Hey everyone from New Zealand, here's a few pictures of my Rx-3 race car build. I bought her as a rolling shell and I'm working away steadily. She's got a 13B PP, 51IDA, original Rx-3 diff with 5.1 LSD and big JFZs upfront with adjustable Konis all-round. Almost finished fabrication and rollcage install .. Then paint and re-assembly in the next month ..

 

Beautiful

 

I second that!!!

 

Nice keep posting and keeping us updated, coming out real good

 

So here's how we put the fuel cell in... Cut out the wheel well .. Added bracing to the "trunk" or boot floor ... Plated the whole floor with 1.6mm panel steel .. Calculated the box size based on the fuel cell.. Made the box .. Cut the floor again !! .. Tacked it in ... So the end result .. a lower Centre of Gravity... More strength ... Got rid of the redundant wheel well .. And fixed a lot of the historic boot floor corrosion issues. ..

 

nice clean work, do you guys have to engineer the mods in NZ?

 

If it's a road registered car there's a certain threshold, once you cross that then you need an engineers cert for the mods depending on what you are upgrading. But we are pretty lucky you can do all the basics with a lot of freedom. This car will be track only.

 

Here's the link if you are interested Jozey...

. www.lvvta.org.nz/ The official website for for all modified vehicles in New Zealand - The Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association ... It's generally common-sense stuff and it's cleaned up a lot of the dodgy practices and implemented good engineering principles into the modified car scene here.

 

thanks man, i had a bit of a read through that site and i am left thoroughly confused lol
it does seem a bit more layed back than australia's mods laws though.
to me it seems the effort you're going to with your rx3 here would make it more safe than most of the cars on the road, surprised you're building it for track-only, there'd be some of the best scenery and roads around NZ, but a purpose built track car would have it's share of advantages too i guess. can't wait to see more of it

 

So we are giving the Rx-3 a big push this week, fitting the side intrusion bars, under dash bar and some extra bars here and there to add a bit more stiffness 😁

Paint has arrived very happy with the colour

Bought some random parts today... 12a front cover, 12A sump, Rx-3 wheel centre cap (have 3 now) and a couple of trim parts .. My other Rx-3 is getting restored to go back on to the road so I'm collecting a few parts I've lost over the years

 

More work on cage install this week...

 

Had a tidy up day today, sorted the workshop. My 21yo daughter came and helped me clean up...



Se loves my S6 Bridgeport turbo and thinks it should be hers !

 

Thats awesome. , I'm Actually going to be selling my RX-8 to buy a house with some Land and build me a 3-4 car garage my tiny garage is so hard to get anything done,Right now im Working on my 1st gen to have it has my daily for a bit then jump back into my RX-3 .
My daughters are learning what Rotary cars are so awesome, my 14 year son wants the 1st gen as his 1st car , um no lol maybe we will build another rx8 for him .

But I'm dying to work on my rx3 seen this pictures makes me want to jump on it NOW

 

Yeah that's cool chino, my kids have been around Rotas all their lives, my other 73 Rx-3 was our family car for a while .. The baby seat in the back .. 12A Bridgeport in the front, we would take them here and there to the drags or 4 n rota nationals or to a Hillclimb, then race and hopefully drive home. I think we only broke it once (split oil cooler line) at the drags which resulted in a tow truck ride home

I bought my son this for his first car ..







Unfortunately for him, he kept on growing and he is now 6'11" (17yo!) watching him trying to get into it is pure comedy. But at least I have a first gen to drive and play around with 😄

Good luck with your shed .. Hope it works out

 

wow 6 11 dam he tall, Well I bought RX-8 not running and me and my son removed and install engine , my good friend rebuilt keg, Now 2 years later he wants a 1st gen so I don't feel guilty selling RX-8 at all. and wow that green color looks good man,Thats awesome driving the family on the RX-3 for events, One day ill be able to at least turn on my 3 to hear it purrrrr .

 

Spent the night test fitting fibreglass guards and 10A nosecone, finishing the cage install and a few patches here and there

 

Mean looking build bro. From Glenfield myself, on The Shore haha. Good to have a family that loves rotors!

 

Yeah bro lol a family that rotates together stays together! Shore hard !

... Primed her up tonight ... Progress

 

Hahah good way to put it! You know bro!

 

More plating today...

 

Ended up having to sand back the primer on the fibreglass nosecone .. 2 steps forward .. 1 step back!! . Anyhow fixed a lot of imperfections and it's lighter without several coats of paint !!

 

Looking good keep it up

 

Well, kinda small update.. Planned to get a coat of epoxy 2k primer on the Rx-3 this weekend.

That turned into fixing imperfections, a couple of small dents in the left and right sills, the fibreglass boot/trunk lid had a corner chipped out . The rear panel (where the tail lights and bumper fits in to) had layer upon layer of paint with a couple of cracks. So I stripped that right back to metal which was in good condition and etch primed all those sections up.

Those small repairs took 3 hours. But now they are done! I didn't have time to prime it after that

So this weeks plan is to epoxy prime the whole body and block it back .. Fix any more little issues.

Paint the engine bay so re-assembly can start there

Straighten up the doors and fit them

Make brackets for the fibre glass boot/trunk lid and supports for the back end part of the front guards as they don't have much there to support them

Remove rear axle and add some brackets, fit the diff head and remount back in car

Paint the car next weekend if ready to go

 

man you are moving right along what color are you painting car

 

Yea it's coming along, we only got to work on her Wednesday night, but went and sat and passed my C grade Motorsport licence "woohoo" so I can race in sanctioned events now.

I was going to do a big unveiling with the new colour once it's done so I won't let the cat out of the bag just yet





So that's where it's at for now