Well good luck with that. I guess you're lucky that those guys have no idea who you are ... or just don't care enough ... since they are making money off of their name/logo. There's a Dirt Alliance that ripped them off a few years ago and JR had a chat with them, but basically let it slide. Dirt Alliance ended up changing their logo.

 

pm sent.

 

nevermind- i decided to make my PM open for all to see.

im sorry you got so bent out of shape over this. it was not my intention to do this in designing my temporary logo; as far as offending anyone that sees it or even Drift Alliance, themselves. i have removed my logo as my avatar, since that is the only place you will ever see it just to avoid this sort of thing in the future.

as far as legality goes, my logo is legit. it is more then the alloted amount of differentiation needed between logos before it is logo infringement (which this number escapes me right now but i looked it up when i designed it. for some reason 60% keeps coming to mind.) the idea of putting letters inside of olive leaves is nothing new. looking at a majority of the hats worn on the winning podium and you will see what i mean. but i clearly see the similarities and the lack of originality and the fact that Rotary Amuse and Drift Alliance are in similar motorsports makes me want to change it even though i dont technically have to.

i apologize again and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

good to see you are getting the car back on the road.

 

thanks Christian

this warm weather is really getting me excited! its 50* outside right now, so i am shifting my mindset from subaru to RX-7! i love this part of the year! ive got a little list i am going to take care of in April with Synaptic3 (little but probably expensive, as everything is with this car ) and then it will be good to go; but it should be on the road within the next few weeks.

i hope to see you and everyone soon. as every year, i never plan on it, but i will probably be at some autocross events. i try to set plans in my head for budget and what i want to do, but it rarely happens that way.

we'll see you later.

 

i replaced my westco mini miata battery with a braille battery.

here are some pics of the difference

you could probably fit 4 braille batteries in the rear bin: (note- that plate at the bottom is being replaced with Braille's battery mount.)

the weight of the Westco Mini Miata Battery (22.8 pounds)

the weight of both batteries together (22.8 pounds for Westco + 11.6pounds Braille)






i dont have it permanently put in the car yet, but ill get more pics of the final set up with my thoughts on it.

 

that is sexy. i can't believe how small it is!

 

Looks good man. This is one of my favs.

 

thanks christian. for some reason, i know there's a 'thats what she said' joke somewhere in that comment . im not going to be able to make it to this weekend's autocross, but ill be out there soon enough. good luck, have fun, and keep the rubber side down.

thanks mirabile. i love your car as well. any new progress with the build? not that it really needed anything else.

 

There are a few more minor touches to your car that I think would just set it off....
CF Rear Diffuser
CF Taillight cover
CF UIM cover
HKS Intake Elbow

 

i have a rear diffuser in mind, but i dont know about the taillight cover or the UIM cover. i am planning on going with 99 spec taillights eventually. if i could find a HKS intake elbow at a good price, or find one at all, i would pick one up for sure. thanks for your opinion though.

and i agree the taillights and UIM would look good, but not worth the price to me for the looks. thanks for your opinion.

 

your welcome. Ya maybe not the taillight cover but a UIM cover would really set your engine bay off.

 

your car is so sexy, a lot like how sexy you are. JUST KIDDING lol when we gonna do lunch ?

 

thanks mr. 'im gonna sell my FD for a sexier car, like a mugen Civic or a EVO'. that joke was no where near funny, but you got me along with many others .

speaking of sexy, its funny how many girls stare at the car until they get to the window then stop staring. like they're expecting someone much better looking. meh, i dont care; ive got a girlfriend. the car's got me beat for sure.

we can do lunch anytime before the semester is over.

 

Here are some pictures from an autocross from this weekend.

 

here are the vids from this past weekend. i apologize for the bad angle. i set it up in the trunk, and must of shifted it while trying to press play with the harness on.

Exterior video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuaH2ko8W5k
Interior videos of fun runs at end of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDGysZTAjMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62F4mZdFFNk

 

better action shots:

 

i enjoyed writing this post regarding the FD market, so i am going to repost it in my project thread:

as its been said over and over again, in this thread, no one (or no one should) originally buys a car for the use of investment or turning a profit. you might as well open the toilet lid, throw your money in it, and flush. yes, people do restore or flip cars and make profit. it is unrealistic to assume that you will be as lucky. i didnt buy my car with the intention of selling it; i bought it to enjoy every moment spent in it and whether or not its worth anything at the end of my time with it won't matter to me. i would, however, love to see the value of my car rise through time. and value, as its been stated, for cars is a mix of objectivity and subjectivity. to say that the average FD price has decreased over the past 5 years is true. but you have to consider the individual cars that have been sold. You can easily find a poorly sorted FD sell for under $10k. You can also find examples of well built RX-7's sell for over $20k. i hate to say it, but there are more poorly sorted FD's then well built ones. and when the poorly sorted FD's shockingly break, they are sold for even less money; which starts a downward spiral of poorly built FD's being sold and resold in the market at lower prices, bringing down the average price of FD sells. which in turn may be seen as bringing the value of the FD down. if everyone built their FD to be well sorted, i can confidently say the price average would be higher and the market would be full of true enthusiasts.

i noticed the lack of strength in the market when i tried to sell my FD. i was fortunate enough to have the benefit of owning my car outright and not having to absolutely sell my car with no other option. i set my price fair to what i believed I (yea that whole faith thing again) deserved for it, rather then what the trends in the market were. i know this obviously is a poor way to try to sell something, and had i been a business doing work this way i would quickly be out of business. had i had other obligations that took precedence over my desire for weekend enjoyment as it does now with owning my car, i would've followed the laws of supply and demand and priced it at a price guaranteed to sell. however, i was not willing to sell myself short as many in my opinion have with selling these cars. it has disappointed me to see cars sold at much less then they should have been worth for the sake of a quick sell. if FD owners banded together to set their own fair market price, rather then the odd owner selling themselves and the rest of the market short, we wouldn't have had such a drop in value over the past couple of years. this goes back to my original statement that poorly built FDs have dragged down the value of well sorted FDs because people are seeing FDs sell for $10k-15k, and asking above $20k has been deemed absurd and unrealistic when it should really be more then fair. then again, what is fair market value? to whom is it fair for? the buyer? the seller? should it be sold and valued at historical costs taking inflation in account? its the same question being raised with todays economy. how should these items be valued and accounted for?

sportscars are very much a niche market, even segmented into different markets. when i posted my car at my asking prices on other threads such as NASIOC (subaru) and Supra Forums, i got nothing but negativity. i got a lot of low balling and, what i thought, were unrealistic offers. a lot of people countered my lack of budging with the fact that they can buy a FD for under $10k, when in fact that FD that they could buy is no where near as well sorted (and i am not trying to be pompous saying that my car is well sorted, i just know that i didn't cut any corners in building it and spared no expense in building it the 'right' way) as mine so they seemed to have a skewed judgment of what my car should really sell for. this will most likely be the same issue in the future when we think our cars should have more value. more value according to who? the rotary enthusiast who has loved these cars for decades or the random buyer looking to pick up a cool japanese sportscar at an auction. this goes back to the 'yugo' argument that someone will be willing to pay more money for their dream car then someone looking for a cool retro sportscar. i would personally value a S2000, 300ZX, Supra, NSX, or 3000GT differently then i would value an FD. when you put them all together into a lump 1990s Japanese sportscar market, how can you fairly assess what each should be worth? obviously there is condition, mileage, and modifications, but what other factors can you distinguish them with? should a mint condition Supra with 30k miles be valued the same as a mint condition RX-7 with the same mileage? it all would come down to preference and each car has its own market, as it will in the future once/if these cars are turned into collector items. i would love to be able to one day have multiple FDs, a Supra, a S2000 and an NSX all in my possession; but not for the sake of collecting, but rather enjoying.

i didn't budge on my price, and in turn, thankfully didn't sell my car. like i said, i didnt need to sell it nor did i fully want to, so no big loss on my part. many people sell their RX-7 for the sake of getting rid of it due to personal constraints. completely understandable. It isn't rare to see a FD go for under $12k in good working condition. this has thrown the FD market off completely as many people have bought the car without the means to be able to realistically own the car and had to turn around and sell it. of course sometimes people fall on hard times, and the car becomes just that, a car and the emotional attachment should be thrown out the window for the sake of living focused on needs rather then wants.

as gordon pointed out, this is great for those who can actually own their car outright and know exactly what the ownership of this car entails. this does weed out the 'posers' and unfortunately, those who realistically shouldn't have the car in the first place. i feel for the enthusiasts who love these cars but dont have the means to own one, and find that they cant realistically make it happen. as for the people who buy them and try to maintain them as cheaply as possible, that just makes cars that are properly maintained worth more. the corner cut builds will decrease in value and continue to bring our market down as anyone can buy a poorly built $8k RX-7. we'll see them on this forum asking why their FD is having so many problems and why the rotary is such a pain, and then they'll (thankfully) sell it to hopefully someone who actually knows a thing or two and can restore that FD to where it should be.

what will happen, can be speculated by anyone. as long as there are parts available for these cars, there will still be a market for them. whether the value is increased or decreased doesn't affect me or the ownership of my car. sure it would if i wanted to turn around and sell it, but for the sake of enjoying my car, i really could care less if the FD was valued at a $1. as long as i'm strapped into that seat firmly gripping the steering wheel with a smile ear to ear enjoying the whine of my rotary, no offense to my rotary comrades, i really could care less what is going on in the rotary community.

maybe i was just rambling on; if so forgive me. it is a great question and perhaps i missed the point. i enjoy seeing things from another perspective, so i encourage people to object to my opinion.

 

i was on my way home from Providence yesterday and randomly decided to see how the FD was doing, and to see if it was still surrounded with snow with the car cover covered in the 6" of snow i left it with. the car wasnt covered in snow, i just had to shovel the front of the car out. i took the cover off, put the battery in, jumped it with the subaru, and it started right up. since i already had it registered i just threw the plates on and took it out.

i went out to get an inspection sticker and i went to a place that said he couldnt pass me as is with my exhaust being as loud as it was, but he told me if i went back home and got my silencer he would ignore it. so i went and did that, came back, waited and went into the bay for my inspection. the guy i was dealing with wasnt the guy who told me he'd let the exhaust slide, but he was there when i originally had the conversation.

the guy is instantly giving me attitude for some reason. i try to explain to him that it is more of a race car then a street car, but he doesnt want to hear anything i had to say. to make matters worse, somehow over winter my horn stopped working. i have the quick release set up, and my steering wheel has been sitting in my room for a couple of months. it was working when i pulled it out in the fall, and now it doesnt want to. so when he asks to hear my horn, of course it doesnt work. one of my wiper blades was also ripped.

long story short, i couldnt even pass visual / safety inspection this year due to my horn and my wiper blades. i am going to be bypassing my steering wheel horn and putting in a horn button this weekend. a pain in the butt, but i can not legally drive my car on the road for failing safety. i cant be mad at the guy, cause he was just doing his job. i already had a leg up on the competition cause i no longer have to do emission inspections. massachusetts has practically given RX-7 owners a nice piece of cake on a silver platter in the form of visual inspections only; and i couldnt even manage to do it!

i replaced my wiper blades instantly and drove it yesterday. i was at a stop light when i picked up the inspection sheet, and the first thing i read was a statement in bold that read you can not drive the car until everything that failed for safety had been fixed. i went out and met up with some friends anyways, but i felt like a fugitive the entire time i was driving it.

so this years season started on a negative note, but quickly turned back to positive after i left the inspection station and started driving it again. the air was ridiculously cold, and i was seeing a consistent 23*c for air temp. it wouldve been much more fun if i didnt have the power robbing exhaust silencer. i also found myself repeating 'cold tires, cold tires' on every on ramp and off ramp i went on. just like warm up laps around the track. all in all it was a lot of fun and i cant wait for the spring to come back. its going to be snowing in MA over the next couple days, so i am going to have to go home and put the car cover back on.

the labors of love.







Another positive note, i have a tuning session next month. however, i have been having an internal conflict with myself on a power mod: i have a high flow cat now and i want a resonated mid pipe. as of recently i have been asking myself if the 10+- whp is worth the extra pollution i would give off. you can call me naive, but i have never really been too concerned about the carbon footprint of my FD, as we all know it is nothing close to a Prius, but ive always only been concerned with as much joy as it brings me. i dont know. now its out, so i think ive gotta stay with the high flow; or at least until i get the single turbo kit. i think after that, all bets are off and im already in too deep.


i hope every one enjoys their spring with their cars. unless you were lucky enough to enjoy your cars over the winter. good luck to all the racers. i cant wait to get out there.

 

here's a poster that my girlfriend made and printed up for me:

 

Love the poster Rick, it looks awesome!

 

thanks damari.

are you looking forward to the Kancamagus run? hopefully we make your birthday a good one.

 

today i replaced my hi flow cat with a Pettit resonated mid pipe. from the butt dyno it feels faster and i know the turbo spools faster.

here's a pic of it installed:



i have a HKS Circle Earth grounding kit coming in and next weekend im taking her to KDR to get her dyno tuned. im aiming for quick spool and response over high power. we'll see what we turn out. ill post up the results.

 

This came in today: The HKS Circle Earth Kit. I will be installing it this weekend on a dyno so i will be able to show results and find where the best installation points are.

 

Here's what we were able to do at KDR with a reliable and conservative 11.8:1 AFR tune:



Here's how we set up the HKS Circle Earth Grounding Kit.







Here's the difference in power that we were able to make after installing the kit. there is speculation that this power change could have just been from adding a good grounding set up as the stock ones were probably so far gone that anything would have made a difference. either way, here's what we were able to do:







I ordered upper and lower radiator hoses, turbo coolant hoses, all the clamps for the 4 hoses, and Pettit's water pump and alternator pulley and belt to eliminate my airpump. I will be doing that job next weekend or the weekend after. we'll see. ill post up the progress and how to's. I will be replacing my 2 Unorthodox polished pulleys with this kit, so if anyone wants to buy them let me know.