The FC RX-7 has new legs, feet, and shoes...pics inside

[Bunchies]

So the suspension phase of the RX-7 is finally (almost) complete. My suspension search started around June or July of last year. I had all stock suspension with blown rear shocks. The handling still wasn’t that bad to me, but the car felt like it was capsizing every time I took a corner. Because I was working a summer job at the time, I began searching around. My original plan was to go with Japanese market coilovers, and it seemed that an importer in the Bay Area called AutoRnD could supply them. They tried to sell me on companies like Stance, Silkroad, etc. They weren’t terribly expensive, but I couldn’t help but have some reservations about these companies. See, the thing is, no serious racers use those Japanese spec coilovers. I remember one FC autocrosser was running revalved Bilstein shocks, and the big names in the race world of RX-7s seemed to be Penske, JRZ, and Moton. After a little bit of research, I pretty much decided that European suspension was what I wanted.

To give you guys an idea of what the car looked like when I bought it, here is a picture. This was taken after a tint job:



Towards the end of summer, I came upon a deal that seemed pretty good. A friend of a friend was parting out his FC, and he was selling the coilovers on his car. They were definitely European, and they were definitely much higher end parts than I had ever planned on owning. So in September, I ended up purchasing a used set of Ohlins. One of the rears needed to be rebuilt, so I met up with the guy, picked up the fronts, and left the rebuild of the rear to him. He assured me that they would be done in a few weeks. Well, weeks turned into months, and still no rear suspension. I kept going back and forth, trying to get my money back, trying to contact him (he wasn’t very responsive to calls), and just trying to find a way to complete my rear suspension. I went 7 months without a matching rear setup, when I finally got sick of trying to recover my money (I had paid him in full). During this time, I played around with the idea of just picking up cheap coilovers (like Teins or something or other) and doing away with the Ohlins. In the end, I dropped the Ohlins off at a little company called Ground Control (they are relatively local to me) and had them dyno the shocks to figure out the valving, etc. I ended up going with a Koni yellow rear coilover setup from them.

Everything seemed to be moving along fine (except the money I lost, that I am recovering now), and last weekend, we started to install my coilovers. The fronts seemed strange. The new springs that I had Ground Control put on were too short. Even with max negative camber dialed in, there was not even a pinky-space between the tire and the fender. Here is how short the springs were:



Good going Ground Control. I did have aftermarket wheels and tires that I had laying around for 7 months just waiting for the suspension, but there was no excuse for having the spring not even sit on the perch at maximum ride height. It was so low that I couldn’t have rolled over a raisin.

So I waited another week, driving the parts back to their shop so they could switch out the springs. I ended up with 380lb front springs and 340lb rear springs. Finally, with a normal length spring on the fronts, the installation could begin. That is exactly what happened yesterday:

Here are the rear Konis installed. We ended up going with a lower ride height later on:



Front right wheel with the Ohlins installed. This wheel was in the worst shape of the 4. Darn surface rust:



Everything is installed, time to roll it out of the driveway. Note the S2000 in the background :





After taking a test drive to a gas station to fill up the tires (they were low on pressure), we found out that the front was a little too low. The tires would rub a bit going up driveways. The thing is, the strut insert was already at its maximum extension. Only one thing to do. "Roll" the fenders:



This is how low the front is:



And the rear, a little better. No issues here:



And here it is, dirty but on the road, finally:



The fenders still rub a little bit. I will be getting an alignment and corner balance on tuesday, so hopefully that should help a bit. In the meantime, I'll be driving as little as possible, and i'll be ghetto rolling those fenders for now. Maybe a cheap set of wide fenders will pop up somewhere.

That's it for now. I haven't been pushing the car because of the crappy alignment and lack of corner balance, but from what I have experienced, the car is extremely planted. The spring rates are a little rough on the road, but not that bad. Bumps and imperfections aren't a problem, but huge dips are, due to the ride height. The car is extremely planted in corners, as the tires seem to offer a large amount of grip. One thing is for sure, I won't be outdriving this car for a long long time.

[Rancidpunk666]

cool

[jarhed13]

Lookin' good man.

If you ever wanna get rid of those TII rims, lemme know in a lil while when the tread on my stock GXL wheels runs low, so I have a reason to buy 16" tires

Edit: Hopefully rx7club answers your idle dealie soon, heh

[colinshark]

Awesome. I really like those wheels (styling, color, offset, size, etc). Also, black FCs are superior.

What's your idling problem?

[dbzeag]

Much too low and I hate your rims.



I love the car, though. Stock rims on that model ftw.

[BandontheRun84]

Those wheels are beautiful.

[jarhed13]

Originally Posted by colinshark

Awesome. I really like those wheels (styling, color, offset, size, etc). Also, black FCs are superior.

What's your idling problem?

Just in case he doesn't check back in for a while....

He got/had the oil changed. It had 20w-50 in it, and put 10w-30 in. Now it doesn't idle at the 800-900rpm normal area post warm-up, but 1500-1800rpm now. I'm not sure if the 'tech' messed something up (if he got it done somewhere) or what...but I doubt the oil weight change would do that, seeing how I currently have 10w-40 in mine (soon to go back to 20w-50)

[InsanezX2]

Originally Posted by BandontheRun84

Those wheels are beautiful.

QFT. Very .

[colinshark]

Originally Posted by jarhed13

Just in case he doesn't check back in for a while....

He got/had the oil changed. It had 20w-50 in it, and put 10w-30 in. Now it doesn't idle at the 800-900rpm normal area post warm-up, but 1500-1800rpm now. I'm not sure if the 'tech' messed something up (if he got it done somewhere) or what...but I doubt the oil weight change would do that, seeing how I currently have 10w-40 in mine (soon to go back to 20w-50)

Oil wouldn't do that. If it's that high, it sounds like a vacuum leak somewhere. Check all the intake hoses.

[Jager]

That is the dopesauce with sickberries on top.

[jarhed13]

Originally Posted by colinshark

Oil wouldn't do that. If it's that high, it sounds like a vacuum leak somewhere. Check all the intake hoses.

My thoughts EXACTLY, heh

That's why I had asked'em on rx7club if he had the oil done someone, or if he had done it himself

[mekilljoydammit]

I have to agree with your priorities... if only anyone sold good FB shocks for anything approaching affordable. This is leading to experiments on my part...

Looks good though... hrm, rear spring rates seem kinda high. *shrug*

[ScHpAnKy]

DAMN

[VanFanel]

Mmmm coilovers.... I am still debating whether to keep the R package suspension and just getting new bump stops, or going all out and doing a full swap on the Miata... one thing for sure - it is motherfucking GLUED to the damn road. 25 MPH turns at 55 MPH - no problem, no squeal and no sliding

[ubercaff]

Lookin damn good.

Rishie @ AutoRND is the man when it comes to RX-7's and I would trust his judgement.

But it seems like you got your shit handled.