Battered RX-3: worth saving?

Poll

Is it worth saving?

Only registered users are allowed to vote for this poll.
24 votes were received.

Yes	18		75%
No	1		4%
Only if it has bacon	5		21%

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I have a chance to pick up Vance Walker's old RX-3, for cheap. It's salvageable, but would need a crapton of detail work to get it up to *my* standards. Surface rust on everything underneath (metal all seemed solid though), both rear quarters are mostly bondo and are cracking, left front frame horn slightly mooshed, engine probably needs new seals, needs a new rear diff. Suspension condition unknown (old Bilsteins). Lexan's toast, but the windshield's good. Needs belts, of course. Doesn't look like anything's been nesting in it.

It'd probably have to be disassembled, blasted, patched, painted, and reassembled. Of course, all the fab work is already done.

I've been waffling on this for awhile. I have too many projects already, but I hear this car used to be quick.


So, I put it to the collective: Is this worthwhile to get, restore, and run, or is it just another headachey rustbucket with unobtainium parts that should be consigned to the scrapheap?

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Self-righteous douche canoe

let's see....towers, long links with link boxes, Dana 30 axle with SHORT gears in a Volvo axle, Volvo struts, hubs , BIG brakes, and steering rack....

Hmmmmmmmmm you say that was built in like 1990?

All those juicy parts way back then?
Unheard of!
Outrageous!

Suspension is "Biltema" not Bilstein (at least it originally was, the slime ball weasel who it was built for still owes me $240 for freight.)
Biltema was then selling KYB built to their specs and valving.. It was cheap and had like fatter shafts---so a lot of guys locally got Biltema ---from guess who?

I say it's too expensive...this is better and a lot closer and it's a good price:
http://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?1,90480

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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.

post some pix!

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

I vote Bacon.

But you already knew that.

John apparently knows the car - he nailed it exactly. Volvo hubs, rack, Dana 30 rear axle. Apparently it's a bridge-ported 13B and a stock RX-7 gearbox.

Here're pics:

http://www.grok.com/hoche/RX3/


Cage is an old 1.5" bolt-in, but the foot platforms look solid and are welded to the frame rail/sills.

Dunno what those runners going straight back from the bottom of the main hoop are. They have plastic cones wrapped around them. Couldn't see what they went to under the car.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

Quote
tdrrally
post some pix!

http://doowoprally.com/history1998.htm

Jim Culp Piccie I think.

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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.

"While the Doo Wops provide fun for all, Walker and Laylor clearly enjoyed themselves the most, sliding the Kolorwerx Mazda RX3 to victory in Doo Wop 3. The Newberg, OR couple edged the Light Performance VW Golf GTi of Dave White and David Watts by 19 seconds to take the trophy. "

Hmmm...that particular Golf is my current car.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

Quote
hoche
John apparently knows the car - he nailed it exactly.

After the transformation of Paul "The Pom" Morgan's Dodge Colt foul evil thing into the great and good handling Vodge Dolt It was obvious, inarguable how transformational it was doing what I get yelled at here for saying and advising:
Towers/turrets, longer travel, long links, good steering, big brakes, short gearing..Basically build it just like an Escort ---adjusted for scale---and iot will work kinda like an Escort..
On Pauls, built in I think late 87/early 88 it was a collectioin of parts I had laying around.. then some guy borrowed it, got sun in his eyes coming out of a clear cut and since he was too cool to use a moto-cross style helmet visor like he was vigorously suggested to, he couldn't just nick his head down and shield his eyes, he let go and could control the slide with one hand and put in in the ditch on both side of the road and destroyed the back axle... That's when the idea of bigger, and way cheaper Dana 30 out of the Volvo came in...
EVERYBODY said "Dodge Parts are sooooooooooooooooooooo cheap and they're everywhere" but it turned out nobody had a final drive at any price... so in went the Volvo axle

When the slime ball who still owes me frieght approached Dave Clark to buid this Mazda, I came up with the spec and the parts, Dave and Paul did the work. This time I said screw it just go all Volvo since everything is good on a 2600-2800lb street car, it will be that nice step up on the Mazda (like maybe 6.4" ring gear and 22mm half shaft dia. for Mazda, 7.2" and 29mm for the Volvo axle..
In front I don't recall what they did for crossmember but it may be Volvo crossmember, fersure is rack, and hubs and struts. again everything bigger..

It worked really well.. YEARS after the weasel had declared he "needed" a better car cause this wasn't good enough for overall win and he had bankrupted himself and dropped out of the sport in shame, Vance dragged the car out and won overall with it...

Right thoughts, right words, right intentions, right parts, right actions..

Like oum, dudes

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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.

Some how I expect it would provide 99.9999% of the fun as the RWD Toyota Yaris of another thread for <10% of the cost.

Heck history shows it is 19 seconds faster than your Golf per rally

Not sure how I would adapt from FWD to RWD and you will likely ask the same question of yourself as you think about this car.

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In the long run reality always wins.

Quote
hoche
"While the Doo Wops provide fun for all, Walker and Laylor clearly enjoyed themselves the most, sliding the Kolorwerx Mazda RX3 to victory in Doo Wop 3. The Newberg, OR couple edged the Light Performance VW Golf GTi of Dave White and David Watts by 19 seconds to take the trophy. "

Hmmm...that particular Golf is my current car.

well that settles it then!


I think you can get por-15 in 5-gal buckets...

Quote
derek
Not sure how I would adapt from FWD to RWD and you will likely ask the same question of yourself as you think about this car.

Already had some thoughts on that:

Adventures of a FWD guy in a RWD car

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Self-righteous douche canoe

Quote
hoche
I have too many projects already

For this, I voted no.

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Quote
Anders Green

Quote
hoche
I have too many projects already

For this, I voted no.

But he is a person that despite that will actually finish it and bring it back to life proper?

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Grant Hughes

Might as well have it for a while so you can look at it and dream about what you would do to it if you had time - and accumulate more useless parts - before passing it and the accumulated parts on to the next fool.

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"Talk about drugs. Driving a car like that, going that fast, it’s like all the drugs at once." - Tommy Byrne

"Now, Pinky, if by any chance you are captured during this mission, remember you are Gunther Heindriksen from Appenzell. You moved to Grindelwald to drive the cog train to Murren. Can you repeat that?" - The Brain

Quote
hoche


Dunno what those runners going straight back from the bottom of the main hoop are. They have plastic cones wrapped around them. Couldn't see what they went to under the car.

Those are the upper rear trailing arms for the rear axle. They are just exposed and run through rubber boots out the floor. For some reason Paul Morgan did it that way. I would just go ahead and box them in.

I did a bunch of work on that car and maintained it when Dave Hintz owned it. At one point it was set up with an automatic and hand controls for Rob Hansen.

If it's got the same engine in it that Greg Lund originally put in then it's some hot number that a well known Mazda rotary road racing guy built. I forget his name. Looks like it still has the Jones mechanical tach hooked up so I guess so.