My 1989 FC Vert Turbo II

[ali303]

Hi all!

Well as you can probably tell by my post count (or lack thereof) I\'m pretty new here but heard it was the best place to come to for all things rotary!

I\'ve been a Honda guy for the last year or so but when my mate got banned from driving I offered to buy the car he\'d owned for the last couple of months, and by the looks of it it\'s one the forum\'s already familiar with!









And some pictures I took when my mate had it the other month:





And the pic of it I found on here:



When I bought it the other day it came with Kei Office coilovers, R33 GTR wheels, Turbosmart boost gauge and a nice and subtle welded diff out back... Since then I\'ve added a few interior things I had lying around (see pic above): my Momo Monte Carlo steering wheel (ignore the Opel horn button, I need a new one!) as it\'s a bit of a squeeze me getting in and out and the flat face as opposed to a dished wheel really helps (I\'m 6\'4"...). Also my subtle bubble shifter as I couldn\'t stand the standard banana shaped one.

It\'s very tatty in places but I won\'t be touching anything up until the winter as this is my first RWD car (I\'m 20) and as it will be taken on the odd drift day very soon some sort of exterior damage is inevitable. In a few months I\'ll start sorting it though, first job being some new front wings!

As for further modifications, I wouldn\'t mind some split wheels for daily driving (and keep the R33 ones for drifting), maybe some Image ones with gold centres and a polished lip, like these:



Other than that a nice exhaust would be good so I can get some noise back in my life (I\'m used to a Honda + Spoon exhaust so I\'m getting withdrawl symptoms!)

As I\'m completely new to the rotary scene any general servicing/maintenance advice would be greatly appreciated! I\'m aware of the basic dos and don\'ts but I\'d like to replace a few of the consumables for good measure (filters, fluids etc)...plus it definitely needs some new windscreen wiper blades if anyone can suggest any!

Thanks for looking

[papercutout]

Welcome mate, good to see you\'ve joined! I didn\'t realise you were so young!

Consumables - //www.mazdarotaryparts.com

I use cheapo 10/40 oil. And my fuel filter is from a Z32 300zx, as it\'s bigger and much cheaper.

Exhaust - I have a 3" cat back single exit thing you can have for £40 if you come collect (or come to Rotorstock this Saturday) and if you combine it with a decat, it\'ll certainly keep you happy noise wise!

What\'s up with the front wings then, besides what I can see right at the front? R33 GTR wheels are expensive tbh mate, I\'d love to have a set to run occasionally! You\'d be able to sell them and pick up something with better fitment easily, e.g. on SXOC there\'s a set of Manarays, 10J ET25 for £350! (10J is a little much on the front of an FC, but just about doable with some work)

[ali303]

Welcome mate, good to see you\'ve joined! I didn\'t realise you were so young!

Consumables - //www.mazdarotaryparts.com

I use cheapo 10/40 oil. And my fuel filter is from a Z32 300zx, as it\'s bigger and much cheaper.

Exhaust - I have a 3" cat back single exit thing you can have for £40 if you come collect (or come to Rotorstock this Saturday) and if you combine it with a decat, it\'ll certainly keep you happy noise wise!

What\'s up with the front wings then, besides what I can see right at the front? R33 GTR wheels are expensive tbh mate, I\'d love to have a set to run occasionally! You\'d be able to sell them and pick up something with better fitment easily, e.g. on SXOC there\'s a set of Manarays, 10J ET25 for £350! (10J is a little much on the front of an FC, but just about doable with some work)

Haha the height does fool some people! Was trying to find you on Facebook via the Lowlife page after Awesomefest to ask you a few things but didn\'t realise you were on here!

Thanks for the link, I\'ll have a ganders :Thumbs-up

Sounds good to me dude, I\'ll have to let you know if I\'m going or not as to be honest I completely forgot and am pretty skint since buying the car!

They\'re completely rotten underneath so they\'re hardly secure haha, they don\'t look salvageable!

Oh are they!? I was under the impression they\'d be fairly cheap as they\'re OEM wheels, these ones are pretty good nick too so I\'ll have to look into that. Definitely fancy something dishier and girthier like yours for daily use :cool

[clive]

Welcome to MRC, looks like your having fun already out there with your new car :burnout

p.s. Here\'s a picture of our 2nd Gen

[papercutout]

You should be able to find me on the Lowlife page! My name is Ben in real life. Were you at Awesomefest then? In the cab? (I didn\'t see the \'vert anywhere!)

Yup, I hope you have a decently job, petrol is a killer - £1.44 p/litre of v-power here, and 28l = between 100 and 120 miles for me

Oh well, more to life than minty wings - learn to drift it first, then replace them after they\'ve been knocked! Feel free to sell them to me cheap, you know, £100 or so

[ali303]

You should be able to find me on the Lowlife page! My name is Ben in real life. Were you at Awesomefest then? In the cab? (I didn\'t see the \'vert anywhere!)

Yup, I hope you have a decently job, petrol is a killer - £1.44 p/litre of v-power here, and 28l = between 100 and 120 miles for me

Oh well, more to life than minty wings - learn to drift it first, then replace them after they\'ve been knocked! Feel free to sell them to me cheap, you know, £100 or so

Ah I\'ll have a look Yeah I was but in my Civic, I was looking at buying this car at the time and after seeing yours I decided I had to have an FC in my life! That\'s why I came over and eventually asked to sit in it just to make sure I could fit!

It\'s pretty decent but I\'ve got my own house to consider as well so financially it\'s probably not my best idea ever to get a rotary but meh, the car\'s fun and that\'s what matters! It\'s 139.9 at the Shell round the corner from mine and so far about £15 has got me 50 miles, and that\'s been mostly sensible driving!

[B.Martin]

Welcome to the club, looks a good base car for mods as well. I think there are more verts about now days than there are coupes! Keep us updated on the progress, if your going to be drifting it there are some mods that are recommended although I can\'t remember off top of my head what they all are. If you keep an eye out for DtheBuk, he\'s the guy who knows all about drifting FC\'s.

Best of luck and I\'m sure if you\'ve got any problems someone on here is bound to be able to help.

[grinder]

looks very nice

Welcome aboard

[ali303]

Thanks everyone

If your going to be drifting it there are some mods that are recommended although I can\'t remember off top of my head what they all are. If you keep an eye out for DtheBuk, he\'s the guy who knows all about drifting FC\'s.

Thanks mate, I\'ll have to have a word with him if I see him around on here.

Going to be ordering some more spacers at some point to sort out the wheel fitment a little better. I\'m not after anything silly but the rears look a little lost in the arch with the amount of camber they have. An extra 5/10mm should do the trick I think.

The welded diff is also really starting to annoy me. It was a good laugh in the wet last night but getting in and out of my drive (it\'s a tight squeeze) and the cramped office car park is such an effort due to it binding up. A pretty aggressive LSD would be ideal if anyone can suggest anything?

When I get chance the brakes need some attention as well, they don\'t feel too strong at the moment! Also the handbrake is pretty poor so I\'ll be taking a look at that soon. Good thing I\'ve ordered the FC Haynes manual! :Laugh

[papercutout]

The handbrakes aren\'t great. I can lock mine in the wet, but it\'s more effort than you want to use for entry. While you can probably set it up so it works better, I\'m just going to fit the hydro I\'ve had sitting around for years at some point.

Me and DtheB have had similar levels of experience drifting these = not a lot! Regarding LSD - just man up, I\'ve had a welder for the last year and a half :p And almost 2 years before that in the E30!

Didn\'t realise it was you that came over and sat in there. Fair play then! You were with the guy with the MX5.

[ali303]

Yeah a hydro would be epic, would like one at some point but would ideally like to leave the interior as intact as possible.

Haha it\'s just such a pain reversing into my drive, was wondering if the active rear toe setup would be affecting it though?

Yeah I was with Seb with the pretty cool Mx-5, we were just sat outside our tents like "oh shiii\' that\'s the FC vert on banded steelies!" and thought we\'d come and have a look!

Going to be ordering quite a bit of stuff soon, also been looking at removing the active rear-toe setup which can be done with a set of solid bushes of some description I believe?

PS took some more pictures:

[papercutout]

DTSS eliminator bushes. I\'m on the lookout for some atm too, aim about £40 + delivery.

Car looks sweet

[ali303]

Ah that\'s them, let me know if you find any! As soon a I can get rid of my old Civic I\'ll have a decent amount of money to spend on important things, drifting things and cool things. Really want an exhaust system like yours as I love the twin pipes and the relatively small size of them, not such a fan of big single exits on FCs unless they\'ve got a lairy rear bumper.

[TiddlesRX7]

I think WGT do the DTSS bushes.

Ade

[B.Martin]

It looks like your vert is in very good condition paintwork wide