1983 RX7 on $100 a week

I think thats already been "fixed". The fuel pump relay is screwed to the floor behind the seat and comes on when you flip the big fighter jet arm the cannons style ignition on switch.
Where we're going, we don't need keys.

You sure you want a Calaway? I'm betting this one gives you more fun for less than priceless. . Loving the build. Carry on.

Riiiiiight......because all I need is one car to make me happy. Get out of here with your silliness. Different cars scratch different itches. The RX7 is currently supporting my "dangerous wiring and likelihood of tetanus" itch.

You can definitely remove alot of wiring in that thing.

2 points: 1st) The wiper switch is wired strangely. I believe it always has + voltage on it. Check the wireing diagram.

B) In PA, at least, you also need the windshield spray bottle working to pass inspection.

Rob R.

This is what a legal windshield in Texas looks like.

Rallycross pictures coming.
It was fun.

Yes!

Rallycross on Saturday. At the last event I co-drove an AE-86 Corolla and was 2-3 seconds a run behind the owner. I was really hoping the 7 was as easy to drive as that little car. It wasn't, but it was a ton of fun none the less. The course in the morning was slippery turning to tacky as the runs went on. The back section had a couple of huge bumps and a car eating mud hole. I did ok but I hit a LOT of cones. In the last four events prior to this I hit exactly zero cones in the 2 so hitting 4 on one run was kind of weird. The car felt both longer and wider than I expected, probably because it was longer and wider than the 2.
Driving it was a balancing act. It was difficult for me. When I had grip in a corner the front end would get light and push to the outside. When I didn't have grip the rear end would step out. Not violently, but not as smoothly as I was hoping. I was hard to keep it hanging out just a bit and if it got too far out then it was hard to bring back. Well, it was violent to bring back.
I've got a lot of work to do on my driving. I really don't think I know how to listen to a RWD car properly. For now, I'll let pictures tell the rest of the story.

What you are describing sounds to me like you don't have enough rear end travel. Sort of like the rear end is on teh bumpstops and it is gaining traction and loosing it very quickly. The pictures SEEM to agree with this theory.

How much camber do you have in the front end?

How much travel do you have in the rear with the car sitting still?

RWD does take some getting used to.

Rob R.

its like you guys held a rallyX in an empty lot...

Hrmm time to rallyX all over Detroit!

In reply to wvumtnbkr:

A couple of people have mentioned to me that the rear end in this particular generation of RX7 likes to bind when you move it very much. Combine that with the bump stops that appear to be about as hard as a bowling ball, and that might makes sense. As I said, I'm new to all of this rear end traction stuff. I'm not sure what I'm feeling.
I don't have much camber in front and there isn't a way of getting more until I go to coilovers and reduce the size of the spring up front. I do need to check toe and see if that is responsible for some of the vaugeness in the steering.

Actually, if you aren't too bashful about making some new holes....

You can redrill some mounting holes for the lower front control arm about an inch further out on the subframe. This gives you more camber.

It is what we did with our Lemons car. Worked great!

P.S. Nobody mentioned this in either thread... The rearend is a watts link setup.

Rob R.

Those photos put a huge grin on my face.

Yep he said it before I did, it's probably the watts linkage binding up. Have you raised the rear at all? Not sure if that would help, a lot of the road race guys add a panhard bar. There should be some good information in that "book" I gave you.

I don't know what you're experience is, but personally I had a hell of a time going from a FWD MINI to a RWD E30 in autocross. The MINI was just so much easier to drive hard and I could simply concentrate on hitting the line correctly rather than trying to keep the car under control. Unfortunately, just when I was starting to get a handle on it, the car broke again one too many times.

My history is driving crappy FWD Chrysler products on the dirt roads and snow of my youth. Rallycross in the 2 always felt very natural. I just had to push the car hard enough to get it to do the things that I'd learned to correct from when I was learning. Find traction? I could feel the front wheels hunting for it? Car is loose? I didn't even have to think about how to bring it back. Everything I'm doing and everything I'm feeling on the RX7 requires thought and I simply don't have the brain processing power to do all of that and think about lines and drive fast. Clearly this is going to take a while.

good stuff, excited to hear what else you learn about the magic powered dorito mobile

Old money - $206+$100 for the week.
$15 for inspection, $283 for tax and plates, $4 for nuts and bolts, $30 for autocross entry.
New budget - $-26

Nothing to really take pictures of. I pulled the old numbers off the door and bolted on the stock cooling fan. I still need a shroud but it should be better than it was last weekend sitting in grid with no air flow at all. It didn't like that. It's supposed to be 38 and raining for the autocross on Sunday so I figured out hot to hot wire the blower fan. Lucking the rest of the heater controls work. I'm not including pictures of my wiring because it's a bit of a hack job. Spade connectors creating jumpers to bypass the factory wiring that doesn't work. I'll keep doing this circuit by circuit until I have everything working and then I'll clean it all up. Hopefully pictures after the autocross. Hard tires, cold temperatures, rain and my first time driving it hard on pavement should be interesting.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Sounds like the wiring in my Mini. You have my sympathies. The blower is controlled by a hot-wired switch buried under the dash. Not that it does much. Like a pair a asthmatic gerbils breathing on the winshield. There are no heater ducts.

You are inspiring me to start a xxx dollars per "time period" thread of my own for next year's rallycross project, my Volvo 122...

Loving this.

A 122 thread will be way cooler than this.
The blower actually blows out rather warm air at a velocity that you can both hear and feel. I've asked Santa for a label maker for Christmas so I can start labeling wires as I identify them.

mazdeuce wrote: A 122 thread will be way cooler than this.

Disagree. You have magic spinny triangles, something which I have never understood and have long feared.

mazdeuce wrote: The blower actually blows out rather warm air at a velocity that you can both hear and feel. I've asked Santa for a label maker for Christmas so I can start labeling wires as I identify them.

It's an amazingly good feeling when you get the heater working. It's like, "Ah, my car loves me, and is providing me with warmth- a warmth which it generated, and is sharing with me on this viciously cold day. Thank you, car!"

Air conditioning is so cold and impersonal by comparison.

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: A 122 thread will be way cooler than this.

Disagree. You have magic spinny triangles, something which I have never understood and have long feared.

So put the magic spinning triangles in the 122

I think magic spinning triangles in a 122 would take a lot of cutting. A 142 however...

EvanB wrote: I think magic spinning triangles in a 122 would take a lot of cutting. A 142 however...

Looking at pictures of rotary engines and where the exhaust ports are, a LOT of cutting... I'd almost say it would make a V8 swap look easy.

Very small motor. Lots of crap sticking off of it.
Volvo makes plenty of good motors already. Even though it was kind of guttless I loved the one in my 245. Running through all four gears up to redline and never going faster than old ladies in Buicks.

mazdeuce wrote: Very small motor. Lots of crap sticking off of it. Volvo makes plenty of good motors already. Even though it was kind of guttless I loved the one in my 245. Running through all four gears up to redline and never going faster than old ladies in Buicks.

More fun to drive a slow car fast...

I said I feared magic spinny triangles. I don't desire them