An ex co-worker of mine (retired now) and I struck up a conversation after he found out I loved RX-7's. I've come to find out that he used to work on the Mazda IMSA GTU crew when the Akai RX-7 was running the 24 & 12 hour endurance races back in the 80's. I picked his brain as much as possible and he also told me that he was storing a car for a friend. "Wilma" 1 of 3 1979 Akai RX-7's built for the Daytona 24 hour race! I was so excited! I went over to his place earlier today and took some pictures and picked his brain some more.

I wanted to share. I'm going to spend some more time there and take some suspension geometry readings to be able to recreate what I can on my track car. Even though it had been sitting for a while, it was BEAUTIFUL! He's been storing it for a while, so I want to see if I can get me hands on it from the owner. It would be a great car to take to the Walter Mitty. I'll take some more pictures later and post more. Hope you Enjoy.

 

oooooooooh, is the oil cooler horizontal or vertical???? I've been wanting to see how they did the ducting for the oil cooler and radiator!

 

i don't know if its just me..but it looks like the oil cooler..is the white cylinder..on the right side of the bay..it is hooked up right where that oil filter block plate would go

 

That'd be the... oil filter... with a remote setup.

 

It's just you.

I'm talking about the oil COOLER that Mazda set up for their racecars:

https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...4&postcount=14


BTW LEGOKCEN: thanks for the track decal. Looks great!

 

That is a weird looking rear sway bar.

 

perfect for under axle exhaust...

 

Not a sway bar, a panhard bar.

 

That diff cooler fitting is alarmingly close to the ground. Sweet find none the less.

BUY IT

 

Very nice find, Kim is right buy it if you can, nice little piece of history. A few weekends and you can get it cleaned up and ready to run.

I don't see the oil cooler lines at all. Could it be a dry sump system?

Looking forward to more pics on your next visit.

 

Look at the fourth photo and find the two lines coming off the bottom front of the engine, driver's side. They are both gray and pass underneath the red engine ground wire. They should go the the cooler.

-bill

 

It aint dry-sumped, looks like it still has the stock engine mount bracket.
What is that waterpump housing out of. Pre 7 ?

 

I'm going to go back there next week. We're going to air up the tires, pull her out in the open and put her on jack stands to get a closer look at everything. I'm going to try to get the track car setup as close to some of this as possible. I'll answer all the questions you have. Let me know if there is anything specific you need. The owner has another 12A PP which was a backup motor from the same era. I'm going to try to get my hands on that too. It's got 12 hours on it.

Phoenix7, I'm glad you liked everything, let me know if you need anything else

 

its the competition one, aluminum, no tstat, mounts the alt where the air pump could have gone, very $$$$ when it was still available

 

Cool, thanks J9

 

Your right bill, I'm blind. I was looking for nice ss looking lines.

 

The two AN lines going into the passenger door, what are they ?

 

I believe they are for the tranny cooler. Next time I'm there, I'll make sure.

 

i looked and the records are WAY imcomplete, but it looks like there was an rx7 #60 that didnt make it to the 1980 daytona 24 hours, other than that i dont see any record of a #60 rx7, with that paint scheme.

possible repaint? someones spare car?

i did find this though, RB about to eat vette

http://www.racingsportscars.com/phot...11-25-0004.jpg

 

From what the guy told me, this was a spare car.

 

I beleive what you are refering to is the watt link, relocated lower.

 

How much did your dash and gauge cluster parts cost?

 

you're wrong... It's a relocated watts link. and the rear sway bar is bent for an under axle exhaust. I have the PDF of the Mazda Factory race manual, but I don't remember where I got it.

 

AWESOME find!
Quick question, what is the aluminum box next to the master cylinder for?

 

Found this on another site not the same car but maybe an evolution in 83
http://i.pbase.com/g3/61/35561/2/24622388.7.jpg