Group B RX-7

Pete Wrote:


> The big fat hose coming from the top of the engine
> is the breather hose.
>
> It's going to a catchcan.
>
> Blowby is a big problem with high performance
> rotaries. The idea is that a big fat hose will
> have a lower velocity of airflow than a smaller
> hose, so it will be less likely to pull oil
> through.

Ok, that makes a lot more sense. What's the high-pressure hose going into that catch can, though?

-Dave

eyesoreracing Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Somehow that widebody just doesn't do it for me
> when the car's low. It has to be sitting up on
> gravel tires...

Dave,

If you closed up the wheel arch openings a bit it would look killer slammed.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

No idea. Does it go to anything?

Looking more closely, I see a number of things.

- Fans look German, like a pair of VW/Audi fans stuck on there. Note they overlap the radiator and are held in with springs.
- Coils relocated to wiper cowl area. Good move, since the coils are one of the first things to be whacked on the left front corner. (Plus they're heavy and they're on the left front corner...) Aside from that and the apparent MSD coils, the ignition system appears 100% stock.
- Engine is shifted back an inch or two. Looks like genuine MFR housings.
- The clutch slave cylinder is from a late model 12A. Clutch master appears stock.
- Radiator is MFR road-race radiator, also sitting back quite a bit from stock. It apparently has its own crossmember, and the ducting is only ducting and not also the radiator support.
- Coolant overflow is from an early model car.
- Not only is there no dipstick but there is apparently no oil pan, either. I wonder if they just made it from a chunk of heavy plate and had done with it.
- Rack and pinion steering, mounted under the front of the engine. How the hell do they have the engine mounted?
- The more I look at the strut towers the more intrigued I am. Besides the cage pass-through and the tabs on the front corners, the top of the tower is Not Stock. Stock has ridges on the front and back, these are just flat stampings. But, they appear to be in the stock *location*.

I am assuming that all of the crap in the boot is fuel cell, fuel sump tank, oil tank, and washer fluid reservoir, which appears to be a stock part from an early car thrown back there.

I am wondering if those "1984" cars were really 1983... or they just designed the cars around early stuff and then when they started building them, they just kept using it.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Maybe those strut towers are just caps welded on top of the stock towers as reinforcement?

How can you tell there's no pan from there? Would you normally see it from that angle?

-Dave

Latest update from the team. They did a shakedown rally a few weeks ago and ran into some fuel, gearing and suspension issues. We managed to find them a competition gearset here and overnighted it to them for their next event. Meanwhile, here are some pics from the shakedown:









and a frustrating video:

And the announcement for this weekend's event:

Press Release.

16th February 2010.

Group B Mazda RX7 to Star in Belgium.

The 1985 Lombard RAC Rally entry Group B Mazda RX7 will again compete at the highest level on this weekends Boucles de Spa Legends Rally in Belgium.

The 500km rally starting on Saturday the 20th February from the picturesque town of Spa has possibly one of the most exciting entry lists on any rally to take place in 2010. Former World Rally Champions Stig Blomqvist and Bjorn Waldegard are joined by Loix, Droogmans, Rovanpera, Bugalski, Duval, Duez, and Thiry to name a few of the top drivers on the rally.

David Paveley is seeded at 22 from a staggering 334 entrants, in the ex works Group B Mazda. The car entered by Silverstone Autosport recently prepared for the event by tackling the North West Stages, which was essential to shake down a car that had been parked for nearly 20 years!

“We set a 4th fastest on one stage, in fact the only stage that we did not have a misfire, which showed the cars potential against a field of top WRC machinery” commented Dave. “The misfire was traced to a fuel blockage due to the foam in the fuel tank braking down, so we had to short shift to protect the engine, but it was still great fun to drive.”

Dave’s team mates on the rally are Waldegard and Chatriot making up the 3 car team entry. The cars owner Steve Hopewell is delighted with the work of the last week, “We had issues on the North West Stages, which were to be expected, but the support we have had from Mazda USA helping to source parts has been fantastic, they even sourced and shipped us a competion gear kit for the car, which amazed us that the parts would be available. Now to travel to Belgium and make up a 3 car team with Waldegard and Chatriot is quite fantastic.”

The experienced co driver Andy Bull will keep Dave pointed in the right direction on the event. After Belgium the team are considering other classic rallies in Portugal and Holland as well as some show events in the UK.


The team are supported by, Silverstone Autosport, Sparco and DPRS.



For Further information contact; Steve Hopewell on 07971490002.
Email; sales@silverstoneautosport.com Web; www.silverstoneautosport.com

Really cool to see this come together for them, will be interesting to see how the event turns out.

---

As always IMHO

SEAN TENNIS KF7JJR
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
SAAB 99, SAAB 850
SAAB V4, SAAB 99T

Super cool, It makes my ears ring just looking at it...

I can't wait to see how well they do. 4th fastest on stage against modern cars, with teething problems!

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Latest RX-7 porn from this weekend's event:

Press Release.

22nd February 2010

Team Score Top 5 Stage Time on Belgian Classic

The Silverstone Autosport GpB Mazda RX7 made a return to International rallying on Saturday’s Boucles de Spa event in Belgium recording a 2nd fastest overall stage time on stage 3 of the event.

The UK crew of David Paveley and Andy Bull faced an uphill struggle when no all-weather or snow tyres could be made available for the snow and ice covered stages in east Belgium.

Instead the crew gambled on a set of single venue Dunlop A2’s which made driving the car on the slippery sections very entertaining for the spectators and kept Dave and Andy busy in the car.

“We really struggled on the first 2 stages, as did our team mate Francois Chatriot in the sister car. We did push when there was grip and lead Francois by over 40 places in the overall results, so we knew we were doing the best we could with what tyres we had available to the team”, commented Dave. “On stage 3 we saw our chance as there was little snow, so I pushed as hard as I dared - we knew it was going well when half way through the stage we caught a Porsche 911 that had pushed us on the previous snowy stage. At the end we were 2.9 seconds short of recording a stage win, which was frustrating having followed the Porsche for most of the last quarter of the stage, but rewarding for the team as they have worked so hard to get the car to the level it is at now”.

The crew had indeed beaten on stage 3 not only the fastest drivers in Belgium, including multiple Belgian Champions, but also previous World Champions and current WRC stars.

The tyre situation was to worsen and on stage 9 the tyres completely ran out of grip and on a straight section of road the car aquaplaned through a fence and into a field damaging the headlamps. The organisers would not let the crew continue without forward facing lights sending the car into retirement.

“It was a shame to end the rally in this way, but in retrospect we proved that the car and team are now ready to run at the front, and a rally win is now in reach. We can now go back to testing and complete our set up work with a lot of data to draw upon, from what was the ultimate test for a young team and a very unusual car”, said Dave.

The team are now considering taking in events in Portugal and Holland in the exciting GpB Mazda Rx7. Team and car owner Steve Hopewell said, “I think the entire team did a fantastic job to get the car to where it is now, considering we had no data on the car, and after the first event we had a very long job list. The feedback from Dave and Andy is very positive and it doesn’t look like we have much to do to prepare the car for the next event, so hopefully we can spend a day testing to fine tune the suspension, and then I am sure good results will come later in the year. On behalf of myself, Dave and Andy, I would like to thank The Silverstone Autosport lads Dwayne Aisalabee, Colin Treeby and Pete Beer who have quite literally turned a museum piece back into a competitive rally car.”

Silverstone Autosport is now taking orders to build Customer GpB Mazda RX7 race and Rally cars. The Rally car can be seen in the UK at the forthcoming Race Retro Show.

Ends


The team are supported by Silverstone Autosport, Sparco and DPRS.



For Further information contact; Steve Hopewell on 07971 490002.
Email; sales@silverstoneautosport.com Web; www.silverstoneautosport.com

Great. Big budget, web sites press releases full of self congratulatory prose and they spend piles of money to go to the hills of Belgium in the middle of winter and take no snow tires.
Fucking brilliant.......

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Yeah John but you got to admit it's still cool and proves what many of us think of older stuff ...

---

As always IMHO

SEAN TENNIS KF7JJR
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
SAAB 99, SAAB 850
SAAB V4, SAAB 99T

SEANT Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah John but you got to admit it's still cool and
> proves what many of us think of older stuff ...

Well we know embarrassing old cars were fast then , when driven right, and some are fast now, when driven right.
But no snow tires in a February event in the northern reaches of the Ardennes...
"Much of the Ardennes is covered in dense forests, with the old mountains averaging around 350-500 m (1,148-1,640 ft) in height but rising to over 650 m (2,132 ft) in the boggy moors of the Hautes Fagnes (Hohes Venn) region of north-eastern Belgium. The region is typified by steep-sided valleys carved by fast-flowing rivers, the most prominent of which is the Meuse"
>
> As always IMHO
>
> SEAN TENNIS
> SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
> SAAB 99, SAAB 850

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2010 02:03AM by john vanlandingham.

Just got a few more pics.