Pelo.

:waves:

Thanks Zac How is progress with yours?

In September some friends held a private track day at Taupō club circuit as a 30th birthday celebration. What a great idea for a party! This track is where I started in motorsport. I began volunteering here at age 12, waving flags and having a ball. It's a fun simple track. I also managed to crash my MR2 here in 2004 at the Toyspeed meeting! Here is some video (not just of my car!) featuring a bit of cone slalom and mediocre attempts at drifting. Other than that, I've replaced the ever so 90s head unit with a basic Sony media player, and tidied up the gauge mounting. New front brake pads were required, with a hairs width of material left after all these track events. I've gone with Hawk HP Plus pads. They are supposed to be an aggressive track capable street pad. I have yet to see how tolerable they are for dust and disc wear. My cooling system upgrade parts are still waiting to be fitted. I've had no issues yet, but summer is coming. The local "Caffeine & Classics" meetings happen once a month which are quite popular and interesting. Here is my little car parked between some boats

Oh no. Foo Fighters concert is that weekend!

In August I went to a festival style event called "Chrome Expression Session". Basically it is a massive car meet, with all sorts of activities, and the opportunity for many who would normally avoid the track to drive their precious street and show cars. The event was held at Hampton Downs. For one low entry fee for the whole weekend, anyone could participate in their choice of these events Circuit cruising - drive your mates around the track without helmets, casually race other drivers, see some cool cars playing. Gymkhana - practice drifting and donuts on the skidpan Drifting - proper drifting on the Club circuit Burnouts Drag racing Roll racing - a drag race from a rolling start Circuit racing - for race cars only Show & Shine / Hardpark - youth version of car show To the average track day junkie it might sound a bit boring, but if you're into modified street cars its great fun. I joined in the track cruising sessions and the gymkhana. The track was great fun, I treated it more like a speed event than a cruise event where traffic was clear! Before I go on that circuit again I should disable my 180 kph speed limiter! I was surprisingly terrible on the skid pad. Driving like a tool and attempting to throw the car sideways, on stock LSD and stock suspension with balanced rear grip, it was more of an understeer-oversteer party. Plus I didn't want to be brutal and grab the handbrake, or kick the clutch. The cars with stiff suspension and lock diffs on the other hand did some spectacular sliding. Here is a playlist of videos from me and others, starting from the Rotary Only cruise session at sunset. The lighting for this was amazing, and driving amongst some of New Zealands wildest street rotaries was an amazing experience. Mods and maintenance this month have been focused on the cooling system, with a pile of OEM bits ready to bolt in. I also removed the stickers from the sills. Pro tip - removing old stickers from paint using a feeler gauge is really easy!

That's rad! What a lovely colour too. How much better is it than the 2.5l? Track day plans I hope? Peeling off old stickers is very satisfying.

On Sunday I went to a proper track day. This was the Introduction to Motorsport event at Hampton Downs Club Circuit. The circuit is a tight 1.2km with lovely new tarmac and massive runoff areas. It's great for road cars as the brakes won't be destroyed on a few high speed breaking zones. We did dual sprints and had instructors available for advice. The car ran great all day. Thanks to my new SPA Digital gauge, I know that temps peaked at 101c and averaged around 90c. I do need to move the gauge from the center console to the steering column as I can't actually see it with my helmet on! Boost peaked at 13.7 psi which may or may not be cause for concern. The motor seemed to surge at high rpm occasionally, so that could have been fuel surge or overboost fuel cut. To be investigated... My new tyres (RE003 in stock 16" size) were awesome. Here is my video. At 14:17 there is a fun battle with a flame spitting Toyota MR2 turbo, and 17:41 the instructor drives and shows me what my car can really do!

Following this, I'm very keen to try some arduino stuff. Its been years since I've soldered. I want to do data logging or something in my car.

Mt Roskill looks like an appropriate location to visit via a noisy musical detour through the new Waterview tunnel...

I'm 175 cm and sit like this fulla Because racecar.

I'll see how it goes, but in an emergency I'd expect it to be easier to access on the drivers side. With my seat in driving position it doesn't get in the way at all.

I got some servicing done (fuel filter and trans oils), WOF, and a fire extinguisher installed on a nice custom bracket so I can do clubsport events. No problem with legroom as I'm not tall, pics are with the seat right back.

I've gone to the past two, it's a neat event. Lots to see and plenty of geeks to chat with! Won't make it this time though.

New shoes! Bridgestone Potenza RE003 in 225/50R16. I also sold my 17" Racing Beat wheels. The workshop forgot to do my WOF though!

Is there a difference? Easiest / cheapest assumption for me to make is that the ignition leads need replacing.

I've gone and bought a set of stock wheels. The 17s are nice but I want to see how the car drives as Mazda intended, and I do really like the 16s. A test drive showed less tramlining, lighter steering, and a slightly more comfortable ride. Which is what I hoped for. Some of the roads I like to drive are not at all smooth! The tyres are touring spec Goodyear LS2000. So the next thing to buy is a set of Potenza RE003 or Pilot Sport 3.

Taupo Car Club winter series dual sprints start on the 24th of June http://www.taupocarclub.org.nz/Events-Calendar-Entry-Forms/

This weekend I went to the track. Pukekohe track session in RX7 - YouTube An unmodified RX7 on track? Playing with fire?! I drove conservatively. Cooldown was just cruising in 4th / 5th on the straights. I still caught up on the corners, as it was a pace car, no overtaking session. The IC heatsoak was annoying, with noticeable high rpm power drop after sustained full throttle. It also might need new ignition leads, it felt like the motor was missing occasionally. My tyres are crap, they are well past their use by date. But the car felt pretty good and getting sideways on the hairpin was easy. It certainly bumped around a lot on the straights. compared to the other cars on the video it moved around a lot more. Might need new shocks. Or that is just normal for a light car. Pukekohe is intimidating with concrete walls everywhere. Very bumpy in some parts, with fast corners. I prefer Taupō or Hampton Downs, which have better sight lines and runoff.

Well done, the new job sounds like an awesome change. I saw the post on FB advertising that job, it did look interesting!

I broke an SC12 and replace it with the later version on my AW. I did notice a mild difference, at least compared to the worn out SC12. The motor still ran just fine. I don't know how Toyota did it but that ECU could run anything. 8:1 block + bigport head, 8.9:1 block + smallport head, early or late SC12, 8psi crank pulley, 14 psi crank pulley, T25 turbo, I tried them all and the car still drove fast and smoothly. Until it broke a ring-land while running NA in between turbo experiments... Never tried an SC14. Although smooth was relative at age 20, if it got sideways and pushed me back in the seat I was happy

Do you miss yours? I did consider buying it when Zac sells.

Thanks for the compliments guys ☺

I've got this one https://www.dropbox.com/s/ezmmcn9z207ngcg/Apexi_RSM_manual.pdf?dl=0 The mk2 version is bound to be somewhere on the Internet too

I've wanted an RX7 since I was about 11 years old. I think the first FD I ever saw was a bright red one parked in a driveway, while I was walking to school. I had no idea what it was, but its beauty stuck in my mind. One of my classmates was a big car fan, due to his father running a workshop, focused on rotaries, and had an RX2 rally car, and a HB Cosmo, and an RX7 dirt track car...! So my friends influence really set me on the path to RX7 obsession. 20 years later and I have bought an FD. I've daydreamed about it for a few years as my savings grew bigger. Since 2016 I've been looking seriously, having inspected 5 cars for sale. Then this one turned up. 1994 Type R with 45,000 genuine, verified kilometres. It was imported last year by an old guy who is an old-school rotary fan and serial car collector. big photo album: https://goo.gl/photos/1KavduxG5q638suD7 The current mod list is short, and were all from Japan. - Fujitsubo 3" cat-back exhaust, which sounds perfect to me. Quiet at cruise and idle, no droning, and a good sporty tone when pushing. - 17" x 8.5" / 9" Racing Beat RB-02 wheels. Allegedly made by Work Wheels, they are a nice 3 piece set. I have to measure the offset as the labels have worn off, and the centre caps are missing. - Apexi RevSpeedMeter mk1. This nifty but useless device shows a digital readout of revs and speed. It can estimate acceleration times and flash speed and rev warnings. I need to investigate if the ECU is standard. The sills have "Blitz Access Super Computer" stickers, which was apparently a plug-in ECU upgrade from the '90s. My current modification plans for the car, after tonnes of research: water temperature and boost gauges alarm & immobiliser - mandatory for insurance aluminium AST aluminium radiator full set of tyres (eg. RE003 245/40/17). The current ones are over 10 years old and still have the coloured streaks from when they were brand new... not safe! auxiliary injection (e.g. AEM water injection) General maintenance comes first of course. Then, just drive it. I love track days so I'll be getting into those as soon as I can. I don't have any desire for more power, as I drive quite sedately on the street. The car is only a weekend ride so it always feels special to use.

I should come to this. I will come to this.