Howi

iTrader: (2)

Hi All,

Function Racing Manufacturing Inc.’s year-long project is finally completed, and we’d like to share it with you.

The car is a 1993 Mazda RX-7 with a Toyota 1JZ-GTE transplant. The idea is to build a budget car that achieves a great balance between the street and track. To us, street is synonymous with comfort, reliability, and if possible, the less of a cop magnet the better. The track, at our current level (non-competitive), means only one thing – balance.

We didn’t want to build a big single turbo dyno queen, nor are we after a rollcaged, 2,000lb, widebody, 285 racing slicks, Japanese Super GT-like track monster. We wanted to build a car that’s elegant, streetable, balanced between power/braking/handling, and fun to drive.

We ended up with the following budget set up:
1993 Mazda RX-7, gray
1991 Toyota 1JZ-GTE, completely stock
Removed power steering and air conditioning
Battery relocated to trunk
Tein springs with Bilstein shocks
Delrin bushings all around the car
Custom front and rear subframe, with independent mounted rear differential
FC RX-7 coil + ignitor pack X3, running waste spark
Haltech E6X
Endless 6-pot mini front brakes with Endless MM-X pads
Stock rear brakes with Hawk HT-10 pads
Innovate wideband and other necessary gauges
BF Goodrich G-Force sport tires, 225/50/16
Necessary fluids

Here are some pictures:
The hood was massaged to accommodate the engine; this is because the steering rack is in the original location (modified stock subframe).



Getting the car dyno tuned by Paul at Neetronics.




We hit the track with Onyx Syndicate on Aug. 29, Dunnville.




More photos to follow in the next post.

As you can see, the car is modest and conservative. It was tuned for 91 octane, with an incredibly flat torque curve, and a 250hp plateau for nearly 1,000 rpm. With our current car set up, it’s just enough for most of the tracks we have available to us.

Many of you may be wondering how the car handles, given the increased weight of the engine. We have not corner weighed the car, but for the time being, we’ll provide you with some driver feedback and track data.

We are very fortunate because on our first track day with this car, Onyx Syndicate set up a lap timer near the end of the day for us to get an idea of how fast we were. There was only one way to describe the car on the track – linearity. The car handled beautifully, well balanced, and linear. Everything was precise and predictable. This is our first time with this car on the track, and with myself driving, we achieved a 1 min 24 sec. Nothing impressive, but it was our first time on the track with it, and we were still just getting used to it.

With some practice, I think we can eventually hit 1 min 22 sec. At that point we’ll have a very good idea of the car’s behaviour at the limits, and we’ll move onto some r-compounds. We should hit sub 1 min 20 sec.

Hopefully, we’ll run into each other on the track.

Cheers,

Howi

Howi

iTrader: (2)

MIBagentQ

iTrader: (3)

Good job howi, so proud of you buddy. And thanks for taking me to my first track day at dunville, we had such an amazing time with the only "mishap" being my boost control solenoid hose popping off lol.

g-tech pro's do NOT beep, boost controllers do lol

theory

iTrader: (5)

I usually cringe at 7's with a piston swap. BUT, to be honest, this looks like a very well balanced street car! I wish I had one!

MIBagentQ

iTrader: (3)

HEVNSNT

iTrader: (3)

Nice work Howi. How does it compare with the stock 13B?

CUBA6942

iTrader: (12)

I just finished my build check it out!!!

Mad Props !

Pic of Mounts>>>???
https://www.rx7club.com/other-engine-conversions-non-v-8-118/1989-1jz-gte-powered-fc-rx7-769104/

JDK

iTrader: (8)

I’ve watched this project from start to finish, what’s not being said is the countless hours that went into this car which I believe to be over a year and half. Everything was done in the meticulous “Howi Fashion” way with no strings attached everything’s in its place for a purpose, built by his own hands, never asking for help…. Nice Job Buddy!

Howi

iTrader: (2)

Thank you everyone for the compliments and kind words. We honestly could not have done this without the help from this forum, which is the end product of everyone's contribution.

Lol good lord, I never knew a stock FD at 15 psi could be so fast....

Thank you sir. Lol next time I drive it down the streets and see someone cringing at me, I'll know it's you.

Hey Mike, it's been a while.... I really loved the way it handled on the track. To me, it was so neutral and balanced. To be fair though, I haven't been on the track with a 13B-REW FD for at least 2 years, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.

I've heard from numerous sources that Jimmy has been setting some ridiculous times at Dunnville. He's known as "the old man with a black FD" lol. Jimmy is definitely the bar in our tiny community, and I think the best way to answer your question is for Jimmy to try out our car on the track.

Jimmy, thank you for the kind words. You're a heavy weight in our community, and your compliments really mean a lot to me.

Howi

theory

iTrader: (5)

Or I'll be in the slow FC trying to catch up to this beautiful machine! Job well done!

p4nc7

iTrader: (1)

That looks pretty bad-***. The hood looks great =)

mr.zoom

iTrader: (1)

Great Job!

once you have more seat time, kindly provide more feedbeack on the bushings...also the color of the car, is that paint color off of an rx8?

rd_turbo

iTrader: (4)

Ahhhh...the engineering mind at work!! Fantastic work Howi...I heard bits and pieces along the way....it's good to finally see the fruits of your labour

Nismo Convert86

iTrader: (7)

Don't worry about it with any luck you will live to be that old!

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

Looks awesome Howi, I bet its a real beast

Hope to see it in person one of these days...

paul_3rdgen

iTrader: (6)

Good job, nice to see another swapped rx-7 completed. I have to ask, why not the LSX swap??

Howi

iTrader: (2)

Thank you so much everyone.
Now all I need to do is to learn the limits of this car and pull some decent lap times.

LOL...

The delrin bushings were actually the mod I was looking forward to the most in the build. Partially because the idea was really cool to me, also, I did not know what to expect other than a really harsh ride.

These bushings surprised me in everyway:

Street - Completely tolerable. As a matter of fact, my car did not really get stiffer as I originally had expected. What these bushings provided was instantaneous response to any bumps, as well as super crisp steering. There's absolutely no delays when I hit a bump. I`ve put about 500km on them so far (mix of street/track), and they don't squeek at all.

Track - I don't even know they're there. I mentioned the word linearity and predictability for the car's handling a couple of times above, and I believe these bushings are the greatest contributors.

I'm not sure how this happened, but these days a good portion of the people tend to think that coilovers are an essential mod for the track. The same people who have these expensive coilovers also usually have old/cracking bushings or broken pillow ball bushings.

I went the opposite route. First thing I did was brand new pillow ball bushings, then solid delrin bushings. The car rides on non-adjustable Tein springs with Bilstein shocks. I want predictable and fun-to-drive track car. After I've become a better driver, then I'll consider going coilovers.

Oh, the car is supposed to have the Spirit R gray, colour code 25G. The previous owner painted it and I'm not sure how accurate the colour is to the real Spirit R. If I'm not mistaken, I think certain liimited model Miata's have the same colour code.

Thank you Paul. The LSX swap was naturally the first thing I considered almost 2 years ago. But after I've factored in as much as I can, I decided on a 1JZ-GTE because:

1. Price and availability - used 1JZ-GTE can be found in just about every engine yard for no more than $800. The R154 tranny is more rare, and they go for $1,000. The 1JZ is a smaller brother of the 2JZ, which is less popular and more track friendly (over square at 86mm bore/71.5mm stroke, very rev happy). The popular 2JZ, on the other hand, go for about $1,600 for the engine, and $3,000 for the 6 speed Getrag tranny. Basically, the $1,800 package deal attracted me. An LS1 power train would have costed a significant amount more.

2. I've always had an affinity for inline 6's, although I've never owned one prior to this. After I've shopped around for the LSX kits that's available to us, I didn't like any of them. I thought their designs could be much improved. So I thought to myself, if I was going to make my own front/rear subframes regardless of LSX or 1JZ, I might as well pick the engine I really want, and significantly cheaper. There's a slight weight penalty with the 1JZ compared to the LSX, but I was confident that I could balance it out.

Howi

ExcessFC

Nice car. What ECU are you running? I put down 300 on stock twins in my FC, but I have a TEC 3 to help things out a bit.

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

this looks like a great car.
i love the design mentality you took with this car; it's all about balance!
great work.

hondah8er

I dont get it....your making more or less the same power as a stock FD. That seems like a lot of work and hassle to be making the same numbers. A stock FD is reliable (seeing as you said you wanted reliability) so I'm a little confused...

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

powerband is probably much different than a FD with 13b-REW. it can also be argued that the 1JZ is a more durable powerplant should they decide to go for bigger power and turbo...

that said though, me personally would have liked to see a rotary in there...but it's a great job with the car in general so can't really fault that.

Howi

iTrader: (2)

Thank you. I'm running a Haltech E6X, which I'm genuinely not happy with. If I had known better I would have used an AEM or Motec. I hooked up the E6X, started it, tuned it to be a nice and smooth ride, then handed it over to the tuning experts at Neetronics for some full throttle power.

Not only did I not change turbos, I only run stock boost on the stock twins, 10 psi. I'm fully aware of the stock twins potentials to go beyond 300hp, but as I've mentioned, hp is not our goal here. If it was, I wouldn't be running 225 street tires from BFG.

Thank you Mr. Coldfire.
Yes the balance of the car is everything to me. The car is actually quite a nice representation of our company, Function Racing. The name implies function above else. We did not want to move even a millimeter of the steering rack and compromise the steering geometry, even at the expense of modifying the hood and hurting the FD's beautiful stock curves.

I love rotaries too. I joined this forum in 2003 and have been playing with rotaries since, starting with an FC before an FD. I also have been through the fun and pain of screaming NAs, upping the boost on turbo FCs, full non-sequential 13B-REWs, premixing, rats nest removal, overheating... etc. all the goodies. But eventually I moved on and tried something new; it's as simple as that.

Yes, I also agree that the 1JZ/2JZ is generally speaking a more stable motor at high hp applications (just a subjective, personal opinion), although this is not the main reason why we chose this motor.

I'm sorry but you will not get the answer from me in this thread, because I think the last thing this forum needs is another useless rotary vs. piston debate. I'd be more than happy to answer any tech questions you may have about the car though - how I made the subframes, how I used FC coil/ignitors to work with Haltech on a Toyota motor, how I got the stock tachometer to work with the 1JZ.... Ask anything tech and it'd be my pleasure to help.

Howi

hondah8er

I would just like to see a rotary in it. Beautiful car nonetheless

Ka Kui

iTrader: (36)

Nicely done man!!!!!! very cool........

ExcessFC

That’s cool man, My 300 RWHP dyno was on stock boost also, which is why I asked the question, not to infer your number was insufficient.