A few technical and not-so-technical Qs

[zetsurin]

Hi all,

I am currently in Japan and am relocating to the UK for a good few years and once I get a stream of income coming in over there, I plan on buying a nice FD RX7.  I would like to start preparing myself for the purchase/get the wet dreams happening etc :p so I have a few quick Q\'s if I could so trouble you all.

- Does anyone have any good information at a technical level which describes how the sequencing of the standard turbos work?  I used to own a 97 RZ Supra when I was in Australia and gathered a good knowledge of how it\'s sequential turbos operate which I found to be invaluable for modding.  I suspect the FD\'s turbo sequencing happens in a similar fashion to the Supra\'s, but would like to know how they work exactly (and are the turbos equally sized as they are in the Supra?).

- Are any photos of the rear \'seats\' that the JDM model has available anywhere on ther net?  I understand that such tiny seats would be of limited use, but so were they in the Supra yet they managed to (just) serve a purpose once every now and then.  Am I correct in assuming that, like Aus, the only cars with the rear seats are the Japanese model, with the local model having the rear storage bins?

- What\'s the insurance like?  In Aus, it\'s a killer!  Well, it is in Sydney anyway, with all the car theft rackets going on over there *shudders*  I\'m 34 without any widely publicized criminal convictions (aside from various noted crimes to humanity for karaoke performances here) if that is worth mentioning.

- The PowerFC... I am pretty sure I can get one pretty darn cheaply being in Japan and all and am contemplating (although possibly it would be too much jumping the gun as ideally I should get the car first) bringing one over with me.  What\'s the going rate of them in the UK?  I can read a certain degree of Japanese but that\'s all academic as I wouldn\'t be trusting myself to tune the thing.  Do they work find on a stock car when just plugged in place of the ECU?  Do they run standard equipment like the air con?

- Who/where are the good tuners?  I find the best ones are discovered via word of mouth.

- *EDIT* Almost forgot this one: are there any good guides/videos etc that I can get that cover how to rebuild a rotary engine?

Sorry if I am asking obvious questions here, I am just starting my research and am at the point of being disoriented just right now with information overload.

Thanks!
Tony

[GeckoGareth]

Hey Tony,

http://www.autosportracetech.com/RX-7/TurboTroubleshooting.htm
has some good info on the twin sequential setup and how and when what happens, you might have to hunt around a bit to find it but I saw it earlier today so know it\'s in there.

The rear seats are tiny, I\'m 6\'1 and nobody would be able to sit behind me a tiny person could squeeze in behind the passenger though. Pic of my old jap one\'s seats here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.toughill/Gareth%20RX7/Before/7.jpg

insurance is bad but being an oldy ( ) you will be ok. Can get classic car insurance if the car is over 10 years old which is nice and cheap.

I\'d probably hold off on the power FC as the ECU changed in 96 so unless you know you will definitly get a 92-95 or a 96-2002 model then you might get the wrong one.

few good tuners over here, check the advertiser links at the top of the forum for more info.

Also being in Japan I\'m sure a lot of people would probably tell you to find one out there and ship it over, you are in a better position than most who have to make do with pics on the net before handing the cash over and hoping that they made a good decision.

cheers

Gareth

[zetsurin]

Hi Gareth,

Thanks for the very informative reply.  As for the cheeky oldy comment, I really did have that coming to me, listing my age and all.  I do get mistaken for someone in their mid 20s on occassion though, and that helps me to deal with it  Insurance, however, is one of the rare times when I always wished that I was older.

Yeah, those rear seats are tiny.  They do remind me quite a lot of the Supra ones though.  In that pic, are the front seats in their average position?  In the Supra I had, it had recaros which ate into the precious little space as it was and my normal driving position had the back of my seat flush with the front of the rear seat base so only the passenger rear was ever (marginally) useful.  It was still useful for throwing junk back there and carrying an emergency passenger.  I can imagine headroom must be another problem.

Yeah, it frustrates me to be here, with the caryards all over the place and not being able to just buy a car.  Unfortunately, I need to wait until I am settled in the UK first.  However, I am coming back here for a shorter trip in June 06, so if I don\'t find anything over there (although having had a drool in the for sale section that might be unlikely!) I\'ll probably try to buy one then.  If I get one in Japan I was thinking of trying to get a really late model one, but am also thinking that perhaps a pre-99 might have better tuning knowledge and parts available (in case there have been any changes like different wiring etc).

Cheers,
Tony

[leggysrx7]

the difference between the supra back seats and FD\'s are very little, however the front seats in the supra slide forward when you want to go in the back, whereas in the FD you have to manually pull them forward then return them to your driving position....a real pain in the backside....

..hope you understand what i mean

Marc

[Ricco_04]

I had to go for a trip in the back "seats" of my mates Supra - honestly I think there is slightly less room in the RX.

Tuning wise, If you buy an earlier pre 1995 model then you will find it much more easier to pass all the emissions regs (just to avoid the hassle of putting cat\'s back on etc)

Oh and coming from Japan back to the UK (and back and fro again) then you are in a good position to buy lots of goodies for all us nice people here!  :cool

Ricco.

[zetsurin]

Oh and coming from Japan back to the UK (and back and fro again) then you are in a good position to buy lots of goodies for all us nice people here!  :cool

For sure, I can speak and read a certain amount of Japanese (never enough though, it seems!!) which can get me so far, but (much like the sequentials) when I run out of boost, my fiancé is just warming up because she\'s Japanese  Should be a good way of bringing in some parts so I\'ll let y\'all know when my next to and fro will be.

Actually, there is a tuning/parts shop just down the road from where I am staying: http://www.upgarage.com/upgarage/index.php.  That\'s why I wanted to at least think of getting a Power FC, but since the unit varies for V1-3 of the FD I agree that it\'s wise to hold off... besides, I\'m awfully short on yen right now  Well, just enough to get me to see the SuperGT at Fuji Speedway late September perhaps  

[FD3Typer2]

For the rebuild video:

http://www.rotaryaviation.com/Books_videos.htm

[zetsurin]

So as for insurance, what kind of ballpark figure do people over the 30yo mark pay?  I\'m sure there must be some other old geezers like me on here  I should consider this before I get my heart too set on these cars!

[johnf]

Insurance........

So many variables, driving record, post code etc,  and so many ppl with different stories from the same insurer best spend some time on the phone.

There is also a dedicated \'Insuring your Rotay thread\' to read.

You can be sure it\'ll be more than you think/expect.

John

[Bulla]

Insurance can vary wildly depending on the company and obviously your age and experience. If you want to do it on the cheap you can buy an old banger and insure both on a classic policy (limited mileage) providing the RX is over 10 years old. I\'m 26 and pay £400 a year FC for my Banger and 5000 miles on the RX.

Check the insurance section for the Sticky.

Bulla

[leggysrx7]

i\'ve just turned 30, have 9 years driving and 9 years no claims and my insurance is around the £800 mark...

Marc

[GeckoGareth]

In the pic the passenger front seat is in normal position but the driver side is flipped forwards for that photo, you can see at the bottom that if the seat was flipped back there is no leg room at all for a passenger behind the driver.

Insurance is weird, some people get amazing quotes others get stung, if you\'ve no convictions or accidents in last 5 years I would have thought insurance would not be a problem. Classic insurance is proper cheap if your car is old enough. I got a good quote and I\'m 25 with 3 points and a nasty fault accident last year.

Also you mentioned bringing in a late model RX7, unfortunatly they require a vehicle report to pass the SVA tests before you can register it in the UK and there isn\'t one available for the later model cars.

hope that helps

Gareth