RX-7 Racing - Hodgkinson Engineering

[Carl]

A Peripheral port does not necessarily mean a narrow power band with a turbo,it depends on the size and postion of the inlet port,and the turbo type and size.
A very well known rotary tuner wrongly suggested in the past that a turbo bridgeport means that the power does not come in until much later than an extend port (Ported side port) when the truth of the matter is that a small bridgeport lowers the rpm that the same turbo starts making boost.
As for the exhaust,yes it will be very difficult to get it quiet enough without running it to the back of the car,but if it is run there then it will be possible to run decent power and low sound level.
Regards
Carl

[raceralexuk]

Got the weekend off work so spent the day underneath the car.
 
Slung the fuel tank on the tip, took the back end all to bits to see how it all goes together. That big aluminium bumper bar seems to hold a fair bit of weight. Considered chucking it too, but I suppose too much would be lost by doing so. Strength & a place to hang a diffuser from mainly. What\'s the normal thing to do?
 
Regarding the engine side of things - not given it much thought recently. Still maintain that peripheral port housings would by the best option as having the inlets either side of the housings seems so restrictive. As Carl said, I\'d tend to think that if enough time and effort goes into making the turbo work the correct way then we should be able to widen the power band out. Anyway, these are our ideals. We could well find out that for some reason we can\'t run a peripheral port in which case a bit of bridge porting will have to happen.
 
So.. much.. to learn!

[D1 WTF]

Ditch the bumper support bar no need for it really.

[TonyC]

I don\'t use the rear bumper support. if you want to mount a rear diffuser just make up some mounts of alloy, a lot lighter than that bar.

[AtomicRex]

to be fair it really is really light the rear bumper support.
 
Id still get rid of it though
 
It would make a good jousting pussel though...especially with the return of Gladiators!!!

[TonyC]

The front fiberglass one is heavier.

[Oliver]

raceralexuk, best of luck with your racecar.
I\'m bulding a buget FD racecar here in Denmark. I decided to keep the rear bumper for now, because I am still using the stock rear bumper. It\'s pretty soft and figured it might last alittle longer if the brace (with the foam) was still installed preventing it from collapsing or totally getting destroyed in some on track contact. I drilled a lot of hole to lighten it up.. just wanted to share another idea for you.
Regards
Oliver

[Warthog]

Hi mate, good luck..............:wave

[raceralexuk]

Left the rear bumper support bar on for now - can just visualise some rear end contact first time out :2Rolleyes So I\'m going to play it safe!
 
Just about down to the shell now, engine is still in but minus a lot of peripherals. Wiring harness has mostly been removed (hacked away :rolleyes: )too.
 
Going to do a few things before it\'s sent off to custom cages. Want to get a seat in as well as the electric steering column and pedal box.
Speaking of seats, I\'m guessing there might be a bit of trouble as the FD c0ckpit is so narrow? Which seem to fit, & who does the subframes?
 
Also been looking at getting the doors all sorted with mirrors mounted, lexan windows with sliders and the insides chopped out with aluminium door cards. I\'m presuming a few of you have experience of working with lexan. How workable is the stuff? I really wanted to get windows with the sliders already fitted but nobody seems to do them, so I\'m going to have to drill and cut them myself. Don\'t fancy splitting them at £70 a pop!
 
Also ordered some flush headlights from a guy stateside. Went for the HID option he had as it\'s always nice to be noticed!
 
Oliver, do you have a build page or gallery anywhere? It\'s always cool to have a look at what other people are up to. That goes for TonyC\'s thread too.
 
Jon, I keep meaning to call you! It\'s probably better I give your number to my dad actually.

[AtomicRex]

We have a spare cage...and we\'re cheaper!
 
I await your dads call

[antnicuk]

good luck with the project,   the amount of experience that has posted on this thread should make you re think some of your ideas.  I appreciate it is nice to be different. I\'m not trying to sell you anything but my advice is learn from other people on here.  You have over a hundred years of Rotary experience plus what ever racing experience.

For one i would re consider the PAS option,  IIRC, the other electric PAS options are columns not racks, if do you will also need a non PAS rack,  if you go for a saxo electric pump,  you can keep the rack you have.

Dont go PP.  A street port or small bridge is much better for what you want.  There is a reason people dont use it in this country!

[TonyC]

The manual rack\'s Jon is selling are a perfect fit I can now confirm, and look lovely.

[raceralexuk]

I don\'t doubt it, but there are a few other places we have to channel money towards before going for one of those. For now, we\'ll be running our rack minus power steering fluid with all it\'s holes plugged up:
 

 
That\'s something we did months ago, before getting the car. On the subject of pre-work on the car, here are some of the parts we did before getting the car:
 

 
New nylon bush vs old rubber bush. The new nylon bushes were all made by my Snr. Took bloody ages, but they\'ll definitely be worth it - zero flex!
 


Wishbones all bushed up - missing one was actually bent.
 


Cleaning up the rear subframe.
 


A group shot of everything together plus a few other brackets and bits which were cleaned up. Racing tends to nacker stuff up, so it makes sense to start from as best condition as you possibly can. It\'s impossible to spot cracks through thick layers of dirt, so it makes sense to put time into making sure everything is spotless.

[raceralexuk]

The many stages of engine removal:
 

 

 
 

 

 

 


 
 :Thumbs-up
 
For now this engine will be going back under the bonnet relatively untouched. New fuel rails are going to be made up, to take bigger injectors and we\'re going to use a GT4088 turbo from the States, but only at fairly low boost for the time being. The trick motor will be built up from new parts once we\'re up and running with this. Suits me - I\'d prefer to spend hours working on finding mph out of the chassis than bhp out of the noisy thing at the front! That\'s why, as a driver, it can sometimes be a struggle being run by an engine tuner... :chat

[raceralexuk]

Hacked both of the doors up :evillaugh. Did it manually with a pair of cutters so naturally I cut the hell out of my hands!
 

 

 
Just don\'t show me a baked bean tin for a while..