REAmemiya_fan

This year the car makes a dramatic leap from ES to SSM, so I am trying to see who else is in my boat. Besides, I'm going to use this thread to discuss a lot of technical ideas based around the Street Modified rules (which also use Stock and Street Touring rules as back steps) which you can find here in PDF form.

So far here's what's done:

Polyurethane bushings
New master cylinder with Motul RBF600 DOT4 fluid
Depowered steering rack (waiting to go in)
K&N drop in filter
Refreshed intake manifolds with all new gaskets, silicone vacuum hoses, and Atkins 6-port auxiliary sleeves
All new trans mounts and crossmember
Trans oil (Valvoline?)
Pilot bearing & seal
Throw out bearing
Front and rear trans seals
Fuel filter
All season tires (a compromise since its my DD and I don't have dedicated race wheels/tires)
Spark plugs and wires
Rebuilt the air pump (from what I read, the cat has to remain in the exhaust system)
Front wheel bearings
Outer tie rods
4 piston front brake swap
Vented rotor rear brake swap

And I think that's about it.

Now as far as the list goes for what I want to get done to the car:

Atkins Rotary thermal pellet replacement (the solid aluminum piece that always allows oil flow; with new spring)
Power steering and AC delete
E-fan setup from a Pontiac Fiero
Front two point strut bar (our own)
Brake master cylinder brace
New blank disc brakes with Hawk HP+ front pads and HPS rear pads (to frictionally bias brakes towards front)
Oil pan baffle (precautionary measure more than necessary)
Exhaust (split runners until the cat then single outlet to rear)
MAZDASPEED Springs on Koni shocks

Realize I do a lot of VERY LOW budget mods because I'm in college and work at subway soooo I never have a lot of money.

So if you guys wanna share what you've either done or just throw in your own advice/input then by all means do so, I'm still learning.

Thanks!

Brigdh

iTrader: (9)

I'm not familiar with SSM (I'm not eager to go against FDs), but all emissions can be stripped in SP, so I would expect you can do the same in SSM.

In fact, just skimming the first page of SM rules:

16.0.A. Purpose
To serve as a membership recruitment and retention tool by providing
a natural competition outlet for auto enthusiasts using streetable
sport sedans equipped with drivetrain and suspension modifications
that are beyond those allowed in the Street Prepared category.

So yeah, you can drop the air pump and cat if you like.

That said, SSM is an expensive class to do well. I recommend you think carefully, are you running SSM because it allows you to do something you really want to do, or because you want to excel in SSM? If its just about having fun in the car you want to build, and where ever you end up is where you end up, then more power to you. If you want to be competitive, even locally, your wallet is really gonna hurt.

Josh18_2k

iTrader: (3)

Any reason you're not going to CSP or STS? The FC isn't nationally competitive in any class, but chances are you'll do much better locally in one of those two.

That being said, Eage8 has an SSM FC, I'm not aware of any others. Plenty of FD's...

Regarding your mod list:

Dont bother with fancy brake fluid, just run whatever is at autozone. Valvoline synthetic Dot 4 works just fine for me. autox doesn't generate a lot of heat.

Poly bushings are a terrible idea. You'll want delrin in the front control arm and DTSS, spherical bearings in the rear control arm. If you cant do that yet, stay stock. Poly is such horseshit, only reason anyone buys that crap is because its cheaper.

Keep power steering if you plan to run slicks. Any marginal gain in feel will be lost to muscling the wheel. Track driving may be a different story, but in autox a manual rack will slow you down (unless your car is super light of course).

I see you mentioned all-season tires... don't bother. 200TW tires should last plenty long- do you really need 60k miles out of a set? The grip difference between the current batch of good tires and all-seasons is ridiculous. racing on crappy tires just isn't fun.

Sgt.Stinkfist

iTrader: (6)

just checked out the new 2013 rules....it appears that they have opened up the SSM class a fair amount. In 2012 they outlawed RCA's and metal bushings/spherical bearing


...it looks like I have some RCA's and Heims that are gonna get installed

REAmemiya_fan

@Bridgh: Thanks for clearing that up! I'm not much of a good reader so I can get lost in words pretty quickly. That's good that I can drop it all though, will make building the exhaust a lot more fun.

@Josh18_2k: I do appreciate all the advice, so thank you. This is only my second year and as of right now this is not my dedicated auto-x car so I do not yet see it being competitive just yet (or even if it turns into a full-time track car). This car is mainly for a lot of experimenting and a lot of fun. I am in no hurry to be competitive, right now I'm more concerned with having fun and learning how to drive quicker. I do have a '75 ITA RX-4 that I'm building on the side so when it comes to building THAT car, I will make sure I go out of my way to make it competitive.

The reason I got the tires I did was because on stock size wheels, thats really the best I could get within my budget. As far as the poly bushings, I do agree the Derlin is MUCH better, however on my daily driver I dont want the ride to be THAT harsh. I've been thinking about Derlin for the engine mounts, but for this car, definitely not in the suspension or diff. I would have gone with something stiffer with the trans but at the time I just got OEM rubber.

I also forgot to mention I'm going to be pulling the S4 clutch type LSD from my old GXL and the 4.3 diff from my buddies GTUs (IIRC the GTUs had the 4.3).

Trust me guys I do want to be eventually be competitive, but for now its all about the fun and experience and my personal preference of how I believe the car should be.

eage8

iTrader: (9)

Why are you going to SSM? That's a huge jump... the next logical step would be STS which the FC is actually marginally competitive in.

John V (SoloII///M on here) built a GTUs for STS not to long ago and did fairly well in it nationally.
Build thread:
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...thread-871641/

You'll never be close to competitive in SSM without slicks... STS is a street tire class though, so you can use ~180 treadwear street tires.

SSM is also a money pit... there will always be someone faster just because they have more money than you... or drive an FD

also, if you go to STS, S4 clutch type is a no-no, you'll have to stick with the S5 viscous.

I'm fairly well versed in the SSM rule book, so if you have any questions about anything ask away.

REAmemiya_fan

I would also like to mention that in the spirit of us having fun out there with certain mods, there are a few of us that will all come into one class (none of us which would be competitive in) and run against each other. Why? Beccause we are actually a really small region with only like 100-150 people total compared to some regions where as that is a usual autocross day for some regions. So we do like to have a lot of fun.

REAmemiya_fan

Thanks man, I'll be sure to ask here so everyone can see. As we all know, SCCA rules aren't the easiest to understand without your lawyer present...

eage8

iTrader: (9)

a quick summary of my current modifications for SSM:
Wheels tires (not big enough):
front: 17x9 +25 w/ 245/40/17 Hoosier A6s
rear: 17x10 +30 w/ 275/40/17 Hoosier A6s

Suspension:
Custom bilstein coilovers
spring rates: 600F/500R
Ground control camber plates
AWR Roll center adjusters
AWR bump steer adjusting tie rods
delrin front control arm bushings
AWR spherical bearings in rear control arms
AWR adjustable toe links
Solid rear subframe bushings
MMR individual rear camber adjusters
TCS rear subframe link
drop engineering delrin DTSS delete and upper tri-axial hub bushing
Whiteline front sway bar
rod end sway bar links
no rear sway bar

Drivetrain
Torsen LSD from an FD w/ S4 stub axles
light weight flywheel
mazdaspeed hard rubber engine/trans/diff mounts
megasquirt 3X ECU
BNR Stage 2 turbo
racingbeat 3" exhaust (yes, it's probably really heavy)
random other stuff on the engine... it's not super fast ~270whp

chassis/other:
F+R strut bars
front lower arm bar
4 point autopower cage (not really necessary for ssm, for track days...)
racing seats w/ harnesses
removed AC
removed emissions/air pump


Things I'm working on for next season:
making my own CF wing w/ CIRO uprights (SSM/XP legal)
making my own splitter out of 1/2" birch plywood.
OS Giken LSD w/ 4.3 gears
Rotary Extreme v-mount
Shine auto sexy style CF hood
redoing my fuel system... (not really auto-x related)

I probably forgot some stuff...

eage8

iTrader: (9)

BTW, put some 195/50/15 nice summer tires to your stock wheels and you'll be good to go for STS it'll lower the car with 0 bad consequences.

John V was running 225/45/15 RS3s on 15x7.5s

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i think i'd run STS, it seems like you get to build a pretty ideal FC. it would be a fun DD, and hey it happens to be competitive in auto X

eage8

iTrader: (9)

Some pictures and videos of my crappy driving

REAmemiya_fan

Hmmm... I thought STS was an AWD class and STR was the RWD class?

Brigdh

iTrader: (9)

Nah, STU tends to be dominated by AWD. STS is two seater sports cars without LSD*

"Viscous" is allowed

REAmemiya_fan

Ohhhhhh that makes sense now... I'll consider going to it if there's at least a couple people running STS with us.

REAmemiya_fan

Here's a video from last year. This was before new tires, bushings, and many other things were done. So you can kinda take it for what it's worth, but it gives you a loose idea of how the car acts/behaves as is.


This was also my very first event, so take that for what it's worth too. You can visit my channel if you want to see more driving of this car and me driving other much much faster cars...

Sgt.Stinkfist

iTrader: (6)

I wish I could have remained in the ST or SP classes, but there are too many things done to my car that are outlawed in the lower classes so I, in good conscience, could not class myself in anything lesser than SSM. Luckily the local autoX scene isnt full of money, so most people are just classed accordingly (literally 80% are SM/SSM) vs. people building a car to fit the class exactly. Which pretty much means the field looks like a pinata full of drop springed, fart cannoned EVO's and STI's just exploded. Luckily my NA 1st gen Rx-7 actually remained pretty damn competitive against the boosted crowd

REAmemiya_fan

I've been toying with the idea of getting money together and dropping a Quaife 5-speed gear and shaft set from AWR in there.... You know, one of those MAY AS WELL things while the trans is already taken apart :P

eage8

iTrader: (9)

that would probably be terrible for auto-x

they're meant for road racing and have much longer 1st and 2nd gears. it would probably be a hell of a lot cheaper just to buy a miata 5 speed and swap it's gears in...

REAmemiya_fan

Wait I thought it was a shorter 1-3 and taller 5th? Unless I've got my numbers backwards..

Stock NA trans:
1st: 3.475
2nd: 2.002
3rd: 1.366
4th: 1.000
5th: .697 (w/o viscous)
Rev: 3.493

Quaife 5-Speed
1st: 2.564
2nd: 1.670
3rd: 1.277
4th: 1.000
5th: .794

eage8

iTrader: (9)

yeah, lower numbers = longer gears (look at 1st vs. 2nd) so you'll have less mechanical advantage and slower acceleration the lower the number is.

with the longer of the 1 quaife sets you might be able to autocross in 1st but it's a lot of money to do that...

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the spacing between the gears will be better, but 1st will hit redline at a higher RPM.

eage8

iTrader: (9)

1st will hit redline at a higher MPH

REAmemiya_fan

Ahhh okay, so my understanding was just backwards. Been a while since i've given much though to gear ratios :P So okay, no need to swap to a Quaife gear set.

DaveEstey

iTrader: (2)

I would focus more on seat time and less on spending cash and classes.