Hello know-it-alls.
I've been on here for a while, mostly creeping on your builds, or rants, and internet arguing. I've been meaning to make a build thread, and it seems now is the time. I'm new to the stance/slammed/wheel game, but I've been passionate about cars from as far back as I can remember. I've always been obsessed with putting big things into small spaces. When I was a kid, I tried to get the mechanic across the street to mount a 20hp lawnmower engine to my scooter. Years went by, and I never had the opportunity to do the stupid things that I wanted to do. Every one of my attempts was shot down. Some of the reasons were lack of workspace, tools, knowledge, money, and so on. Until a few years ago. I met a guy with a shop, and he mentioned once that I was welcome to use the shop if I needed it. A ray of hope. Over time I hinted to him about starting a V8-swap car build. He seemed curious. I didn't care if he was ready for it or not, cause I was. This was my chance. This was the only opportunity that I got! Knees weak, arms heavy, vomit on my sweater already moms spaghetti, I started looking for my fantasy project car. Drifting was getting pretty popular, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't inspire my build. I knew I wanted a rear-wheel drive coupe, but the rest was open game. Months went by, and I looked at everything from Cobra 427 kits, to Porsche 944's. Everything was priced high, and my self-imposed budget was $3,000.00 for the complete build. (hahahahaha retard) I kept looking, and one day, I found it.
A white, n/a 1991 Mazda RX7 with black interior. It was perfect. Cut springs, steelies, cracked windshield, non-running, no title, in a ghetto yard under a tree, covered in leaves and birdpoop, guarded by a barking pitbull, frothing at the mouth. I still can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the beautiful tragedy. The pizza delivery kid that supposedly owned it said it ran once, but I already knew that. It’s a rotary; duh. I jumped it, and after a few minutes of tinkering, the bizarre contraption of an engine fired to life in a smoking, buzzing horror of a whir. I smiled, and prepared myself for the 70-mile drive home. Oh yeah, I was that stupid. The tires were shooting threads, the car had no brakes, and it ran on spells and potions. I whittled the price down to $400, and began my journey home. I took off down the street with what looked like a NASA space-ship launch. Four miles down the road, the magic stopped, and I was dead in the middle of a busy street. I ran some distance to an auto-parts store for a new battery, and dropped my first purchase of the build. The new battery got me running again, but it was a dying alternator that I was dealing with. I knew that had to be it; it was mounted to the engine with 4” zinc wood screws.
I made the 70 miles home somehow, stopping with only the handbrake, revving the song of my people the whole way to keep it alive. It was already a drift car. I shut it off, and stood there just looking at it, as smoke slowly lifted from my hair and clothing. The dream was finally a reality, the steel was real.
This intro might seem long winded and contrived, but you need to know, that this all took place many, many years ago. I bought the car on a magical date, 10/10/10. If this was a competition, you could say I took the gold. In this time, all of my closest friends have come to know the car, and it is the start of many awkward conversations.
Before I show you the pictures, I want to say that I am not building a drift car. I am fulfilling my childhood dream; putting a V8 (and other things) where it (they) doesn't (don't) belong. I’m not trying to make max hp, or “kill the game”, or impress anybody. This is just my story.
I’m going to narrate our way through these sweet potato photos like parents narrate photos in a family photo album to people that you don’t want looking at you naked in the kitchen sink at 9 months of age.
Here it is, halfway home, getting more fuel.
I got the car home that night in nothing short of a miracle. I parked it, and started narrowing my internet research down from 12 different potential build possibilities, to one. The 2nd Generation Mazda FC3S RX7. I had my work cut out for me. What do you do when you buy a car with no title? What engine was I going to put in it? What aftermarket support do these cars have? The scouring for information began, and I slowly began to put pieces together in my head. Back in 2009-10, V8 swaps were't as common. I heard of a few, but they were either carbureted drag cars, or really secretive builds with very little documentation. I knew I wanted fuel injection, and I knew I needed a LOT of documentation if I was ever going to pull this off. In the meantime, I began the process of filing for lost title.
This was me trying to get it to the DMV for inspection.
This is basically how it looked for a few months while I got paperwork going on it. I only drove it when I had to, because driving it was illegal, embarrassing, and problematic. Just like old rotaries are known to be.
Then it sat like this for quite a while, waiting for shop availability.
Got something that wasn't steelies.
Did what any ricerboi would.
Some long time later, we got started on pulling the super awesome reliable rotary that nobody should ever pull out of a mazda cause they're so pure, and awesome, and V8's suck, you're ruining the scene, japan would never do that, etc etc ect
The driver shock tower is wet because she would get wet when I ran her hard.
Not sure if burnout or burning engine..... Nope, definitely burning engine.
Yes that's me breathing into the camera like a horse giving birth.
That was the last time that engine ran in this car. I really wanted to run it till it exploded or seized, or something else cool, but that never got accomplished. Here is us tearing the engine out.
Heat wrapped pipe all the way back? So many ricer points!! +++++1
Aaaand it's out!
Then I got these used coilovers (from Japan! hah) because I started this build before I knew anything and just bought whatever had the word coilover on it. Turns out, these are not height adjustable. Smh. Oh well, at least it sat better afterward.
Threw these pretty little things out.
Alright, that concludes my first post. In for comments and criticisms.
nowihaveabuildthreadareyouhappydude
I've been on here for a while, mostly creeping on your builds, or rants, and internet arguing. I've been meaning to make a build thread, and it seems now is the time. I'm new to the stance/slammed/wheel game, but I've been passionate about cars from as far back as I can remember. I've always been obsessed with putting big things into small spaces. When I was a kid, I tried to get the mechanic across the street to mount a 20hp lawnmower engine to my scooter. Years went by, and I never had the opportunity to do the stupid things that I wanted to do. Every one of my attempts was shot down. Some of the reasons were lack of workspace, tools, knowledge, money, and so on. Until a few years ago. I met a guy with a shop, and he mentioned once that I was welcome to use the shop if I needed it. A ray of hope. Over time I hinted to him about starting a V8-swap car build. He seemed curious. I didn't care if he was ready for it or not, cause I was. This was my chance. This was the only opportunity that I got! Knees weak, arms heavy, vomit on my sweater already moms spaghetti, I started looking for my fantasy project car. Drifting was getting pretty popular, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't inspire my build. I knew I wanted a rear-wheel drive coupe, but the rest was open game. Months went by, and I looked at everything from Cobra 427 kits, to Porsche 944's. Everything was priced high, and my self-imposed budget was $3,000.00 for the complete build. (hahahahaha retard) I kept looking, and one day, I found it.
A white, n/a 1991 Mazda RX7 with black interior. It was perfect. Cut springs, steelies, cracked windshield, non-running, no title, in a ghetto yard under a tree, covered in leaves and birdpoop, guarded by a barking pitbull, frothing at the mouth. I still can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the beautiful tragedy. The pizza delivery kid that supposedly owned it said it ran once, but I already knew that. It’s a rotary; duh. I jumped it, and after a few minutes of tinkering, the bizarre contraption of an engine fired to life in a smoking, buzzing horror of a whir. I smiled, and prepared myself for the 70-mile drive home. Oh yeah, I was that stupid. The tires were shooting threads, the car had no brakes, and it ran on spells and potions. I whittled the price down to $400, and began my journey home. I took off down the street with what looked like a NASA space-ship launch. Four miles down the road, the magic stopped, and I was dead in the middle of a busy street. I ran some distance to an auto-parts store for a new battery, and dropped my first purchase of the build. The new battery got me running again, but it was a dying alternator that I was dealing with. I knew that had to be it; it was mounted to the engine with 4” zinc wood screws.
I made the 70 miles home somehow, stopping with only the handbrake, revving the song of my people the whole way to keep it alive. It was already a drift car. I shut it off, and stood there just looking at it, as smoke slowly lifted from my hair and clothing. The dream was finally a reality, the steel was real.
This intro might seem long winded and contrived, but you need to know, that this all took place many, many years ago. I bought the car on a magical date, 10/10/10. If this was a competition, you could say I took the gold. In this time, all of my closest friends have come to know the car, and it is the start of many awkward conversations.
Before I show you the pictures, I want to say that I am not building a drift car. I am fulfilling my childhood dream; putting a V8 (and other things) where it (they) doesn't (don't) belong. I’m not trying to make max hp, or “kill the game”, or impress anybody. This is just my story.
I’m going to narrate our way through these sweet potato photos like parents narrate photos in a family photo album to people that you don’t want looking at you naked in the kitchen sink at 9 months of age.
Here it is, halfway home, getting more fuel.
I got the car home that night in nothing short of a miracle. I parked it, and started narrowing my internet research down from 12 different potential build possibilities, to one. The 2nd Generation Mazda FC3S RX7. I had my work cut out for me. What do you do when you buy a car with no title? What engine was I going to put in it? What aftermarket support do these cars have? The scouring for information began, and I slowly began to put pieces together in my head. Back in 2009-10, V8 swaps were't as common. I heard of a few, but they were either carbureted drag cars, or really secretive builds with very little documentation. I knew I wanted fuel injection, and I knew I needed a LOT of documentation if I was ever going to pull this off. In the meantime, I began the process of filing for lost title.
This was me trying to get it to the DMV for inspection.
This is basically how it looked for a few months while I got paperwork going on it. I only drove it when I had to, because driving it was illegal, embarrassing, and problematic. Just like old rotaries are known to be.
Then it sat like this for quite a while, waiting for shop availability.
Got something that wasn't steelies.
Did what any ricerboi would.
Some long time later, we got started on pulling the super awesome reliable rotary that nobody should ever pull out of a mazda cause they're so pure, and awesome, and V8's suck, you're ruining the scene, japan would never do that, etc etc ect
The driver shock tower is wet because she would get wet when I ran her hard.
Not sure if burnout or burning engine..... Nope, definitely burning engine.
Yes that's me breathing into the camera like a horse giving birth.
That was the last time that engine ran in this car. I really wanted to run it till it exploded or seized, or something else cool, but that never got accomplished. Here is us tearing the engine out.
Heat wrapped pipe all the way back? So many ricer points!! +++++1
Aaaand it's out!
Then I got these used coilovers (from Japan! hah) because I started this build before I knew anything and just bought whatever had the word coilover on it. Turns out, these are not height adjustable. Smh. Oh well, at least it sat better afterward.
Threw these pretty little things out.
Alright, that concludes my first post. In for comments and criticisms.
nowihaveabuildthreadareyouhappydude
Comment