RX7 Rally Build

I have never gotten stage rally's or rotary's out of my blood since I ran my first rally, the 1979 Olympus in my first rotary a RX3sp. When the opportunity presented itself to purchase Ben W's "Fling Pu" RX7 I couldnt resist. Its been 20+ years since I've played with the triangles so I'm looking for advice on set up. It currently has a street port 13b but I will be building another motor over the winter. I have a Weber Side-Draft set-up and a Holley 600, is there anyone with experience that can point out the pro's and cons? Also, is there any reason to go with bridge porting on the new motor vs. street porting, I dont plan on winning any championships and am more interested in longevity than hp.

i have suggestions as a fellow rotary rally guy.

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

I'd love to hear any advice you have. I see you organize and co-drive too... I was on the Olympus Committee from '80-'88 the pre and WRC days, and also competed as a driver. I have since switched to the silly seat but that may change back since I bought this. I rejoined the Olympus committee a few years back but after starting up, organizing and putting on a SCCA Rally Cross series here in WA by myself and still co-driving I stepped back from Olympus this year. You can check out my FB page and Warren Rally Sport on FB to see what I've been up to and that I'm not full of BS. This car has huge potential, Ben did a great job when he built it and I still cant believe he contacted me and offered to sell it. Its been sitting for 3 years so I have some work to do but all in all its a very solid rally car.

the biggest question is, what 13b is it? GSL-SE? or is it from an 86-91?

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

I was out of a 1st gen RX7, I can try and find out what year if that would help. I got it running this morning but the accel pump is toast so I'm looking for an A/P for a Nikki, looks like I wont get it until Tues. I was told that the syncro's are bad in 2nd on the tranny so I'm also looking for another 5sp trans if know of one. This was originally Leon Styles car but the chassis was retired and this is basically the guts of that car on a new seam welded, custom built chassis.

Bridge vs. street - longevity is the same, longevity is divided by RPM and time and both engines if built right will make peak power at 8500-9500rpm. Bridge ports have a broader powerband and more of it, while I haven't had a street port that did much useful below 5500 and then it would come on like a light switch.

I don't bother with street ports anymore. My car has a bridge port slightly bigger than what was in the Mazda Group A homologation paperwork (looks exactly like what is sold by Racing Beat/Mazdatrix as a template, too...) and the exhaust is a fair bit bigger. It's what I use to putt around to work, to the grocery store, to r00st at rallycross, etc. Current engine has something like 32k miles on it and is due for a freshening, but this is also what I would get out of street ports too.





Mind you I have EFI. EFI cures almost all drivability sins, if you care about that sort of thing.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

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

enduro cross? I just did a test session on something like that. I let the cars run for 10 minutes (I had 2 courses set up roughly .7 miles each) on 1 course, had them work cones and then let them run the second course. Also, just spoke with the previous owner and the motor is an early 70's 4 port motor out of a RX3 or p/u and not a GSL-SE 6 port.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2014 08:39PM by steevano61.

Quote
steevano61
I was out of a 1st gen RX7, I can try and find out what year if that would help. I got it running this morning but the accel pump is toast so I'm looking for an A/P for a Nikki, looks like I wont get it until Tues. I was told that the syncro's are bad in 2nd on the tranny so I'm also looking for another 5sp trans if know of one. This was originally Leon Styles car but the chassis was retired and this is basically the guts of that car on a new seam welded, custom built chassis.

Steve, you do know that back in the day Millen's car that he drove so beautifully was basically a Maz-dog shell and a Wankie-----and everything else was Ford Escort, dontcha?
Crossmember, rack, arms, hubs, brakes, gearbox, axle, struts and whole Group 4 rear end 9towers and loooooooong links...

THAT seems to be the way to make a RX7 go...if the motor runs, fine (I'd go Weber since you have both and those Holleys don't seem to like sloshing around for the flame outs I've seen guys have who are fixated on them).

Second Gen crossmember and rack/hubs brakes is real easy to cram in...To to Alex...He's done it twice.

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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.

Yeah, very familiar with Roddy's set up. Looks like Miata gear is the latest thing. Rod and John Woolf were the reason I got into rally, a ride on a press stage for '78 Olympus and my RX3sp was caged (jerry hines), tokiko susp (rod and john gifts), safari seats and switches (Nagel) and misc parts from friends in the GT3 series and rally ready in 2 weeks. Being the poor old bastard I am I think I can find some fun for a reasonable cost with this thing. The car was Leon Styles old car that has been rechassis'd that he first ran at Rim of the World. In all honesty, probably wont do much more than run my RX's and Sprints but we'll see (I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed).

Miata? From looking, the Miata rails are narrower and a lot higher up. When I bolted the FC subframe into my car, I did just that. Bolted it in. Just had to make a couple stands for the rear subframe bracket and it was in. Bip bang done, move on to the next problem. Bolting the struts in was simply mixing and matching out of the Mazda parts bin - Escort ZX2 strut tops work just fine if you drill the strut tower out for 10mm studs. (Later, I fabricated new struts out of Subaru bits. The ears are the same thickness but the bolts are spaced an inch or so further apart, simple to deal with)

You can 4 link, I like 3 link because it's faster to fabricate since the lower links aren't horrible. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. When you bolt the Sportage front pumpkin into the rearend for a $100 set of 4.78 gears, you can make a brace for the Watts pivot that goes over to the Kia part's mounting hole.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2014 10:37PM by Pete.

or you can go too far and never finish like I have...

http://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,93878

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

yah, I realized a while back that I like driving more than wrenching, so I spend my not-wrenching time thinking about how to make the wrenching parts go as fast as possible so I can get that over with and go back to driving.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

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

yea im going into "screw it, make it work" mode

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

love it.

one of my "tricks" for hard to diagnose car problems is to ignore and drive it really hard until the problem becomes more apparent. its usually dumb and more expensive, but so cathartic .