Not everybody does things because it's cost friendly. Just the fact that he did something very different and probably had a lot of custom fabrication done and a hell of a lot of work to put into it he had his work cut out for him. Yeah most of us would never throw a piston engine into the rx-7 but it's an awesome platform for an autocross or Grand Touring car.

So what if you don't like it, no matter howwe look at it he invested a lot in that car and either way it turned out well for him. so i give him props.

Matt

 

That car was really creamed in the front at some point. Look at the shape of the inner fenderwells. Also look at where the camber plates are located to put it back close to a straight alignment.... I'd hate to attempt to drive that car on a track..... I don't care one way or the other about the engine and the swap, but if I was going to put work like that into something, I'd make sure it was straight before I put the cage and all that effort into something that bent up.

 

damn thats bad, i completely overlooked that

 

I like it

 

s2k are nice..
it's clean as hell

 

What the hell are you smoking...


-Ted

 

Ya, I respect the work that's been done. That being said, honda engines are gay. iVtec is a worthwhile technology for fuel economy, but IMO toyota's vvtl-i system is superior.

 

What, no turbo?!

 

Wow that 7 looks GREAT..... Untill u look under the hooood it brought a tear to my eye

 

huh?

 

are you kidding about the crisp responsiveness? car looks great and you've got to appreciate all the custom fabrication involved. although there are better/cheaper engine choices imo

 

You guys are assuming too much...
The engine was basically "free".


-Ted

 

ok i'll go with "better engine choices" then. fair market value of that driveline has got to be $4k+ assuming we are dealing with an s2000 engine/tranny.

 

Hmmmm $4k sounds low?
I think the approximate value of the engine and transmission was more towards $10k...



-Ted

 

10k is too high i was on the s2k forum and they were buying just tranny's for 2k so i would say 5k is a good number for the combo.

 

just to add you can get a used s2k for under 20k now.

 

I believe the engine and transmission was brand new from Honda.
How much does a Honda dealer charge for it?


-Ted

 

the car looks clean but i think the rotary engine has more potential

 

The dents look like a pitside tire clearance massage. I don't see any other damage to the core support. Probably had to go nuts on the camber adjustment due to extreme lowering. It doesn't look to be a real difficult swap compared to a V8. Very nice job here.

 

Yeah, I guess tire clearance could not be a possibility...
I think the car is running 9" wide wheels on stock fenders up front.

Please stop now before you make yourself look even more stupid.

The car has radiacally altered suspension geometry.
This is the reason the front (and rear) strut towers are altered.
It has NOTHING to do with it being in an accident.

The builder builds NHRA certified dragsters.
He has extensive experience with suspension and chassis building.
He thinks "out of the box" when he was building this car, and it's an on-going experiment.


-Ted

 

nice but i dont much liek those engines

 

Funny.... I kind of thought that the price of a transmission indicated how much the transmission was worth, not the engine.

 

My friend's car. He normally builds dragsters and has a five second car. The FC was his summer-time project - for fun. It would be a sick amount of money to build if it weren't for the fact that he did it himself...because he could.

The s2K motor was a hookup. He actually has two - both warranty returns from Honda so they didn't cost a mint. The second one will be forced induction; likely supercharged. The car was modified to have a solid axle rear end in it, and the k-member in front has been moved forward to increase the wheelbase. Car also gets a lot more steering angle. The cage is very clean because the roof was removed to weld it together. The box in the engine bay is the air box, which uses a Corvette filter. Some parts of the car look dimpled because every single extraneous piece of material has been removed. With driver, the car weighs a little under 2000 pounds. Yeah, a lot of the parts that went into it are stuff he had lying around, such as the Camaro cowl on the hood, and the pro-stock fiberglass dash in the car. He thought the body kit would be in from Final Konnexion already, so he didn't bother with body work on the parts of the car that are going to be covered up. In any case, it was all for fun...and Honda engine was partially chosen to see how many riceboys would be up in arms about it - from both camps.

Ken Maeda from Up Garage flew down to Honolulu to test it. He said the car was perfectly balanced and will be absolutely deadly once it makes around 400 hp. Plans are (tentatively) to run it in D1 USA next year - driven by Maeda.

 

since I know the "creator" of this car I thought I had to read this. I never thought I would read so much ignorant comments. First one wasn't so bad, still stupid though, one genious decided to reply that the car was missing the moldings. I LOVE that train of though, out of all the things that are worth commenting on, he commented on the most important. How the molding's werent there, followed by a genious suggestion to BONDO the gaps and weigh down the car. Great way to keep priorities in check, there is a roll cage, an engine, even a stripped interior you could worry about. Yet, those moldings...hmmmmm...real hard core business to be done there eh?


The next thing I was appauled to read are people talking about how S2ks are sold for below 20k now...whoop dee dooo, this is a new engine and the power on these is increased from the 2000-2003(?) models. So guess your 20k car isn't really the same thing.

Next great thing are guys talking about how he should have done a rb25dett swap. I would have loved to see a W16 swap from a volkswagen. But if he "wasted" all that money on a rb25dett swap, we couldn't please all the guys who would have wanted him to do a 20b swap, or that would be a waste of money because a 13bt swap would have been better since the left over money could be spent on upgrade, then some other guy would chime in about how the 13bt should have been the JDM model instead of a USDM 13bt. It doesn't really matter either way, because although some of you guys who have gripes with the swap might have a nice enigne yourself and are capable of A. Tuning a car with equivilent power, B. Creating a car as unique, or C. Creating something others may consider more interesting. I wouldn't care probably.

Yet, like RETed says, the builder thinks on a whole different level from most people. He could build a lawn mower engine with more HP then most other RX7 tuners. This car wasn't any year after year project either. He threw it together in a matter of months. I went on a trip to Japan for a week and the car was being started up while before the engine was just arriving.

I hate having to write this, because it still will not sink into most peoples heads and no matter what any of us who actually like the car say, people always think they are right.

Same is the case with me so I know I am right. I never write but I hate dummies. I should have just sit back and watch HyperRex and RETed make you all look like silly gooses.

 

I just checked some receipts, did a little math, call up my accountant, had him talk to his lawyers, went through our broker in wall street. (bull **** ends here)

Turns out car's gross cost is $10,000.

Just something to think about.