Archetype

Hey Mike, here's what was damaged: - 2 rims - Bent steering - Broken front bumper - Dent and scrap on drivers side - Minor cosmetic damage to rear wing The car has just been dropped off to me now so I can work on it over the weekend. Two new rims have been put on, and the panel and paint has been done. The front bumper is still being repaired, so that'll get sorted next week. I'll be doing the steering this weekend, as well as a whole lot of little things that I wanted to do after the first round 5 weeks ago.

I've got an offstreet carpark available if you want. The train station is 5.4km/10min from my place, and there is a bus stop at the end of our driveway/could probably drop you off.

Maybe we could chip in for a box of beers if people want to have a drink at karting. I can pick up/drop off a few peeps in our van if required too.

I didn't want to say it, but I thought the same thing about Full Throttle. I ended up voting for Daytona. I've been there a couple of times and have no complaints. So how does the beers thing work if we're going karting now? Karting, then beers at Speights Ale House as per usual? or Beers at karting? Or something else?

I think I prefer the drift karts at Blastacars over Full Throttle.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but is anyone keen on an OS karting meet at some stage?

Wow, just found your thread for the first time and read it from finish to start. Very cool.

Kinda wish I'd built one of these with my MX5 rather than building the RX-7.

Ha, cool. Yep, I'm pretty sure I'll be at Manfeild. Are you part of the pitcrew for the Silvia? Got the car back to Hamilton yesterday via towtruck. It's at the panel beaters now, so I'll try and get a look at it later this afternoon.

Here's a write-up from KiwiMotoring that I did for last Friday's practice day: The 2nd round of the IRC Series at Taupo Motorsport Park this past Labour Weekend included my first ever race meeting - the 1st round of the 2012/2013 Mazda Pro7 Racing Series. This is what I had been working towards over the past 18 months, and I was determined to be there, no matter what. 6 weeks ago, I was well on my way to having my car ready for racing, and I even had plans to get to Hampton Downs for a casual practice day before the big event at Taupo. This would have given me the chance to sort out any issues with the car - as being a fresh build, there were bound to be a few things that needed to be refined. It would also have given me some vital experience behind the wheel, as I've only ever done track days and dual sprints in my road-going MX5. Alas, this was not to be, as the original electrician who was meant to be doing my wiring let me down in a big way, and my car sat untouched for 3 weeks as I waited and wondered what was going on. I'll cover this and the rest of my build progress in a retrospective blog post later, but for now I'll focus on my first ever drive of the RX-7 at the practice day last Friday. I left Hamilton at around 3.40am on Friday morning after working on it all day and night to try and finish the car in time. Arriving at Taupo Motorsport Park at around 5.20am, I pulled up outside the gate with a sigh of relief and slept for 2 hours in the driver's seat, as the back of the van was full of gear. It was surprisingly warm and comfortable, but I guess my body was grateful for any rest after the week I'd had! When the gates were open, I unloaded the RX-7 in our allocated area in the pits and started working on the car again, as there was still a bit to do before I could get out on the track. As I worked as quickly as I could, a few of the other Pro7 guys arrived and gave me a hand. A massive thank you must go out to Matt Gibson Motorsport, as without Matt and his team, I doubt I would have seen much track action that day. We had 5 practice sessions available for us throughout the day, and after missing the first 2 in the morning, I was finally ready to head out. A sense of excitement came over me as I sat on the dummy grid, but I was also feeling quite relaxed at the same time. We were waved out onto the track and I took it easy for the first few laps as the car warmed up, and I studied the braking points and apexes. I'd been around 'Track 2' before, but this was the first time that I'd been around 'Track 1', which includes the big straight down the back. The car felt good, so I pushed a little harder with every lap. The Pro7 class was paired up with the Pre65 class for practice, so I followed a few of them to get used to being amongst other cars in close quarters, and to see what lines to follow. Terry Loving's Series 1 RX-7 (pictured) was a good one to follow, as it is very quick down the straights. It was nice to be able to pass a few of them comfortably when I felt like it too. I wasn't being timed for any of the practice runs, so I had no accurate idea as to how I compared to others at this stage. The last 2 sessions went well, and I finished practice feeling reasonably confident about my next track challenge - qualifying. Towards the end of the day I took the car in for scrutineering, and to my surprise, the RX-7 passed with flying colours. I was allowed to qualify for racing the next day! Stay tuned for my thoughts on Saturday's qualifying and Race 1. Edit: Cool - the new forum grabs all the pics and links too when I copy and paste.

Yeah, spacers are allowed. I didn't realise until I got there, but I seem to be the only one without them at the moment. The spacers would add track to the car, which would make it corner fractionally better.

Yeah, there's 4 damaged vehicles (and 4 owners involved) between the van, trailer, RX-7 and the other guy. My car is still over in Tirau, which I'm not happy about, but it sounds like it's being brought back today. I was looking forward to a break from working on it/spending money, but with the next round being just 5 1/2 weeks away, there's still plenty to do now that there is damage to fix as well. Here's a pic from before the accident:

Weird, I thought '95 was a typo at first. Looks more like something from 1985, but you're right.

I wish my windscreen was that clear in the rain. Around the 1min 20sec point in your video, I couldn't see a thing, including the track. I took a photo of my interior view after I pulled into the pits, which I'll post in my thread later.

I don't recall seeing a water splash in Tokoroa, but it might have been a lot worse when you went through. The weather wasn't too bad when this happened. The road was wet, but it was only raining lightly at the time. I don't know if the young guy was over the speed limit when he lost control, but he was definitely going too fast for the conditions. It was still light when we crashed, but by the time the car was loaded onto the trailer, it was pretty dark. The weather really turned to shit after that, so it was a very careful drive home.

I wrote up an explanation on my blog here: http://www.kiwimotoring.com/blog/post/car-build-pro7-mazda-rx-7-incident-on-the-way-home

Yep, I'm in Taupo at the moment, and I did a practice day today. Passed scrutineering with flying colours, so my first race is tomorrow. I'll do a proper update when things get back to normal next week.

I've downloaded DraftSight now and I can see that it will be handy in the future, but the file that I have created outside of the program doesn't seem to be usable. Would somebody be able to have a looksie at my file to see if they can convert it into something the laser cutter guy can use? PM me with your email address, and I'll send my file in a couple of formats.

Hmm, I uploaded my dxf file and the preview looked fine. Not sure why the laser cutter guy can't view my file.

Yeah, I'll be there. Hopefully racing, but I'll see how the next week goes with the car.

Are you racing the MX5 on the 20th/21st?

Yeah, I downloaded a little program that converts files into dxf and dwg files, but when I sent the file to the laser cutter, it didn't work. I just opened my eps file in Illustrator and exported it as both a dxf and dwg. I'm sure I had already looked in Illustrator to see if I could do that, but must have missed those options somehow. Anyway, I sent the new file to the laser cutter, but it was blank when they opened it. I guess I'll have a look around for a proper CAD program instead.

Wow, what a difference. So hot now!

Some pics of the new exhaust: New brake lines, clutch/flywheel/gearbox is in: Reassembly is much more fun compared to pulling it apart: Words: http://www.kiwimotoring.com/blog/post/car-build-pro7-mazda-rx-7-mechanical-modifications