have heard a lot of talk about the handling for the fd3.some describe it as suberb/some ok/some terrible.my own experience is dont push it in the wet dry seems ok slight twitch in second but am running 1 bar.now when one of these is stuffed up i hear that this was under normal driving dry road not booting it etc
something does not add up surely these cars are no different to any other car rear or front wheel drve in that thay are only going to break traction if on boost or going too fast otherwise have i purchased the worst handling sports car in the world.unable to see how u can lose it in one of these under normal driving or am i missing something
Once they let go they let go big, you need to be a skilled driver or lucky to catch it. I have driven all sorts of RWD cars and most have been easy for beginners to learn the problems with RWD cars without crashing. With the RX7 they handle great if you know the limits of the car and your driving.
Having just crashed mine I thought I\'d comment. I have to say I couldn\'t fault the handling on mine, it was far more capable than some of the other powerful RWD cars I\'ve had. I was just unlucky no fault of the car, half way round a bend and hit some greasy sh*t on the road, car just went straight......driven the same bend hundreds of times normally much quicker too.
I have only had mine for just over 2 years and have been away from it a fair amount of that time, but I can say that yeah in the wet with a little persuasion it goes and while away in the desert this time last year my wife found out the hard way. See below.
You can keep it straight when pulling off at high ish revs just play with the camber of the road. I did notice it gets very light at the front when accellerating hard or on big long bends, it feels not like the back is going to go but the front is not fully in contact with the ground , not like understeer more vague like an old land rover. Maybe some front end down force will sort it. But the back digs in if accellerating round a tight bend from standstill, just in my own axperience.
I found the handling spot on.
The only time it gets twitchy is when you hammer it on the boost, just like any powerful RWD car. A FWD drive will feel \'safer\' than a RWD but normally thats because of the limited power going thro the wheels.
Stick 250bhp + thro the front wheels of a FWD and then say the steering is perfect - torque steer rules at that point :eek:. I find with RWD the breakaway is much better and lets you know whats going on and when.
Generally, people who stack the RWD car are going too fast for the conditions IMO...
I find the handling spot on too, hard to see how anyone could lose it on a dry road. Mines got lowered stiffened suspension , 9.5 J wheels .
Picked it up from the Midlands 2 months ago and had to drive back to somerset . It pissd down all the way back and the car had smooth rear tyres by the last owner - so an interesting drive home lol, had a few fishtails in 2nd 3rd gear.
With new tyres on I can boot in 3rd in the rain and the back twitches but not too bad, soon as powers let off .
In the dry it sticks like glue, just gotta be carefull of cow shite and pot holes lol.
Thats just it though on one bit of road it may be fine on another it may be all over the place. Bloody british roads.
I have found mine to be very camber sensitive. almost tries to steer the car - imagine that while going fast round a bend?! :eek:
when was the last time you car was set up properly ? and I don\'t mean just the tracking. FD\'s have a lot of adjustment and from threads along these lines before getting it set up properly via a place that does full laser alignment can make a huge difference.
QuoteOriginally posted by MikeLMR
when was the last time you car was set up properly ? and I don\'t mean just the tracking. FD\'s have a lot of adjustment and from threads along these lines before getting it set up properly via a place that does full laser alignment can make a huge difference.
Absolutly spot on comment. My car is lowered on GAB coil overs and stiffened to hell. However I was never really happy with the cars handling, always felt vague. Got to the point where I really wasnt happy, car was skittish on long bends at high speed, (135+), so I made the effort to get it alligned. That in itself wasnt easy as I had to find a place where they had a level access ramp. Found a place in Fareham, (near to where I live! :) ) and they also set the car to my requirements.
The car is transformed. Have driven Castle Coombe and Silverstone with it and Its awsome. Understeers a little so I need to add a little more toe in, (or maybe adjust tyre pressures), but get the power on and she bites into the road and goes where I want her to. Love it!!
Ian
heck that does sound as it handels well. I had all 4 laser aligned in august but I need to replace some of the bushes in the left rear (that will dramatically affect the handlng??)
Will difinatly make a difference. If the bushes are worn then the suspension can move, and not in the directions that are intended!
My rear trailing arms are RE-A replacememnts and they dont have rubber in them, just ball joints! :)
Forgot to add that I dont get the car \'tracking\' in ruts or moving about with the camber of the road either. have found in the past that tyres and tyre pressures can make a difference to this. Especially the jap rubber which is noisy and lacks grip. I run Goodyear F1 GSD3\'s. Bloody good rubber IMO.
Ian
QuoteOriginally posted by iiyama
My rear trailing arms are RE-A replacememnts and they dont have rubber in them, just ball joints! :)
Hang on, me is interested - been told that there are 6 bushes on each side of the rear suspension (12 total @ £75 each = £900 not including any fitting)
me being a complete :rolleyes: - should I look at doing this then?? (guess there will still besome bushes in the setup?) Any costs/advantages/disadvantages etc ???
regards, the novice :cool
Hi All,
I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago, and here is what l said ( some of this will mimic Ben, but some won\'t ).
Two of the best things you can and should do with an FD is one 1, junk any crappy tyres especially if they are the ones that the car landed with in this country because Jap rubber is harder and useless on our colder roads,and as Ben says most (including me) have gone for the Goodyear F1\'s as they are probably the most suited for all round FD use.
2, Get a full geometry check done with a 4 wheel laser system, lots of places have these nowadays and cost around £50, you should literally be able to take your hands off the wheel at like 160 and the car be straight.
Now for the bushes, personally l believe that the FD bush system is the nearest you will see to a Race Car suspension on the road with very little movement with its bushing, unless you are going to seriously track day the car l think there is really no need to spend any money on bushes.
l deify any one on road Tyres with an FD to be able to drive one a gain any positive improvement for all that money and even with the extra grip of full slicks l think you will still be pushed to notice a difference.
It is also worth knowing that when l was racing l found that rose joint suspension at times wears out in a matter of a few miles and rattles and clunks like mad and is not road friendly at all.
So here we go with a summery, for an FD you need good tyres, wheels that are pointing in the right direction, a good spring/damping set, and just a check normal and replace with standard Mazda bushes is quite sufficient.
No offence to those who have them but to me \'\'Designer\'\' bushes have only on place on a road FD , and that\'s when your leaning on the bar talking about them !
New mazda bushes it is then! Cheers for the info.
Just as another thought - I have read of people trying to install new one themselves and did think about giving it a go - is this adviseable and will I put all the suspension settings out? or should I just get it done when next service is due?
thanx again :)
Going back to the original question, "am i missing something", RX7veilside, i know you bought your car with a single turbo conversion, did you ever drive one on the stock twins?, Mine was stock when i bought it, i found it would lose the back end easier in the wet with the stock twins (225rwhp) than when i had a big single (360+rwhp) as you create more boost a lot lower down in the revs and its hard to drive "off boost" with the twins. If you have a big turbo, you can drive it generally to 3500 rpm with out massive boost and are less likely to spin the wheels. With the twins the small first turbo comes in very low down and quite hard and it breaks traction easily.
Getting the 4 wheel alignment was the best £100 i spent. If in doubt, tell em to use stock mazda settings.
I never really had probs in the wet with my fd. the only thing i can say is keep away from drift and race techniques in the wet. ie dont let the weight transfer from back to front when cornering or powering out of bends and the such. stay offf the white lines
scott
all i have had is a loss of traction in straight line at about 6-6500 rpm in 2nd gear.i orig asked the question not because i had trouble but because of the tales of people loosing control of theirs at apparently normal driving speeds and wondered if i should start to be worried
I find that my back end is a little twitchy when running WOT in 2nd gear but i figure that is just cos of the power being sent through the wheels.
Changed up an gear and everthing settles down. Might look into getting a Tein setup in the new year since the suspension is 10 years old though.