




Some fall foliage leaf peeping with a trip down memory lane out on Palmer Motorsports Park / Whiskey Hill Raceway








and back to Tony's S2000 as a reminder to grab him a new Rotary Amuse number plate




and some more of Tommy's NA1 NSX (pic 1 in this post from Larz Anderson) while I am in these folders for a primer of our autocross day

 

Ordered that alternator from RHDJapan and always have a tendency to add on a few pieces to make the shipping worth it

A few Super Now components with the cheese bracket and rear sway bar brace to reorient the rear setup

Thanks to Mike (FD3RS) on this recco







And another FEED oil cap "on the house because we don't know why it faded"




A few pieces to horde Super Now then a few more Super Later

 

Updated SitRep - the time hasn't necessarily come, but I had worked with Clay Warner of Verus this past Friday on sorting out the 3.0" and 2.5" hoses, pancake pieces, and couplers dismantling a GR86

They were delivered bright and early this morning - can't beat that kind of service






Brought up a few pieces out of the dragon's horde because nerds gonna nerd

Double checked center flow direction








As I mentioned earlier, I am not planning to run these fully ducted initially, but will have the provisions in place

I mean, these J-hooks take 24 hours of abuse from Platinum drivers - how much of a beating can I possibly give them?!

The plan is to grab this area next to the radiator endtank, and do a side duct similar to what Renna did back in the day (bootleg yellow and red side profile doodle below)




My wife gave me a hand while our son was sleeping

Haven't seen these (dusty) beauties in a while

Front 18x9.5 +22




Looks like I have some room to spare for a set of fiscally (more) responsible 17" practice set down the road








Correction - both of our boys were sleeping

 

Ordered a carbon polyweave splitter grind kit as well

I have never gotten that low to scrape my front diffuser, but these will be a non-aerodynamic penalty addition for insurance








I have primarily bottomed out (just about destroying my driver side TCP Magic <3 diffuser end plates) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway's right hander getting out of the infield on the uphill right hander






Again - nerds gonna nerd




You can actually hear the bottoming out around 1min25seconds here



Full kit's gettin' there

Matching AP Racing 5000R CP9451 with 340mm rotors kit is underway from SBG





More updates from a BMWCCA autocross event with the E92 later

 

Back to my old stomping grounds






I was hoping to end my motorsport season with a track day in the FD, but an autocross with the E92 will have to do

Went out to Fort Devens up in Ayer with BMWCCA Boston Chapter and my brother Hunter and Tommy, and Brian and his son came out





Disengage dad mode




and repurposed my old Street Modified 2 number plate for Hunter (937 to 445)





Tommy didn't end up bringing his NA1 out




but took his new daily driver NC MX-5 on AD09's





This was Hunter's first autocross event in his E36 M3

Forgot about that plastic moling trim when I did the number plate - we'll get him a proper RA one next season





Morning sessions were a lot of fun hopping in and out of eachother's cars for runs together

Hunter's blue M3 on the left, Tommy's black MX-5 in front, me in the white E92 coming back in from a run





Hunter's in the process of reviving an old drift missile into a grip monster - that M3 has some great potential

My brother ended up dropping 7.3 seconds between his morning sessions and his afternoon sessions, cleaning it all up to drop 8.347 total from the morning


He has given me so much help over the years on getting me ready for my autocross and track days. It was great to finally have him out there with me behind the wheel

Solid first event in the books for him, with his goal to get his feet wet autocrossing to eventual get out for some HPDE's and time trials









It's better to be a racer for a day than a spectator for a lifetime

 

Tommy and I had gone back and forth besting eachother with each run - chipping away on our own personal bests




Tommy ended up taking a ride with me, and he said something had clicked for him

Not sure what exactly he got from watching me, but he ended up dropping 2.6 seconds from run to run, and carried that speed and chipped away on perfecting it




Great job my friend! Maybe we'll carve up some cones in the NA1 next season, but if not the MX-5 is (no surprise!) a natural





This old salt has still got it



I finished 2nd in class on all-season tires and OEM BMW brake pads, without paying any mind to tire pressure adjustments



Never considered it for anything more than to get my motorsports (motorsports in lowercase versus FD all caps) fix while I waited, but Bianca (E92) has more potential than I initially thought...

I have some points to spare for modifications to stay in and properly compete in my class, and may just have to grab some stickier tires, proper brake pads, and possibly sway bars to balance out some of that body roll...

You know, all the things you don't do with a glorified grocery getting baby hauler





On the build front, the FD is still coming together

I am heading down to the shop in a few weeks to drop the alternator off, tie up some loose ends, and get a better sense of how we're looking for break-in miles, tuning, and delivery

 

 

Rick, would you happen to have a part number on hand for those MSI wheel studs? Their website shows a "normal" and "long" variant. I'm assuming you went with the long stud, but just wanted to make sure.
I just realized you had a lexan/polycarbonate rear hatch. Anything I should keep in mind if I end up having one installed?

Those rear sway bar spacers, are they something that is advised for a vehicle with a lowered ride height? saw a set on Yahoo Japan the other day and was wondering what exactly they were designed to do.

One last thing, could you do me a huge favor and let me know the height of your brake caliper from the mounting surfaces on the bottom to the top of the bridge? Want to compare with the height of my calipers and see if I will run into any issues with radial wheel clearance if I step up to a 355mm rotor. The technical drawing for the CP9960 (iirc) doesn't have it. I don't think I will have any issues with it but I don't want to find out after purchasing a rotor and making brackets/hats .

 

MSI number 10.0002, 3.5" overall, $13.25 each + $25 shipping

Looks like their website might be down, but they were responsive here sales@msirp.com




Picture doesn't scale well - are those MSI's in your hub or are you just happy to see me?! : )





I am going to re-caulk it and swap out the hardware, and try to add an OEM rear glass weatherstrip if I can

I would recommend some sort of abrasion resistant coating, and for the long haul it needs a special polycarbonate cleaner

Overall nothing too crazy, wish I grabbed another FAL when I could but that UK company looks good too











Reference on the abrasion resistance I went with on my lexan side windows - Monogal AR

"provide excellent UV, scratch, and high impact resistance, making it ideal for exterior applications and environments that are subject to adverse conditions. AR sheets feature 2UV resistant and of are available with one and two-sided abrasion resistant coatings."





I have only ever seen them on lowered cars, talked with Mike about his briefly, but believe they would be advisable on a lowered FD.

I believe you may be getting to preload and corner balancing? I had talked about (posts here, between #211 and 215) disconnecting my end-links or only one side when I go to corner balance my new set up, as this will further change the geometry - all a continuation of mastering the dark arts that is suspension tuning for me



Those Performance Frictions were quite an acquisition and the pad options look great for keeping down consumables! What brake bias calculator are you using?

Eyeballing it with the 355's on mine I think you'll be good, but agree measure thrice!

This may be the drawing you a referring to? Let me know if this gets you what you're looking for and if not I'll dig them out and grab a ruler

 

Thanks for the wheel stud P/N's. I might need to add that bracket to the "suspension and brake" section of my spreadsheet!
I used the TCE Performance (dual MC) calculator. https://www.tceperformanceproducts.com/dual-bias-calc/ to get simulated data on bias, rotor torque and all of that fun stuff.
Some estimations had to be made (like CG height and fore/aft weight dist. and pad coefficient of friction) but I think it gives me a good starting point. Make sure to account for fuel and driver in your weight estimations!
In my case I simulated the PFC ZR22 front with a 355mm rotor, ZR20 rear with a 340mm rotor.

I figure if I am having issues w/ desired pedal travel I can address them by messing with the MC bores.

I was initially looking at a 323x32 on the front but I really didn't want to go through having to duct them and figured that since I am working on the mounting bracket, now would be the time to do it, hence the increase to a 355x32. If the folks with the 996/997 cup cars can run 355's ain't no reason I can't!




I have marked the areas that I need to find the dimensions of. Specifically the height. My ZR22 is 69.9mm in height from the mounting area to the tallest part of the caliper.

Fun fact: both your CP9960 and my ZR22 share the same mounting center and offset dimensions!


Thanks again!

 

Big caveat - as you can see from the scrap tools I have to approximate this, I would use this as a back pocket comparison only

From the bottom of the bolt hole mounting area to the top center of the bridge, I am getting (super bootleg!) 3.1875" / 80.96mm measurement, approximately 11mm taller than your ZR22








Big thanks to my wife for the help and the "what are you doing, who's Simon, and what are you looking for me to confirm alignment on?!" <3


Heading down to the shop bright and early 4:00am tomorrow

 

Rick, thank you (and your wife) for going through the trouble of digging the caliper out and doing the measuring. Really appreciate it!

 

wow, great detail!!

I wish I was closer, I would have loved to redo all the brackets on your vm kit for free.

I think I have enough pics in my thread for you to modify yours to the newest version.

Loving the build.

 

SitRep...

IT'S ALIVE!




Figured I'd get that out of the way before going into update details



We added a new car to our family fleet

2023 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Platinum ("Tessie")




I can get 45 mpg's in this old tech glorified 7-seater Prius

The E92 was a cool baby hauler (retired) - I am officially in Dad mode now





One of these two is new?












The kids and I built some large scale lego kits to add to the collection

911 RSR and 488 GTE

 

Ice climbing season has come and gone

Headed back up for the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest, this time with my sister

Back at Artehussa Falls for some frozen over waterfall climbing









I love those White Mountains

Throwback t-shirt design from the 2008 Kancamagus Rotary Run




Headed up to Smugglers Notch with the Appalachian Mountain Club for some more ice climbing

Nice and safe on top rope








I came back from Vermont to find my Wife and Mother-in-Law had built me a new climbing & hiking organizer rack under our stairs <3

Lightweight kits for Ice, Sport, and Top Rope climbing





Some more hikes here and there

A replication of a picture my dear late friend Kurt Lawson took - not enough to us who feel your loss everyday, but your spirit lives on through my adventures




The view from the top of Massachusetts - Mount Greylock




An early start to catch the sun rise over Mount Washington and the Presidential Range

Mount Avalon to Mount Field to Mount Willey back over Mount Field to Mount Tom




At the indoor rock gym regularly but am getting outside some more

First trip out to Beach Pond for some new sport climbing routes

 

Picking the build updates back up from here:


There have been a few cooks in my kitchen and I am paralyzed on project management from Massachusetts

Headed down to take stock, check out the main pieces wrapped and to go over details to keep it going





Update on the AEM water injection, I initially installed the 1000cc pintle:




With John Renna's feedback, we are swapping this out to a 250cc for initial map



and we will be switching it up slightly to run failsafe through the Haltech Elite 2500 from AEM's guide below - I'll come back to the final set up and results after





I initially scoped using the washer fluid tank as the WI reservoir. This was lost in translation, but we ended up going a simplified route similar to Ben's






New radiator hoses, AST delete, and prepping it all for Evans waterless

 

Piecing it all back together




Advance HE Alternator installed








VR conditioner wired in








Not sure if anyone else with an IWG75 to EFR has had install issues, but we had some

Thanks Turbosmart AU and Shawn for the feedback

All sorted and fingers crossed on the 10psi springs holding on the shorty manifold

 

Upgraded the catch can from the Cusco




to a Radium vent to atmosphere catch can







with a petcock drain by the fender










Installed the oil cooler isolation grommets






Tied up and redid some of the passenger fender wiring issues from the front 285's



Fender realigned