TAS09: Re-Amemiya Genki 7... the ultimate RX-7?

[kaptainkevlar]

Originally Posted by BurtonCR

Don't knock the swap until you have driven one. I guarantee you will sing a different tune after that drive.

Dang you stole the quote right out from under me! I remember I used to always think that a v8 rx7 swap was just a muscle car wannabe mod, going with the notion that v8 always = pig heavy. I found jimlab's thread and it took me hours to read the more than a year's worth of thread that I missed. After reading that and seeing what he found out about the weight differences and such, i was blown away that this wasnt a more popular swap. Now its coming true...

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[sub9lulu]

i want to see what the car looks like when they remove those rear wheel panels

[BurtonCR]

Originally Posted by Skunkers

FWIW, on the LS-swap FD idea: I think that history has shown that the LS-swap does in actual fact slightly mess up that handling of swapped FD's. Not by much, but I've never seen one able to actually outhandle a 13B equipped one. That could be due to a variety of issues, from people just not placing the engine right, the polar moment of inertia, CoG, or just that the setup wasn't designed by engineers at a factory, whatever.

Where have you seen a direct comparison of the two? The closest thing was Howard Coleman and his nephew, but it never happened.
http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.ph...ight=OK+corral

I'd be willing to bet a higher percentage of LS swappers actually use their cars for track/drift/drag than rotarys.

Actually here is/was a great Track / Time attack LS FD:
http://www.v8rx7forum.com/v8-rx-7-bu...car-build.html

[Skunkers]

Originally Posted by BurtonCR

Where have you seen a direct comparison of the two?

In a few magazines over the years. I think 2007's SCCC was one of them. Every single instance I've ever seen has shown the swapped car to have slightly upset handling. Like I said, maybe that's because it hasn't been done right yet. Bottom-line: it's pretty silly to expect no change whatsoever in handling dynamics. But, it's all irrelavent to the point that no grassroots LS-swap car (or really any grassroots FD) will ever match a purpose-built RE Amemiya shop car on a track.

[CryderSpeed]

Originally Posted by h2o

Daaaayyyyyyuuummmm, looks amazing now.

[Hites]

judging by some ppl in here, if RE Amemiya built up a cosmo, itd be demolishing zondas on the track.

[dclin]

Originally Posted by Hites

judging by some ppl in here, if RE Amemiya built up a cosmo, itd be demolishing zondas on the track.

Amemiya did win the '06 Japan Super GT, GT300 class - without factory support - so they do know a thing or two about track racing.

Definitely looks better without wheel covers, the nicest version they've turn out so far (though not saying much, considering their past, bizarre rebodies). I would have softened the hard edges just a tiny bit, but looks good overall. The side has a slight hint of Furai in it; I was comparing the two in pics, and the overall scallop on the side is very similar.

That, and make the wheels - as the current generation would say these days- more 'hellaflush'.

[Skunkers]

Originally Posted by Hites

judging by some ppl in here, if RE Amemiya built up a cosmo, itd be demolishing zondas on the track.

[BurtonCR]

Originally Posted by Skunkers

In a few magazines over the years. I think 2007's SCCC was one of them. Every single instance I've ever seen has shown the swapped car to have slightly upset handling. Like I said, maybe that's because it hasn't been done right yet.

Here is the USCC LS1 RX7 2005 Article:
http://209.177.55.37/scc.htm
Doesn't sound like anything but praise.
Skidpad " Mazda RX-7 1.095g Even with pushrods, nothing handles like an RX-7"

Or do you mean the 2006 USCC (LS7 RX7)? Here is the article:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/ev...nge/index.html
There are 0 complaints about "balance", in fact it is praised multiple times. Here are some good quotes:

Car show:
"Motor kicks ass, otherwise a stock car"

Ride quality:
"Disappointingly uncomfortable daily driver" - ha, yes the interior is a little cramped, but I think mine rides better than my WRX (both on coilovers).

"Engineering"
"An LS7 RX-7 is just so wrong, it's right; the highest form of import blasphemy. While universally agreed this is the cleanest example yet, the build is still somehow underwhelming." - yea cause most builds including this one try to make it "look like it came from the factory that way", which I think is harder to do with any swap than add FMICs and shiny parts.

"How can such a big motor be so small?"

Dyno:
"Mike Schaezler's modified 427ci LS7 (that's about 28 bowls in ricer terms) put down 510 naturally aspirated horses, the most we've ever seen at USCC."

Driveability:
"Torque-rich, but tight cabin and gearbox make it #2" - can't really fix that

MPG:
23.4 "This kind of mpg makes this engine swap attractive"

Acceleration:
Horrible times because of sand on the track and getting sideways at 90mph. He ran a 10.9 after the competition. http://videos.streetfire.net/video/L...-ls1_70754.htm

Track:
"Mike Schaezler's RX-7 burned enough oil to put a James Bond smoke screen to shame. Too bad, since driver Andy Hope said it easily had another three seconds in it. " - No catch can which is required for track LS motors.

Skidpad:
"The RX-7 would have been right there with them with its amazing balance and power delivery, but it lacked high-speed grip around the circle."

"Great driver's car, needs aero to win"

Here's the owner's thoughts

Originally Posted by LS1-FD

I have not seen the issue yet.

worst in environmental, No cats LOL

worst in acceleration Talk about sand on the track http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...2d00243fe2.htm

I took the car to Sacramento race track to see what it would run without sand.
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...3b002d54c5.htm

Did poorly in show car My car is very clean but I do not have all of the ricer parts on my car. New paint 99 front bumper very clean r1 interior with Raceshop CM cage.

braking My car brakes very good. They told us to brake at the 1st cone and this is where the track was in bad shape. The cars that did better in braking where braking further down the track where the track was in better shape. Talk about not following the rules and getting away with it.

skidpad I think that I was in 3rd on this.

road course My car was smoking bad on the turns so I only ran 2 warm up laps, no all out runs. It turns out that my motor was sucking in engine oil on the turns. I later fixed this with a catch can.

Hp 3rd place, the only car on pump gas and no turbo. I was happy with 3rd.

gross display This is easy with a v8 rx7
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...4201588c21.htm

Midpack in economy 427 motor not too bad

girlfriend test She was hot

I had alot of fun in the event. Not everything was fair, but it never is.

Mark do you want to add anything?

[ghibli99]

Looks like it came straight out of Ridge Racer Type 4!

-Mike

[voetsek]

Originally Posted by dclin

Correction: his original engine was a LT1. It's been a few years.

Actually the first 3 engines were 13B's then he went to a 20b then a LT1, then a LS1, then a LS7 if I remember right. (I think there were more, but I can't remember off the top of my head). Only the first two were ever installed and running.

You can't even find his thread over on RX7forum any more. He deleted it years ago because he got tired of the people arguing with him over his choice of engines.

His car hasn't been mobile for quite some while now. Even gone through 2 different paint schemes from the first iteration. And it's probably one of the few out there that the frame has less than ~12k miles on it.

The conversion actually just equals out weight wise with moving the battery to the back. Front to back weight bias is affected less than 2%. You figure with all the adders that a person has to put on a rotary to get to the power level of a LSX engine, they are going to weigh about the same. Also while the rotary might be small, there are quite a few pounds in accessories on the engine and most of that weight is up high.

Oh, yeah, I found the thread because Jim disappeared again & I was looking around to see where he went. Looks like he might have gotten tired of the car (again).

Most of the people doing the conversion are looking for reliability and power mostly. For the cost of a good rebuilt 13b, you can drop in a LS1 and double your HP, TQ, & gas mileage from stock. Highway with a LS engine is low 30's.

-Richard

[dclin]

*sigh* I should have been more clear. The LT1 was his first V8 conversion. As that we were talking about V8 conversions, I thought this was obvious? My bad.

He had more than one rotary in his RX7? Before he started down the V8 path? Wow. Who'd had thunk, except every single mod-minded RX7 owner out there, since we've all replaced our engine at least once?

Originally Posted by voetsek

Actually the first 3 engines were 13B's then he went to a 20b then a LT1, then a LS1, then a LS7 if I remember right. (I think there were more, but I can't remember off the top of my head). Only the first two were ever installed and running.

You can't even find his thread over on RX7forum any more. He deleted it years ago because he got tired of the people arguing with him over his choice of engines.

His car hasn't been mobile for quite some while now. Even gone through 2 different paint schemes from the first iteration. And it's probably one of the few out there that the frame has less than ~12k miles on it.

The conversion actually just equals out weight wise with moving the battery to the back. Front to back weight bias is affected less than 2%. You figure with all the adders that a person has to put on a rotary to get to the power level of a LSX engine, they are going to weigh about the same. Also while the rotary might be small, there are quite a few pounds in accessories on the engine and most of that weight is up high.

Oh, yeah, I found the thread because Jim disappeared again & I was looking around to see where he went. Looks like he might have gotten tired of the car (again).

Most of the people doing the conversion are looking for reliability and power mostly. For the cost of a good rebuilt 13b, you can drop in a LS1 and double your HP, TQ, & gas mileage from stock. Highway with a LS engine is low 30's.

-Richard

[gnx7]

The LS1 (440rwhp) FD was actually mine. We later found out that the Hinson subframe had cracked on the passenger side. The welds were crappy and you could put a piece of cardboard thru the gap as it was fully broken off at the crossbar (where the steering rack mounts). Nonetheless the car pulled off a 1.13 going one direction and 1.06 going the other direction (broken Kmember) with a 1.09g average.

In essence I believe the car with a functional Kmember would've done 1.13g's which would've been USCC's highest lateral g car ever. Earlier that day I broke the torque arm at the drag strip (zero prep with sand all the way down the track next to a gravel quarry). Hinson was having quality weld control issues or hillbilly Alabama welding which we never truly found out. A local luckily stopped by and offered his MIG welder to help us get back in the action. I was not happy with his products during the event and very frustrated.

Don't be fooled by an LS1 in an FD. The car can be a monster as the 50/50 balance is retained. Mine was 49.5%front/50.5% rear at 2800lbs with a crossweight within 1lb. Full tank of fuel. In road race form with 6 year old 245/50/16 Nitto DR's it went 11.42@128mph n/a. With a drag style suspension and new sticky tires 10's wouldn't have been a problem.

My new conversion is a dry sump LS7 making around 575rwhp/530rwhp n/a on 91 octane widebody FD. Built T56, twin disc, Cobra Mustang IRS diff, Penske coilovers, Racing Brake BBK, custom fuel system, fresh paint, custom interior, 18x10.5 and 18x12.5 CCW's. Mid 20's mpg highway and low 10's@140mph at the strip n/a. It's a streetable road race car June 2009 it will be alive. v8rx7forum.com is where all these conversions hangout.

It is sad that Sport Compact Car Mag went under as I wanted to do another USCC with a well sorted vehicle. The original one in USCC was built for under $20K including the car with mainly used parts. Most of the other owners also hired professional drivers to pilot their cars at the track. Lame...












BTW- Jim has never had a running V8 conversion... He is good at paying fabricators and people to work on his FD that is for sure..... so I wouldn't consider any of his buildups more than just a model as they don't drive. Maybe 2010 will be his year.

[Masterauto]

Say goodbye due to CO2 regs

[thedaddyb]

I would say that the Revolution RX7 would be the ultimate RX7 . . . but maybe that is just me

540whp and weighing in at 2116lbs



http://www.importtuner.com/features/...rx7/index.html