My old RX-5 Cosmo is coming home!!!
 

I sold this car to Ron (74RX4) a little over a year ago, and he used the engine, tranny, exhaust, and wheels on his daily driven Cosmo... It's been my greatest regret in life ever since... :(

Well now I'm buying the shell back from him, so I can finally bring it back home to be stored, until I can afford to follow through with the plans I have for it... Here's some pictures of it... I'll post a thread regarding my plans, but you'll have to look in the 20B forum for that... And yes it's staying carbed... :)

A basic rundown of the car as it was before...

1976 Mazda RX-5 Cosmo
13B 4-port gone
RB UIM/LIM gone
Dell'orto sidedrafts gone
RB header gone
2.5" custom race exhaust gone
Full suspension (not sure of origin but you can sit on the car and it won't budge)
LSD (unknown origin)
Custom 4-pt. roll bar
Lexan windshield
Custom front lip (never seen one like it in my life)
Custom black/silver paint
Some sort of old school mesh wheels custom drilled for 4x120 gone

A few shitty cell phone pics from when I first bought it a few years ago!
http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...5&d=1103646520
http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...7&d=1103646842

Here's just after finally getting the carbs tuned out right!
http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...6&d=1103646728

The interior and roll bar!
http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...3&d=1103647908
http://forum.teamfc3s.org/attachment...0&d=1103647272

And here are the most recent shots of it from the day he got it home (before the engine was pulled). Note the nifty little custom tow bar he made for the RX-4/RX-5 that bolts to the bumper brackets!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/13b4me/es1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/13b4me/es2.jpg

And lastly, here is the old engine that's now residing (and still running!) in Ron's Cosmo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/13b4me/es6.jpg

Thanks for looking! If anyone knows the whearabouts of a blown 20B shortblock, then let me know! :D

Once again THANK YOU Ron for keepin it in the family and taking care of her!

I love the way those things look. Almost like fastback Musta... Nvm.
-np-

Those are some cool mesh wheels.

sweet ride

Love the car, cant wait to see it when ur done. I honestly have never seen one of those in my life. How far is Hubert from Durham?

Thanks guys! And DC13B Hubert is near Jacksonville, so about 2 hours or so away from Durham... Maybe 2 and a half... :)

such a nice piece of machinery

Here's some pictures of both cars. Mine was an automatic with the original 13B and 34K on the odometer when I bought it (Ebay) in April 04 (74K now). Oil control O-rings were marginal and the intermittent smoking got worse. In Jan 05 went to NC from Naples, FL to pick up Alex's black car. I swapped the motor, 5 speed tranny, intake (Dellorto), header, exhaust, the clutch hydraulics and pedals into my almost stock Cosmo. The car hauls ass now. It was a real pig with the auto. I won't be racing TII's anytime soon, but it will outrun my mostly stock GSLSE.

The lip on the front is grafted on from another car. The wheels were custom drilled for the odd 4X120 Cosmo pattern.
I'm too lazy to resize and post all these here. Anyone else feel free.

http://intertron.com/ron/cosmo.html 76 Cosmo auto blue
http://intertron.com/ron/vr/swap 76 Cosmo "racer black and engine swap

Those who were on Vintage Rotary forum have probably seen these before. Yes, that is a 74 RX-4 in the background. I have two now and two parts cars.
http://intertron.com/ron/74.html

http://intertron.com/ron
Ron

My White Cosmo I have was a story like yours ...... traded and got it back via the Impound yard ! Well gald I got it back....look at it today ! Im sure yours will come back better then ever. If you can see any part #'s on the back of that spoiler let me know. Also how is that Plastic windshiled at speed? Noisey? Thanks Brian

www.mazdacosmo.com (not drilled wheels on mine, was made for the 4x120 Enkie I think)

I'll check the spoiler but it's not a fiberglass spoiler if I recall correctly... It seems to be bent out of sheetmetal... That white Cosmo is sweet btw! :)

And the Lexan windshield wasn't really noisy, but it sure could use some Novus polish! :D

cosmoguy, so you're the owner of that nice white Cosmo! I've got a question for you. How did you lower it?

Edit: Ah, I see you cut one coil off the front springs. The rear appears lower. How did you pull that one off?

Looks nice..... for just a little bit of work you have to do it looks nice...

Dan

Just a note but got a inboard camera shot of me at the local autocross on myspace under my videos if interested

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...=942798514&n=2

Loads of fun ... was my second time and got best of time for HS class ! If that link wont work can go to www.myspace.com/briangoad

Hey Brian, how did you lower your Cosmo?

I cut a coil and a half from the front, the rear is stock height. I have 215/60/14 tires on it now. Im seriously getting ready to have the struts converted to coil overs with new spindles with a more popular bolt patten. The rear will get a shorten 9". Then I can put on some 16 or 17" wheels. With the springs cut and a new pair of Konis it rides pretty good. The rear shocks can be obtain by using 2cd gen rears like 86. There is a company that makes lowing springs in Austraila but too expensive to ship. Maybe if someone has connections and the Auzies are coming to sevenstock this year we can have them bring several sets. The Cosmo has the addco front and rear swaybar. My rear swaybar snap along time ago and addco finally agreed to reproduce. The rear made a huge difference in rearend lift. drives alot flatter now but can feel the front weak springs dipping now....If we get enough of these to stay running we need to have a meet of our own! Brian

I'm very interested in converting my hubs to 5x114.3 so I can run a wider selection of wheels... What's the best way to go about it?

Thanks Brian. The rear of your car looks about the same height as the front in your pictures. Interesting.

The front of my Cosmo certainly looks high; there's a bunch of room between the tire and fender, but front and rear appear equal. Maybe I just need to look more closely.

When I kneel on the bumpers to test the strut bounce, the front feels like it's holding more weight than the rear. I can understand why you recommend against cutting the rear springs. The back of the car just feels lighter.

Here's an idea for a temporary spring fix until we can find a set of stiffer aftermarket ones. Ok, we know that cutting springs tends to increase their rate (stiffness). This can cause a host of problems. If done appropriately though, it can have its benefits. I'm thinking we cut enough coils from the springs to make them stiffer, and add spacers to bring the ride height back up if coil removal to obtain appropriate ride stiffness becomes excessive. In other words, if the number of coils we must remove to stiffen up the ride to an acceptable level causes the front end to be lowered too far, the spacers will bring it back up to wherever you want it. Does that sound about right?

Cutting too much of the spring really adversly effects the spring rate. I think the best option is to have the coil overs installed with new adjustable camber/caster plates. Im looking into this as we speak and will probably cost around $600.00 for the front complete. Im going to send a strut in so they can make a kit setup then other cosmo owners will be able to get the same thing. Im also seeing about a guy that said he could make new hubs with any bolt pattern, new bearings and caliper brakets to fit 11" vented rotors and 4 piston brakes, Ill let you know of that as well. As for the rear springs? Might be able to get eibach to make some for us but Ill see. Brian

I like, I like, me wanna have some some goodies on my Cosmo too.