LS1/FD pulls 1.13g's on skidpad.......
 

I competed in the Sport Compact Car Mag "Ultimate Street Car Challenge" last week in my 2800lb (full tank of gas without driver) 439rwhp/385rwtq LS1 powered RX-7. 49.5% front/50.5% rear weight. Cross weighting was within 1lb of each other with me in it.

I just got off the phone with SCC Mag and they said I can post at least my skidpad numbers....

1.13g's going one direction (one of the highest they have ever recorded) and 1.06g's going the other on a 200ft skidpad. Avg is 1.09g's. You can guess how I did in that particular challenge with those numbers.

And who says the LS1 kills the handling of the FD now?

This was on 18x10.5" CCW's with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 285/30/18 (unshaved) tires and used 550/450 Eibach coilovers with GAB Super R shocks, TriPoint adj front bar, stock rear bar, JimLab bushings.

damn man..congrats..hook up some pictures!!!

Sweet!!!

Awesome!!!

Glad to see someone actually show what the car can do rather than bitch about not having enough time to finish it.

skidpad is a function of many things and no doubt that those steam roller rear tires had a hand in that. Congrats nonetheless.

Damn nice numbers boyeee. What month will it be published in?

Was this all around or just on the rear?

Excellent work! To hell with the naysayers!

Those tires are all around on the car. No front fender liners so they don't rub. Front fenders had the lips cut vs. rolled. Wonder what it would do on shaved rubber? :)

-2* up front with 6* caster, zero toe
-1.3* out back with a little bit more than 1/16 combined toe

Issue showing the competitors comes out in Sept/Oct. and the issue with the challenge is slated for November.

I'll post some pics tonight.

Anyone in particular?

Don't be so sensitive Jimmy.

Yes people in particular. People that go to any type of amatuer competition with wild dreams and a car that is half finished with no tuning/testing. I believe the SCC Challenge has had several cars of this type before, FDs and others.

Not sensitive, just not at all surprised that you'd find some way to whine about me behind my back. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

This just shows how good the FD chassis is!

I know this will never happen but I would LOVE for mazda to bring back the FD as-is with a better motor in it, or even as just a chassis and interior without a motor. By better, of course, I mean more reliable (probably by learning from the aftermarket on this one, lol) and a little more green-friendly to keep the hippies off our backs.

I dont even care if its rotary or not - a dedicated turbo I4 or V6 would be just fine as long as it had at least 2.6 liter displacement. A FD v8 would get killed by ford, unfortunately... cant have Mazda making such a superior chassis compared to what the mustang uses :/

I thought you were self confident not to worry about what I say, behind your back or in front of it.

Correct. The opinions of rabble don't concern me. At the end of the day you're still a peasant, you still live in a thatched-roof cottage, and I'm still Trogdor the Burninator.

take this elsewhere dingle berries and get back on topic

What's left to discuss? :D

Congratulations! Those are some excellent numbers. I hope to see you at a track day sometime! I make it up north once in a while.

Sweet, thanks. Looking forward to them.

that's a whole lotta G's.

congrats. it must have been a thrash to get it done in time for the event. after you catch your breath let's hear about it.

howard coleman

How would these numbers be different if it still had a Wankel.

0.00 g -the motor would have popped long before the skidpad portion of the challenge.

;)

Last I checked the ls1 and the 13brew with all the turbo shit on it weigh about the same.

Plus, with the F/R weight distribution being slightly TAIL heavy with the LS1... um... the same?

Awesome results... :)

some pics of the car...... it was only running for 3 weeks before the contest and still needs tons of work and fixing issues. I bought the car with a cut chassis harness, gutted interior, blown motor, clean title and brought it back from the dead.

http://www.torquecentral.com/showthr...light=progress

the car looks high in the pictures. did you run it at a lower ride height for the event?

howard coleman

Congrats!

I think handling is just a matter of a good choice of suspension and tires on a good chassis with a good suspension geometry, weight distribution and low center of mass and polar moment of inertia.

A stock R1/R2 FD with stock tires and suspension measured 0.95 to 0.99 avg g's depending on where you read it. Just put the same huge tires on it and it'll go over 1g.

If you manage to keep near the same weight, weight distribution and polar moment then the choice of powerplant doesn't matter.

This is a testament of the great chassis and suspension design of the FD :bigthumb:

It will be interesting to find out how you did, I have always wanted to see an LS1 FD in the challenege and knew it could do pretty well.

praises and pats on the back of course!

now back on track:

did you have to cut the fenders? I have heard that the CCWs 18x10 will fit fine with no modifications and a 7.5 offset.

*edit: ok I see you're running 10.5, but with the same 285/30 tires, so I'm still interested in an answer. I was thinking of going CCW 18x10 all the way around.

Well done, I'm looking forward to the issues of SCC. And I thought my 9.5" volks were kinda wide......

Sweet Gs!

Power to the FD for a helluva chassis - and power to the LS1 for light weight + power + reliability.

OK, I might actually have to purchase a couple upcoming issues of Sport Compact Rice to get the goods on this competition. The last one I read was Paul Mumford's (may he rest in peace) Viper victory.

I'm betting gnx7 finished pretty high in the standings!

Is that the Pettit nose or did you find another vendor?
Good job on the #s. Would like to see # if you had Hoosiers on. Would they let you run DOT slicks?

nice olive tree in the pic. maybe I can get you a sales contract for this year! Obviously you got your cooling issues dialed in. Let me know when you are going to be back up.

Matt

6* is a lot of caster, did it handle much different with less caster? Have you autocrossed it yet?

I run 6*-7* on my FC. Good job Mark, you were so quiet, I was a little worried. Anyway, Gimme a call when you have a moment. Carl

No it isn't, not on an FD anyway. The factory specs are 6.67 deg caster, +/- 1 deg.

What do you think caused the numbers to be so different for the left and right skidpad scores? Were you driving, or was it the SCC editors? Have they spelled out precisely the things you're allowed to talk about, and the things you're not?


-s-

The rear fenders are rolled with a fender rolling tool (thanks JesusCookies) and the front fenders I cut the lip off with a cut off wheel.... The rims are indeed 18x10.5" and I bought them from Andy McKee (SCCA National AutoX champion) who has them on his winning FD. He and a fellow racer found that the 285/30/18 performs slightly better with the extra .5" on the rim (outer lip).

I have no rubbing issues; however I do not run fender liners as they would surely be toast under full lock. The ride height is set at around 25.5-26" measured from the top of the fender wheel arch/outer lip. Dual 3" on the car with cats can't be tucked up too high.... so ground clearance doesn't really let me lower it any more. I'm happy with the ride height as it has pretty good clearance right now and minimal scrapping. Plus it will allow for a 422/427ci stroker down the line... ;).

The front bumper is a '99 RZ replica made in urethane by Rotary Extreme with the typical license plate mount shaved.

Given more time to test the car I would've improved on my final standing. I had the car running for only 3 weeks actually and really only a handful of days to test as I work full time.... but I'm sure that is everyone's enemy in anything... time.

Matt- that olive tree is at my parents house. Ask the neighbor across the street how he got all those olives on his lawn but has a pine tree in his yard? Yep... my dad swinging the old lob wedge.

Josh Jaquot did the skidpad as he has done hundreds of cars. Actually he and other guy from SCC Mag did all the skidpad testing I'm nearly positive. I have to keep hush about most of the results. I begged them to let me disclose the skidpad numbers. I can't release any other details.... aside from buy the issue which has the competitors and then the real article showing the challenge. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see all the various cars/entrants in the event.

I would assume Jeff was talking about last year's challenge, where the RX-7 seemed to be put together in a hurry, and had a few sloppy failures that knocked it out of the running. I believe they had a vacuum line pop off during one of the dyno runs? https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/killer-rotary-scc-ultimate-street-car-challenge-congrats-gotham-racing-295775/

By the way, this seems to be pretty common in the SCC challenge: every year there are at least two cars that don't finish all the events. Then again, it's just a magazine's tuner-car challenge, not a race series.

-s-

GNX7, your car is beautiful, the choice in wheels is definately nice!

The commentators in the last F1 race said that there has never been a single race in the history of F1 without a DNF caused by mechanical failure. If Kimi's wobbly tire hadn't ripped his suspension off a few laps before the finish, the 2005 GP of Europe (Nurburgring) would have been the first.

Most kinds of racing suffer from last-minute prep and mechanical issues.

Mark, awesome skidpad results and your car looks great. I bet it is a lot of fun. I'll be picking up some SCC mags to read about the event, too.

-Max

Sounds like this car, as nice as it is, wasn't completely set up either. I guess that's my rant, was it voted in or did the editors just say, "hey I heard there's a Ls1 powered Rx-7 over in such-n-such state, why not see it if can make it." Since surely if the car had been voted in, it should have been ready, not 3 weeks before the event still trying to get it st up. I can send in my car's info and put stuff on it that I might have installed before the next event hoping people might vote me in, but I think the vote is pretty much a sham and doesn't count for anything other than trying to sell more magazines.

Doesn't take away from the car itself, just the fact the voting means zilch.

Tim

Wow. 1st gen and REPU are much less. Okey dokey, thanks rynberg

Oh, that's messed up!

With those weights (percentages and corner) and the suspension/chassis work that's been done it wouldn't matter one little bit on a skidpad what was under the hood.

In any case those are outstanding results for a street car! I'll bet you've whopped some serious azz.

Congrats :). Can't wait to hear about the final result.....although if they are making you keep it so hush-hush, then I am betting that you finished towards the top ;).

Can't the FD with proper suspension mods, alignment and hoosiers pull those G's without resorting to aftermarket rims?

very probable

The cars arent voted in anymore. The cars are chosen by entrys.

Nice job on the skidpad! It would be nice if the big tuning shops and hired drivers were pushed out of the competition for the owner/builder/driver types like us. :)

WTF :confused:

You're back Alain? All the 14 yr old girls on the forum had best run and hide :bigthumb: ;)

Rich