The Mid Night Club Wangan Run Touge Monster FD RX-7 RZ!

[declasm]

T9JVG said:

Cracking car OP, loved these since first getting Gran Turismo on a Playstation 1 at the tender age of about 12/13. Would love either one of these or an R34, absolutely timeless designs.

Looks like you're pretty handy with the spanners too, good effort

T9

Thanks! The car is just what I always wanted and certainly evokes a lot of Gran Turismo nostalgia for me too. I like to try and do as much work as possible myself - I feel like I know the car better that way and always learn something new along the way - there's some stuff I can't do without a ramp but now I have my own compressor and air tools I reckon I can manage a fair bit!

[declasm]

Robbins said:

Lovely car, they do look good in black. Must be a lot more pleasant to live with with proper silencers! Shame about the ugly fog light IMO, most people either convert one of the reversing lights or rewire a couple of the rear lights as fogs. I went for the latter option, a lot cleaner looking and serves the same purpose.

Thanks, it's so much easier to live with now! Eventually I'll get around to improving aesthetics and that will almost certainly mean a more attractive fog light modification.

[rampageturke]

Just curious, how much is tax on an FD and is it registered as a 2.6 or 1.3?

[declasm]

Here's a slightly better quality picture of the seat patching - it held up fine the other day to Heathrow and back:



The drive back from Heathrow in the dark and going out to a local meet last night did highlight one particular downside to the RX-7 - the terrible, woeful and completely inadequate headlights. On an unlit road, even a dual carriageway I can barely see 10 metres ahead and I think it's pretty dangerous. I did a bit of research and although you can fit aftermarket HID kits they just won't give a good safe beam pattern behind stock lenses. There are a number of aftermarket headlight conversions that remove the pop-ups but I think losing the pop-ups takes away some of the charm of the design. First and foremost then I am going to replace the old yellow bulbs with something more modern. I settled on 'Osram Night Breaker Unlimited' since they seem from online reviews to be the brightest legal bulbs you can buy. I ordered them this morning at 11am and they were delivered free by ECP around 1:30pm not bad for £15.



I'll chuck them in later when it gets dark and see if there's any improvement.

Here's a gratuitous engine bay shot from earlier today:


And this was the local meet from yesterday snapped just before it got too dark - can you name all the makes and models?

[declasm]

rampageturke said:

Just curious, how much is tax on an FD and is it registered as a 2.6 or 1.3?

Currently paying £235 p/a I think, although when the car was registered in the UK it was actually registered as an 1800cc since the DVLA misread the form where it said 1300cc I need to send the V5 back to the DVLA with a letter from a garage saying the car has a 1308cc displacement then they should be able to amend it.

[barnstormer86]

Love this thing!
Great car OP and I'm hoping to "bump into it" so to speak sometime as your not too far away from me (I'm Torbay) lol
Still love that distinctive rotary soundtrack years after I first heard it and quite a rare site in these parts.

[Blayney]

declasm said:

And this was the local meet from yesterday snapped just before it got too dark - can you name all the makes and models?

BMW E36 3 Series
looks like a mk1 Focus
EP3 Civic
Mazda RX8
Your FD RX7
S14 Silvia
Honda S2000
I think the red one in the background is a Fiesta ST
Next to that looks like it might be a mkV Golf
Next to that appears to be a Citroen DS3
Next to that I can't make it out because of the people
Next to that I think might be another E36, possibly with those little badboy headlight type things... either that or a Calibra... Yeah I know.
Next to that no idea
Red car at the front I think might be a new Clio.

How wrong am I?

[declasm]

Blayney said:

declasm said:

And this was the local meet from yesterday snapped just before it got too dark - can you name all the makes and models?

BMW E36 3 Series
looks like a mk1 Focus
EP3 Civic
Mazda RX8
Your FD RX7
S14 Silvia
Honda S2000
I think the red one in the background is a Fiesta ST
Next to that looks like it might be a mkV Golf
Next to that appears to be a Citroen DS3
Next to that I can't make it out because of the people
Next to that I think might be another E36, possibly with those little badboy headlight type things... either that or a Calibra... Yeah I know.
Next to that no idea
Red car at the front I think might be a new Clio.

How wrong am I?

I think you did pretty well!

I think it's this :
E36 318is
mk6 Fiesta
EP3 Civic Type R
RX-8
Integra Type R
S14 Silvia (Zenki)
S2000
Fiesta ST
EP3 Civic Type S
DS3
RX-7
BMW Z4
E36 328i Saloon
E46 328i Saloon
Mk6 Golf GTI

[od404]

declasm said:

Currently paying £235 p/a I think, although when the car was registered in the UK it was actually registered as an 1800cc since the DVLA misread the form where it said 1300cc I need to send the V5 back to the DVLA with a letter from a garage saying the car has a 1308cc displacement then they should be able to amend it.

Given the official line from the DVLA being that the 13B rotary should be registered as a 2.6, you may be better off not contacting them as you run the risk they actually re-classify it as a 2.6 causing you to pay more!

Many people have tried to get the DVLA to re-classify their RX7s as 1.3 and to my knowledge have had little to no success. Seems the only way to get a 1.3 registration is on import (which is what happened with mine).

[samoht]

od404 said:

Given the official line from the DVLA being that the 13B rotary should be registered as a 2.6, you may be better off not contacting them as you run the risk they actually re-classify it as a 2.6 causing you to pay more!

Many people have tried to get the DVLA to re-classify their RX7s as 1.3 and to my knowledge have had little to no success. Seems the only way to get a 1.3 registration is on import (which is what happened with mine).

In the UK, Mazda and the DVLA agreed that they would be regarded as 2.6L, all UK cars are registered as such AFAIK.
In Japan, the registration doc lists 1308cc, and the tax multiplier is added on later in the process (I think it's taxed as 2.0L).

Perhaps due to this, on import, it is possible to list capacity as 1.3L and get away with it, depending on which clerk at DVLA processes your application. I have a feeling that applications to 'correct' already registered displacements go to a more specialist team who are all aware of the 2.6L rule for Mazda rotaries, hence lack of success.

AFAIK for cars this old, the only difference is being over or under 1.5L, so worst case is the two-hundred-and-something rate. If you're currently paying that, you have little to lose by trying your luck getting it changed to 1.3L, at least it would then be 'correct' rather than 1.8L which is clearly wrong.

[declasm]

Very excited now! I've got my car booked in to be mapped by Ross at Dragon Performance on Friday

Originally I was looking for a place to do a rolling road map because like everyone else I love a power graph print out but the nearest rolling road tuner doesn't have the datalogit software for mapping an APEXi ecu so he'd have to map it using the hand controller which I'm less keen on (there are features / functions which can't be twiddled with the controller) and also he has a 3 week waiting list to rolling road time.

I decided to go with Dragon Performance instead and have it mapped on the road since Ross has a great reputation for RX-7 tuning including the old 9.1 second quarter mile drag car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS6XmblVbOc

Anyone have views on on-road versus dyno mapping?

I'll update when I've got the car back with its new map.

[rampageturke]

What kind of figures are you hoping from the remap?

Also from what I found, a lot of specialists for this car are based far down south, sucks for future me haha

[declasm]

rampageturke said:

What kind of figures are you hoping from the remap?

Also from what I found, a lot of specialists for this car are based far down south, sucks for future me haha

I was browsing this thread on RX7Club and the same turbo is good for 390rwhp at 1bar/15psi

http://www.rx7club.com/time-slips-dyno-121/dyno-gr...

Dragon is just down the road from me in Exeter. RE:Worx are in Portsmouth, Hayward are in Berkshire but you've got WGT in Cheshire and they have an excellent reputation.

[rampageturke]

declasm said:

I was browsing this thread on RX7Club and the same turbo is good for 390rwhp at 1bar/15psi

http://www.rx7club.com/time-slips-dyno-121/dyno-gr...

Dragon is just down the road from me in Exeter. RE:Worx are in Portsmouth, Hayward are in Berkshire but you've got WGT in Cheshire and they have an excellent reputation.

Thanks, will be interested to see how the car is at that power compared to now, around that power would be my target. What did you say you were running at now? mid 200hp?

I know it's a silly question, but I'd love to know what MPG you get after the remap just out of curiosity more than anything.

[declasm]

rampageturke said:

Thanks, will be interested to see how the car is at that power compared to now, around that power would be my target. What did you say you were running at now? mid 200hp?

I know it's a silly question, but I'd love to know what MPG you get after the remap just out of curiosity more than anything.

When I first got the car it was running about 0.85bar but I was worried that the fueling was all wrong since fuel injector duty was reaching 100% The car felt monstrous at that boost level - faster than anything else i'd ever been in, including AMG Mercs, Monaros, M3s etc. I'd say it was in the ball park of 400 flywheel hp. I turned the boost down to 0.6bar to make sure I wasn't bothering the injectors and the car still felt faster than my old 323 fwhp (271 whp) twin turbo RX-7. I just changed the exhaust and kept the restrictor bung in to keep it quiet and with the reduced flow with everything else the same with no change to the boost controller it was hitting 0.4bar which feels about 250 fwhp.

[Robbins]

declasm said:

Here's a slightly better quality picture of the seat patching - it held up fine the other day to Heathrow and back:

Ooh just realised your drivers door coin pocket lid is still intact! That's a rare thing. You also have the sought after leather (or faux leather) arm rest on the other side.

Edited by Robbins on Tuesday 13th September 17:22

[declasm]

Robbins said:

Ooh just realised your drivers door coin pocket lid is still intact! That's a rare thing. You also have the sought after leather (or faux leather) arm rest on the other side.

Yep I lucked out! It also has knee rest/pads Disappointingly no fire extinguisher

[declasm]

Just dropped my car off at Dragon Performance for mapping - pretty lucky to have an RX-7 specialist 30 mins away. Ross had a customer car in all the from Sardinia!

Here's a couple of snaps of the shop:


Lambo GT car


Sardinian FC - Ross said they'd done A LOT of engine work on it! and also another black FD RX-7 complete with ducktail spoiler

I took the bung out of my exhaust to take it for mapping but it's not antisocially loud without it in so it's staying out - the boost restriction and potential turbo damage from high exhaust gas temps and back pressure was scaring me.

I can't wait to see how the car runs once properly mapped

[swagmeister]

Great read and lovely car. Have to say though I much prefer the ducktail rear spoiler to the huge ironing board style. Good work on the KMPH to MPH and correct indicated speed mod - who figures these things out ? lol

[declasm]

When I last left off the car was in the capable hands of Ross at Dragon. On Friday I went to pick it up. Ross was really positive about the whole car, commenting on the high quality parts used all round rather than many tuned in the UK he sees with cheap Chinese parts from ebay. It was good to have an expert's opinion. Before he took it out on the road to fine tune the AFRs he'd reviewed and rectified the map already on the ECU which in his opinion was 'not bad' once he'd removed some of the 'oddities', although once out on the road it was apparently too lean all over for his liking. This is what I'd been worried about - detonation is one of the top rotary killers leading to chipped tips. Bear in mind he thought it was too lean on the boost setting I'd brought it in with ~0.65bar and now think how lean it must have been running with the old unobstructed exhaust at 0.9bar Ross confirmed that the installed injectors were 660cc primaries and 800cc secondaries so the only increase was actually 110cc over the standard 550cc primaries - an odd amount to increase by when usually most people just simply put another set of 800s on the primaries to add more fuel. We decided to map for most safe boost on the current injectors and that number came up to 0.68bar (10 psi), seeing on road, on boost AFRs between 10.8 and 11.1 - rich enough for a rotary while retaining a healthy safety margin. This puts power at somewhere between 360-400bhp at the flywheel so I'm going to say 380bhp until I get it on the rolling road Ross' comment was that it felt fast even at that level of boost. He also said that all it needs is a couple of bigger injectors and it'll run 450+bhp at 0.9-1.0bar so I might buy some to fit once I get used to the current power (which might take a while...)

Here's the exhaust bung / silencer I removed for any interested:


When I got back into the car and given it a chance to warm up it was immediately obvious that the new map had made everything smoother, throttle tip-in and response was definitely improved without any flat spots anywhere along the rev range and it felt subtly faster. Ross had also increased the idle revs from 800 to 1000 giving it more of a regular hum at warm idle than the slightly variable burble tone it had before. I think it's plenty fast enough for a while - we'll see what it makes on the drag strip and rolling road before any more engine tuning I think.

Anyway - being please with the car once home I decided to give it a (minimal) clean and take some pics!










Yesterday I went along to another local meet in Crediton, this one was actually a charity fundraiser, arranged between the car club and Tesco (the car park where it was held). I was actually quite blown away by the scale of it - something like 300 cars with press, Fire, Police and Army in attendance! There was also some exquisite machinery on show alongside my RX-7













So there are a couple of things still niggling with the car. I did install the new uprated Osram nightbreaker headlight bulbs but they are still poor compared to everyone else on the road and not confidence inspiring. I'm even considering getting some 80W bulbs (along with ceramic holders) to enable night vision on a par with everyone else.

The other thing is the erratic tachometer / rev counter which now barely ever works at all with the needle just wildly bouncing all over the place. Replacements are £100+ on ebay so I might break out my soldering iron and see if there's anything I can do.

I'm also probably going to buy a wideband AFR / Lambda probe and gauge. So far the AEM with Bosch LSU 4.9 seems to be the budget choice.

..and then those injectors - just in case I need more power!