Hey everyone,

I recently did a TII swap in my FC, but I need some work finished that I no longer have the time to complete.

I know RP Performance Racing did a lot of work on rotaries while they were in Manassas, VA during the early 2000's before moving out to Summit Point, WV. Has anyone dealt directly with the shop in the past or able to vouch for their work?

site: Welcome to RP Performance Racing, we are your source for Mazda Spec Miata racing support RP Performance Racing


Appreciate any insight.

Joe

 

I had them dial in my FD suspension and I would definitely recommend them for that, especially for track setups. Not sure how much rotary work they do (they seem to deal mostly with Miata's). Talk to Bret de Pedro. I would trust him to tell you how much experience they have. Only negative is they are a small shop and are mostly on the track. That said, I didn't mind taking somewhat of a second seat because I benefited from that experience.

 

Thanks TomU for the quick reply. I will call him later this week and see what he says.

 

Joe - just saw your inquiry. Know a guy here in Laurel MD who has used them a lot recently on revitalizing and upgrading his one-owner '83 FB. It's a beauty ! ! PM me and give a cell # and I'll see if I can put you two in touch. He, Keith, told me he doesn't go to this RX7 site often. Bill

 

They did my stock FD rebuild a few years back. I am happy with the work, just not the time it took to complete. It seemed that unless you are a racer that will have return business, you may be put back in the queue. Going into the winter months you might have better luck then I did though, I tried to get mine done in the spring.

Tom's right, they do a lot of work on race miatas now, But they are rotary capable and your car will be in good hands when you bring it there.

 

Thanks for the heads up and sharing your experience.

 

RP Performance is a good shop, but they are definitely slammed during the spring and summer.

 

I reached out to him recently through email and got a response back in a few days. was looking at getting my 85 dyno tuned, he said no problem but he isn't really doing much work in the winter. told me to hit him back up mid-late February or so, seems like a nice guy

 

I'd personally look else where. I've dealt with them recently for an engine rebuild and it didn't go well.

 

Same here I took my turbo 2 to them and needed a rebuild and new turbo and other things. Car sat outside for the whole time. Car is ruined. The best part I paid upfront 4k for work on the car. Just got it back no start and my FC is a rust bucket. I would advise anyone in our area to stay away from rp performance. Sorry to be bearer of bad news but I really don't one anyone from our community to get burned like I did. My beautiful fc is just a parts car now. And they just let it sit outside to rust. Paid in full and couldn't get it to run after the work was done. I tried to get a hold of them time after time. They don't pick up the phone. Email takes days even weeks. Excuse after excuse why it's taking forever. Save your money and the headache look else where.

 

Sorry to hear that but how is your car ruined from sitting outside? Are we missing something? Last time I checked, cars are designed to be outside.

 

How can it not? Eventually clear coat will deteriorate after sitting out in the open for all the seasons. Not sure how long they had his car for but I am assuming at least a year. My FD sat at a local shop in our area for a year and a half, paint started to swirl and clear coat was beginning to peel. These cars are already old, letting them sit outside is asking for disaster unless the car was repainted recently.

@efini7 I am going to pm you, respond when you can.

 

Well I didn't want to go into detail about it. But I guess I will. I really don't write on the forums just lurk in the shadows lol. Well I sent my car up to them and I had a some what clean 108k fc s5 turbo 2. Nice interior and what not. I blow a Atkins 3mm engine and needed to fix it. At this point just out of school I had no time or place to do it my self and I wasted a good chunk of money on the car over the time I had it. It sat for while covered and waiting. I went to pf super cars and asked Ray if he would work on my car and told me he doesn't touch fc. So I found rp performance. They towed my car to there shop and I gave the ok. They quoted me 4k to rebuild the engine, bnr stage 2 turbos, rtek chipping the ecu. And some other things I can't really remember now. I paid them up front the 4k. Thinking that was going to get them to work on the car faster. Man I was wrong. Than mouths passed Call after call after message after message left on there machine I emailed them. Got an email saying sorry we been busy with other cars. Than it was we had a race to prep for coming up and etc. Always something. I didn't think much of it they had my car and the money so I left it at that. I get an email like a couple of mouths later saying my rotors were shot and they needed to replace them but he couldn't find any. So that took a while to find some used good condition rotors. The apex seals destroyed the rotors from what he told me. A year goes by me being across states here in Maryland didn't even think for once to check out my car that's my fault. The navie young kid in me I guess. Or lazy what ever u want to call it. So I get an email saying we got the engine into the car and everything is bolted up we should be done soon. I was relieved getting my car back. Than mouths go by no word and again the no answered calls. I emailed and got an email back days later saying the car won't start I will take a look at it when I get time. I went to the shop with a buddy of mine on a weekend we had a race event to go to and I walked back to the shop to find my car with out its front bumper resting on a old miatia. Rusted at the doors. Interior faded. My seats cracked from the sun hitting it for mouths, years I almost cried banged on there shop door screaming no one was there. I emailed them the next day with law suit threats I want my money back u destroyed my car. This was not the way I gave u my car. You get the picture. My car looked like a junk yard car. Left out to rot in the sun, rain and snow. All my seals were dry rotting the dash was greyed out. The seats my god my seats cracked all over. No respect for the customers cars there. Does that answer your question. Yes cars are supposed to be out side but not for that long things start wearing away rubber seals interiors and body.

 

Your paint does not just swirl for the hell of it... Swirls are caused by touching the paint, typically from poor washing / cleaning technique.




That is really unfortunate. I can definitely understand your frustration, I would be very pissed off as well.

All of my dealings with RP have been decent, but I dealt with him on race car related tasks such as alignments/chassis setup, never any actual work performed.

So what did he say after all said and done?

 

and how long ago was it?

In general, never pay full up front for anything. It does not incentivize performance. Holding money back incentivizes performance

 

Similar experience with them, PFS and Speed1 LOL

With PFS, my FC sat for 6 months, extremely hard to communicate with Ray. Got tired of the lack of communication and my car sitting outside in the same spot where it was parked when it was dropped off. Pulled the car from PFS, and took it to Speed1. Speed1 looked into the car fairly quick, and the engine let go while at the dyno. While I decided what to do with the engine (about a month worth of deciding between rebuilding, engine swap, or a reman) I lost my "spot". Car sat for about a year on their lot.

At least with Speed1, the communication was good!!

 

I think it's safe to say that any time you take a car to a busy shop for a "build" it ends up sitting around. I wish someone would have recommended dropping my car off with a new car cover, with some TLC I'm sure it will be okay but months in the sun has me a bit weary when thinking of the interior. My car looks like hell on the outside so I'm not so worried about that.

 

This was a while back it's been years I learned my lesson. I just got the car back last week. My life has been crazy. Just had my first baby, job change and moving. Just life I love my 7s but my FC was my first love It took a long time to heal from all this losing 4k was hard too but really seeing my FC like that was the hardest. My wife wants me to keep it and fix it up but it's personal hard and with a baby it would take years and money is tight right now

 

Sorry I did not mean swirl, I meant the paint warped because of it sitting in the baking sun 365 days+ (mostly on rear bumper and front bumper).

 

wow

well, I know it's not Maryland but the only people that have touched my car/engine is myself, dave detweiller(?) from DE (big FC guy), and mike vargas from angel motorsports in VA beach.

at the moment I still plan on taking my car to RP to get it dyno'd and tuned with my carb. Since I mean, no where else really will dyno tune it with my carb and play around with the jets and continue to test and tune it while swapping jets.

Otherwise, I know it's a little far away but I HIGHLY recommend angel motorsports. little drive, but Mike is a great guy and has awesome reviews. really knows his stuff and has great customer service.