Rotary in a Westfield???

[kiwimazda]

Got a call yesterday saying the car is all finished and I am collecting on Tuesday. Then its off testing for the day.
They advised me that the corner wheights were all over the place, wheel alignment was shot and the dampers were about 40% out  in variation accross the 4 of them. I was then asked how I drove it like that.
Once finished testing on Tuesday its then up to Prodrive in Banbury to collect some of me engine parts and then home

[kiwimazda]

The car feels much better. Very stable now in the corners. Unfortunately after 6 miles the gearbox called time and that was it for play today.

[re japi]

..."thats racing"...

[kiwimazda]

Totally. The gearbox has given me 5 years of trouble free racing and when I got it, the cost was £75 inc a 4.8 cwp. The box itself was made up of rx7 and 626 ratios.(about the same as a mx5 i beleive). Its more annoying that its an engine out job to change the box.
But what box to replace with? I could use one of the 5 FB boxes I have in the workshop but I may do the same and toast one at the next event. I could convert to Type 9 ford with quaiffe internals but thats going to be around the £1200 mark. So I am leaning towards a Turbo 2 for now but I will do a bit more research.
Another problem that needs investigating is the smoke from the exhaust when bring the car off the trailer.There was a lot. So that could well be a rebuild also.
But I have been racing for 25+ years and I enjoy working on the car more than driving it(you have to, you spend less time driving than working on them)

[kiwimazda]

A couple of pics from the day

[re japi]

Wow. That gearbox was pretty good. 5 years in racing is a long time.

Yep, TII box might be good idea. Coshwort/Mustang box(borg wagner t5) can take lots of beating too...

[kiwimazda]

All going well(my first priority is to get the engine back in the car tonight with a new box) I will get the old one apart and get a picture of whats left of 3rd

[Steve-A]

Glad to hear the corner weighting and alignment has tamed the beast some

I\'ve a feeling that somewhere I read that the mx5 and fc n/a gearbox is internally stronger than a FB box. Maybe worth looking into? Be nice and easy with them all being type M.

[antnicuk]

i have yet to break a turbo II box with well over 400 bhp in the kit car and a FC.  You can get good sized clutches and they are easy to get hold of.  Much better than a type 9,  my cousin had a type 9 with quaif internals built by BGH Geartec and it broke with only 200 bhp from a red top and very lightweight car.

[kiwimazda]

I changed the boxes tonight and put the one I used for the srpint championdhip back in the car.
I am still going to do abingdon on 11th june. The engine is smoking a bit now and I figure that I will just run it until it goes pop. I have some PP inserts now and can start getting some things done for the PP that will go into the LHD car

[re japi]

Steve-A, yes i have heard(from somewhere)that FB box is modified from Mazda truck. FC box is designed for FC and TII box is modified from that...

Kiwi, i really hope that there nothing wrong with engine.

[Steve-A]

I don\'t know much about the truck but I do know that the RWD 626, FB rx7, 5 speed mx5 and FC egi boxes are all effectively the same. They have different ratios in them and different housings on them but the layout is the same and the individual ratios and the housings are interchangeable.

The turbo II box is a new design all together.

I\'m just sure I\'d read somewhere that the gears themselves from the EGI box or mx5 box were stronger than the FB/626 boxes.

[kiwimazda]

I now have a standard box up behind the smoky engine and by tomorrow night it will all be hooked up and running again. I don\'t expect either box or engine to last long at the next sprint on June 11th. But I have to go as there is a good chance of a first in class and top 10 finish.

[re japi]

Good luck. I really hope that engine or gearbox wont break. And you will at the podium.

Btw, you dont know yet whats wrong with the engine...?

[kiwimazda]

There seems to be a lot of oil in the combustion chambers. I was going to peplace this with a PP so its no matter if it goes pop. It will no doubt be the most impressive thing it has ever done.