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Chris and his FD RX7


Pelo.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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.

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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!

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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!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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.

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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 :D

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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!

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  • 1 month later...

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! :(

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Here is some video (not just of my car!) featuring a bit of cone slalom and mediocre attempts at drifting.

 

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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 :wink:
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Edited by Pelo.
fix youtube link
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  • 1 month later...
On 11/6/2017 at 22:23, Pelo. said:

Thanks Zac :) How is progress with yours?

My estimates of available time during fatherhood were.... Optimistic.

It's at the bodyshop at the moment though. Because it had to many little dings all over if from the ceiling, it's getting a windows out respray.

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  • 1 month later...

 

In November I took the RX7 to my mechanic to get the hesitation diagnosed. The battery was stuffed. It appeared to be the OEM one from Japan in 1994! The ignition coils were worn out too. This is a common issue, as the coils sit right on top of the motor, under the intake manifold. So they see a huge amount of heat! I borrowed some good coils from the mechanic, then drove to Taupō for Powercruise. The car ran smoother than ever, but still had a shrieking boost leak.


 

Powercruise is a fun event with cruise sessions, drifting, drag racing, and burnouts. Legally hooning with my friends hooning in our cars never gets old! Here is some video:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3d6kKsW9LBKEF2tgHXa_3zyc-VGr39aw

 

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After that I thought it was time to slow down a bit and start throwing parts at the car. I’ve accumulated a bunch of bits waiting to go on, but I didn’t feel like I’d be able to get them all bolted in with only a month between track events. Turns out that was a good plan as I’ve only just finished this week! November to January isn’t too bad for a project to be off the road…

 

Here’s my list of maintenance done:

 

Windscreen chip repair

2 x OEM wheel center caps

NGK ignition leads & used good coils

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belts

oil & OEM filter

Battery

Front brake pads

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New OEM Upper intake manifold gasket

New OEM late model radiator

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New OEM coolant hoses, including the bastard hard-to-reach turbo hoses.

New OEM turbo inlet and outlet gaskets and Y pipe O ring.

New OEM thermostat, fresh coolant.

Tested turbo control solenoids and vacuum lines, only a few lines needed replacement.

 

There were a few upgrades too, I’ve given in to the modification bug, within reason at least!

 

Used OEM 96+ turbo Y pipe and crossover pipe: This upgrade replaces the leak prone turbo outlet to intercooler joiner. The early cars had a rubber hose joiner which constantly leaked. The newer type has a two bolt flange and gasket, plus the crossover pipe is aluminium instead of plastic.

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Trust Greddy SMIC (stock mount intercooler): which is about the largest volume intercooler that can fit with the stock airbox and battery. It is an old kit which isn’t made anymore, but I picked one up for a bargain price via Facebook. It wasn’t as simple to fit as it first appeared, and took a few attempts to tweak the alignment and hose angles. New silicon hoses and clamps completed the job. I do need to build a better duct though, as the factory ducting doesn’t fit at all well.

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Blitz blow off valve - I haven’t fitted this yet, but I got it for free with the 96 turbo piping. I’ll give it a go and see if the novelty to cringe ratio is acceptable!

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The list of things to do is now slightly shorter, and the car runs even after changing all those parts. The intake manifold is super fiddly to fit and remove, with hidden hoses and connectors that need to be fitted by feel. So I was quite worried that I’d forgotten something essential and would have to re-do stuff!

Once I fix the dribbly windscreen squirters, I can get the car road legal again, and go to the Leadfoot Festival and Rotary Reunion in February. Summer ain’t over yet!

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  • 2 months later...

Wow, I've owned this car for a whole year now. It has been fun, sometimes frustrating, and very expensive.

Since my last post, I've moved out of the apartment, into a house with a garage, and also have a baby due in July :D So I want to tick a few things off the list before our lives are taken over by a flatmate we can't kick out for 18 years...

After fitting a lot of new parts in the last post, I went to the Leadfoot festival for a friends stag party. I almost didn't make it after a coolant leak returned. Ever since the first track event at Pukekohe, the coolant level sensor has leaked water under pressure. Just a tiny pinhole leak. The sensor couldn't be tightened as its all plastic, and the head had separated from the thread. So I covered it in gasket goo and it gave no trouble for ages. Then going to Leadfoot, there is a fun road over the hills. I stopped at a lookout, smelt coolant, and discovered the leak had returned. It was bodged and I forgot about it. Damn. So back to gentle driving for the rest of the weekend in Whitianga.

Here are the lads cars.

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And the stag himself. Skyline drivers eh...

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Leadfoot is a fantastic event, don't miss it!

Then I moved house the next week and Rotary Reunion was the next weekend. Did I have time to order and fit a replacement part? No! Lets try the world's favourite bodge, JB Weld!

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It worked ok. Got the car back together late Friday night and cruised to Taupo. No leaks appeared thankfully.

ReUnion was a bit of fun, but it rained torrentially all weekend. So no drags, mediocre burnouts, and risky track driving. I videoed a lot of it but the driving footage is barely worth watching. The yellow Bomex FD is currently my favourite car in NZ!

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So the car ran like shit all weekend. It turns out the coils I bought second hand were failing at anything above cruising temperatures. Buy cheap, buy twice...

I research upgraded coils, such as the fancy Smart Coil options like this http://www.sakebombgarage.com/ign-1a-high-performance-ignition-system-fd3s-rx-7-lhd-mount/ but I ended up buying new Mazda coils locally. A big hit at $900.

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Another mission getting the intake manifold off, replacing the coils for the 3rd time. At least I'm getting faster at it. Now the car runs better than ever! Smooth all the way to redline, smooth idle, faster, and better fuel economy. Here's a quick jaunt down a private road.

By March the JB Weld had begun to leak. Now let's deal with this properly. The sensor disintegrated as I forced it out of the thermostat housing.

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New OEM sensor and gasket ready to install.

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Much better!

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Another few litres of coolant, another hour spent bleeding the coolant system. This is very important on a rotary, as air in the coolant can cause hot spots, which then destroy coolant seals, which then needs a rebuild. A very expensive thing to overlook! This Lisle funnel is a great tool, it makes the bleeding process much faster and easier.

https://imgur.com/oSuhuKm

The factory spoiler has been refitted, I like it just as much as the smooth no spoiler look, but got sick of the rubber plugs. The paint on the spoiler and mirrors is ruined, one day they'll get resprayed.

Here's the car in front of our adorable white picket fence.

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Last week I installed the old school Blitz blow off valve. Now my car goes CHOO-CHOO! :D It isn't too loud thankfully. In theory it should help with faster boost response, as the factory one is a normally open bypass valve that only closes under boost. I tried running that valve open and it sounded RIDICULOUS. A constant whooshing noise when the turbo isn't boosting, and a very loud CHOOOoooooooooosssshhh sound when shifting on boost.

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On the 6th of May I'm going to a track day at Hampton Downs. https://www.facebook.com/events/385654548577468/

Then planning on Chrome again this year, although having a fresh baby may interfere with that...

At this stage I just intend to keep the car reliable and not mod it any further, apart from reliability related upgrades. Oil catch can, water injection, budget intercooler water spray... The list of stuff i WANT to do is huge of course!

So how much has an RX7 cost over one year of ownership? I'm a geek and track every cent I spend on cars in a massive spreadsheet. Here is a breakdown of costs. To be honest it's a shock, and I hope the second year has a better fun to dollar ratio.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Track day! :D

On the 6th of May I went to an HD Auto day at the Hampton Downs club circuit. I went here last year and it was good fun. It is organised by Hampton Downs themselves and more info can be found here https://hamptondowns.com/hdauto/ 

This time my friend joined me in his 180SX.

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There were about 40 drivers and a good range of cars, including a Porsche Cayman, some brand new BMW M6s, a mk2 Escort rally car, a Corolla E70 with a 3SGE, 300ZX turbo, and a Nismo GTR... which got smashed into a wall :(

A new Impreza and Mercedes turbo thing

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MX5 powered by a rotary 13B, na with a carburettor! :D

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This very fast RX7 with a ported single turbo motor, imported from Japan as a track weapon. You could hear it from the other side of the track!

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The morning was very wet but it dried up after lunch.

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My car with a fair bit of mud on it. I had a high speed spin into the grass (thank the gods!) in my second session. Unfortunately not on camera. I was being chased down by the white RX7 and I was paying too much attention to my mirror instead of my line and balance at 130 kph in the wet... backwards into the grass! There is a lot of run off on this track, the GTR went off at about the only place its possible to hit anything.

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I got a new GoPro for Xmas, so of course I've been spamming Youtube with self indulgent driving videos. Here's the one session where the GoPro GPS worked.

And a split screen view of a session with the 180SX

Before the track day I made up some prototype intercooler ducting using foam rubber, cardboard, and duct tape. It made quite a difference. The stock duct doesn't fit the Greddy intercooler very well so to make it work properly you really need to make a sealed duct. I also experimented with an intercooler water spray but it wasn't much use with cardboard ducting!

I figured out last time that my water temperature and boost gauge can't be seen with my helmet on, so I did a temporary cable tie mounting to the center speaker bracket. 

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Sometimes I take my car too seriously. Why not have some fun with a few stickers?

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One of the recently printed club stickers! #notoldschool :P

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And a wee Pistonheads Grin sticker :geek:

The car ran perfectly with the new coils, my tyres are still in good health and it was a very fun day out. :D I'd like to get some semi slicks and sway bars eventually, the RE003 road tyres do a good job but they are a compromise.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Wow it has actually been a year since I updated this blog!

June 2018

At the sprint event I damaged the front spoiler, as the road was very bumpy at 200 kph! It had never looked very good, and had obvious fading and plastic welding marks.
I removed the front spoiler, with many rusted mounting bolts breaking. Thankfully there was no damage under the car. I sanded off all the scratches and plastic welding marks from previous repairs, straightened it out, replaced the mounting bolts and clips, and painted it with spray on black Plastidip. It came out quite well for a first attempt. Much better than the very temporary “black restorer” goo. When the Plastidip coating gets damaged again I’ll do some more sanding to get it even smoother, and try to avoid bubbling.

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I also cleaned the filthy front bumper with wax and grease remover, sanded off some old overspray, and adjusted the brake duct fitment. The FD has legit brake cooling ducts below the oil coolers, but they do get damaged sitting below the bumper there. 
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 I have invested in a clay bar, orbital polisher, polish and wax kit, as I need to get rid of all sorts of blemished spots. The paint has been a bit neglected because I don’t really enjoy washing cars. Luckily the red looks great in good sunlight even unpolished. Spot the differences with this fully restored RX7!

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August 2018.

We are back at Chrome. It was fun, but not great like last year. Too much waiting and traffic on track. The car ran well and fast. The Blitz blow off valve is puffing blowby oil, directly on to the exhaust manifold, and started smoking. I’ve bought a catch can. It only happens on track cornering. One suggestion I’ve read is to keep the oil level around half full, but that is not a risk I’m willing to take!

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On the way home from the track I got a lovely golf ball sized dent in my bonnet from a truck kicking up a stone. It probably would have gone straight through my windscreen, so that was some luck I guess.

The headlights, poor by modern standards, have been upgraded to the most expensive halogen bulbs I could find - NARVA PLATINUM PLUS 130. They are noticeably brighter.
 

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