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Sumo's RX3 Retro Racer


rxsumo

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After a bit of a mission the engine is now sitting in position

 

As usual there were some challenges - the water pump neck is a S4 RX7 one - which normally are plastic - fortunately I brought an aluminum after market one - as it sat too tall - and needed cutting a welding to sort out.

 

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We are racing in a couple of weekends - so its gonna be a bit of a marathon run once the new oil cooler lines are built.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Its been a busy couple of weeks trying to get everything sorted on the front end.

The bumper is now shortened and sorted.

Sunny day - so time to get the car out of the shed.

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The two things we were waiting to arrive in the country were these ally tube air intakes to replace the middle headlights - these are quite nice - and give a 4 inch diameter intake - which we need both middle headlights for the air box

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The other was the correct fitting kit for the electric fan - and a fan controller

The old - small fan is at least now on the radiator - which my give us some additional cooling.

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Next up is dyno time in a couple of weeks.

Still need to sort out the air box - and get the fan controller fitted

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  • 2 months later...

Had a stunning outing last time out with getting the RX3 into the low 1:21s at Manfeild

Had a couple of issues - with a sticky starter solenoid - on a brand new starter motor!, and a plastic bush on the ball end of the shifter breaking - resulting on the gearbox overshifting and jamming in 3rd gear.

 

Hopefully the times might come down again now that the new tyres have finally got in the country

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  • 3 months later...

Its been a quiet few months - so time for an update.

The last outing was in September - and was wet all day - I won the class with a slow 1:29:90 fastest lap time. This was good enough to win my class for the season - and second place in the overall drivers standings.

Its been great to have a season with only minor niggles rather than engine failures.

 

With the season at an end - it was time to take care of the "admin" stuff - the car needed to be recerted because of the engine/gearbox/wheel changes to keep it legal.

None of the upgrades directly caused any grief for the inspection - the car needs to have a drive shaft hoop fitted due to the substantial increase over original HP (which was the case with the 10A), the wheel spacers needed to be secured to the hub (the wheel spacers were needed with the 15 x 7 wheels that the car was certed for), and the brake bias adjuster needed to be covered so that it cant be operated on the move (again the adjuster was fitted and certed with the rear disc upgrade).

 

So I'm assuming that the regs have changed - or the certifier was a little lax with his reading of the rules.

 

Anyhow its now got a drive shaft hoop

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A cover for the bias adjuster - courtesy of Kapiti Ice Cream

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And the spacers are now secured

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The spacers were the hardest thing to sort - the countersunk screws are M10 metric fine by 50mm long - and there were no fasteners in the country - and none expected before January.

So they needed to be ordered in from the UK - at a cost of 2.50 pounds each - and of course then the counter sinking bit required - was bigger than the hardware stores carry - so was $64.00 instead of $8.00

 

A mission.......

 

Now to get the retest done....so the paperwork will be complete and the cert reissued

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  • 2 months later...

The cert is finally sorted so the car is completely legal again.

Had the car at an event a few weeks ago - and the driveshaft started banging on the newly installed hoop

After removing the hoop to finish the day - decided to invest in the genuine Mazda Race engine and gearbox mounts.

 

However the issue was actually a little more basic that that - the gearbox mount was completely cactus....

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 Nice new MFR part

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I suspect the gearbox swinging around - is the reason I also have another broken speedo cable..

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  • 1 month later...

Over the weekend it was time to do an oil change - and give the old girl a clean - as we were originally racing over Easter - which has now been called off.

 

I've finally got around to putting the correct boot lid badging on..

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I had some replica powered by rotary decals made -

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Added the under bonnet decals as well....

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  • 3 months later...

Its been an interesting start to the new season - we had an outing in March - and it was 30+ degrees at the track - and the engine temperatures reflected that. Unfortunately - the PP spuds didnt like the high temps - and when the engine was sitting - it was dripping coolant from the rear spud - some coolant stop leak later - no more drips.

 

First outing of the season - didnt seem to be too many dramas, except for what seemed to be excessive wheelspin coming out of the corners, on the last run the diff seemed to get a little knocky....

The result.....e75bdf4c-6639-402c-b874-d5bbca33301d_zps

 

LSD unit top hat is now a 4 piece model rather than a single - fortunately apart from the packing spacer the LSD and the ration seemed to have survived.

 

So in went the spare diff head - and a change back to a 4.9 rather than the 4.4....

 

So the last round and more mechanical woes.... this gearbox has always been a little difficult in 3rd and 4th gears - which I put down to a stuffed shifter ball bush, as the locking in third issues seemed to sort themselves after I replaced the bush. Its had the odd big RPM down change where it didnt want to release out of third - but I thought that might be just a "feature", and largely ignored it.

First time back out on the track - it started to baulk going into 4th, - no real drama'

Second run - just catching my rival in class - ready for the overtake coming out of Dunlop - car wouldnt come out of third, and it would only release once all torque had come off the gearbox.

Changed the shifter bush again - attempted a third run - jamming in third both up and down the box - trailer time...

 

Did a box swap in the weekend - this is what we found....

The 1-2 selector fork - no issues

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The 3-4 selector fork - I think there is supposed to be a rubbing pad that fills the groove in the selector ring - not a hollow

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The spare box is back in - albeit with a dodgy 1st gear synchro ring.....hopefully we can get the shifter forks sorted.....

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  • 2 years later...
  • 2 years later...

Just to let people here know that Darryl (aka RXSUMO) passed away 7:30 Saturday morning, after a long illness.

Condolences to Sandra, familiy and friends.

 

(if anyone wants to post up any messages here, I am sure Admin won't worry)

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