New Board Member With Ls1 Swapped Mazda Rx7

[sciff5]

Hi Guys I have an 89 mazda RX7 with an Ls1 from a corvette swapped into it. I have been running it at AutoX events for the last 2 seasons and am looking to take a step up. Every different club has their own rules and honestly its confusing as hell.

I'de like to run with this group but I dont know what class my swap puts me in and what safety requirements are needed. I have stock seats and no roll bar and I'm not willing to put a roll bar in it. I have the original OEM seat belts but I sure wouldent want to trust them in wreck so I have been using out of date Sparco harnesses minus the sub belt because of the stock seats.


Wanted to know if its even possible to run and if not what other groups I could potentially experience HPDEs with.

I dont want to win any prizes, just improve my car control

Thanks guys

[962porsche]

i would say PA !

[John F]

or SPA

[McMahonRacing]

You might want to rethink this:

RX 7 w/ an LS1 .... light, high power ..... stock seat, no cage, out of date harness w/o sub belt ....

Maybe forget what class & think about the safety issues at hand w/ that much power.

Just my .02

[sciff5]

I udnerstand but this car is also used as a street driven machine. I drive it to work 3 days a week. So a full cage would be very dangerous on the street and a roll bar doesnt help at all unless you roll over from what I've heard.

From the sound of it a highly modified street/strip car does not fit this activity well.

[jlwhorf]

I udnerstand but this car is also used as a street driven machine. I drive it to work 3 days a week. So a full cage would be very dangerous on the street and a roll bar doesnt help at all unless you roll over from what I've heard.

From the sound of it a highly modified street/strip car does not fit this activity well.

The only issue with your car regarding classifying as SPA is that changing the number of cylinders is not allowed is SP. The car originally had a rotary that has no countable cylinders and putting in an engine with 8 makes it on odd ball. Odd ball cars go in P where anything goes.

The other arguement you can make, you could call your car a kit car and as long it passes NH state inspection, it would be classifed as SPA, and not need a roll bar etc. If you don't clobber the SPA field in time trails, I would doubt you would get protested.

Email the COM chief of tech and discuss your car with him.

BTW, We at COM love people with highly modified cars.

[sciff5]

I udnerstand but this car is also used as a street driven machine. I drive it to work 3 days a week. So a full cage would be very dangerous on the street and a roll bar doesnt help at all unless you roll over from what I've heard.

From the sound of it a highly modified street/strip car does not fit this activity well.

The only issue with your car regarding classifying as SPA is that changing the number of cylinders is not allowed is SP. The car originally had a rotary that has no countable cylinders and putting in an engine with 8 makes it on odd ball. Odd ball cars go in P where anything goes.

The other arguement you can make, you could call your car a kit car and as long it passes NH state inspection, it would be classifed as SPA, and not need a roll bar etc. If you don't clobber the SPA field in time trails, I would doubt you would get protested.

Email the COM chief of tech and discuss your car with him.

BTW, We at COM love people with highly modified cars.

I dont forsee any clobbering going on. I am a new driver, the suspension is new, and the drivetrain is relativly new. My car is light but its no where near as light as a lot of kit cars (like 500lbs heavier than a Factory five racing car) . Those cars can produce as much power fit more rubber and I think that class aloows R comps right? Ithink it'd be game over for me, going up against those cars. I'm totally ok with that though. I just want to get out there.

The car passes mass inspection (I live in Mass) and has a sticker / registration.

Although its a new setup its very very easy to control at the limit, much more so than the vettes or camaros I've driven at the autox course. I have yet to even spin this car autocrossing. So its a stable setup but not really fast yet.

[John F]

Street legal should be SPA, but you should really change out the driver seat and add a bar for a 5 point harness. You don't HAVE to add a roll bar, but it sure is comforting to know that it's there. I don't know how strong an RX-7 roof is, but if you do update to a harness, there is nowhere to go except sit upright. Like Jonathan said, we welcome highly modified cars, but there is more to mods than just the right pedal.

[jlwhorf]

I don't know how strong an RX-7 roof is, but if you do update to a harness, there is nowhere to go except sit upright.

The safest setup if you don't want to add a roll bar is use the stock seat with the stock 3 point harness, and add a 3" wide lap belt. This way if the car rolls over, your body will be able to lay down and give you room from the crushed roof.

[sciff5]

I don't know how strong an RX-7 roof is, but if you do update to a harness, there is nowhere to go except sit upright.

The safest setup if you don't want to add a roll bar is use the stock seat with the stock 3 point harness, and add a 3" wide lap belt. This way if the car rolls over, your body will be able to lay down and give you room from the crushed roof.

This is eactly what I've always heard and this was what I've wanted to do. The autox guys want me to run a harness to keep me secured in the seat and I guess rollovers in autox are pretty unheard of, but I always knew a roll over basically meens instant death with shoulder harnesses and no roll bar, which is why I just run a lap belt on the street.

So if the stock 3 pt harness with a lapbelt secured to the floor with some Heavy duty mounting plates is what makes you guys most comfortable, I will for sure do that, that makes the most sense to me as well.

And Rx7 roofs are actually pretty tough (not roll bar tough) given the era because this model had the motorized seat belts/tracks so the roof has actually been reinforced all above the side windows because its a mounting point for the belts.

[WillM]

The suggestions for safety equipment are spot-on.

This is a Prepared car with 8 cyls, which puts it into Prepared-A, or PA.

You could argue the case that it is a "kit car", and I'm sure the Chief Steward will give it consideration, but I wouldn't hold my breath. From what you've posted, you have a Rx7 with V8 engine swap, which would put the car into PA.

Welcome to the club. Many of us started at autocross before stepping up (yes, I said stepping UP) to track days and time trial competition. We do like modified cars and have a bunch of them, but that does not mean they are easy to learn to drive fast. I suggest you come up to our NHMS event and register for a Hot-Lap Ride-Along. This gives you seat time in an instructor's car at speed. The HLRA cost is free - but you do have to be a member to be in a car and on-track at an event, so we charge $35 which gives you an annual membership and the hot-laps. You will have a great time in the car and will be welcome to sit through a classroom session, and of course are welcome to walk the paddock, meet members, and check out everyone else's car.

If you do not have a new-found appreciation for safety equipment, and do not feel compelled to re-evaluate your safety gear, the Ride-Along wasn't done right.

[sciff5]

Sounds like the best roller coaster ride money can buy!


I would absolutly do this and maybe I could drive my car to the event if some experienced eyes would be willing to do a once or twice over on it.

Although I've recieved much critisism for this view I just do not feel any level of autox experience can really teach you what you need to know to handle the car at high speed with actual risk involved. Its very easy to overdrive an Autox car because theres zero consequences and the sudden brake throttle and steering inputs found in autox to get the car to dance around, would get you into a world of trouble I know at high speed.

I dont think any autox will really allow you to learn the perfect art of coming down a straight at triple digit speed into a 40mph hairpin, dropping 3 gears, heel toeing braking at the right time, turning in at the right time, maintaining the right line with the back end of your car squirming under heavy braking, or pwoering out of a corner near wot at the edge of your tires adhesion.

These are the sort of skills I just cant see learning in a parking lot, but as everyone has said I am trying to become as fast as my car, which I know I'm not, and autoX is about the safest way to step up to HPDEs

[962porsche]

for prepared a roll bar is mandatory ! if you have in any way changed the fire wall that will put you in prepared class . in SPA a 100% stock frame and subframe must be retained . so read the prepared class rules . you will need some safety gear ! safety is and should always be first in the list of things to do when it comes to racing ! this is not auto-xing its not the same at all !. shit happens and happens fast . it does'nt have to be your fault . a full cage is not unsafe on the street i have 3 street cars with them . you can get cages with bolt in door bars and just use the door bars at the track . a good racing seat is not a bad thing eather most of the time 4 bolts and they come right out . so you can swap seats for street driving to track driving in no time . also a good fitting seat will tell you just what the car is doing and keeps you safer in a crash . as for a 5 or 6 point belts you will need them its in the rules !

[sciff5]

Chassis and Subframes are all stock un touched. Firewall is completly stock, and about 85% of the Ls1 is still behind the centerline of the front axle.

The ls1 fits in the Rx7 better than it did in the vette and the camaro, especially the camaro.

The Ls1 is even mounted to the stock mounting points for the original 13b with corvette style pedestal mounts. Trasmission tunnel didnt need to be touched or widened either..

Seriously mazda left enough room for me to stand in the engine bay in front of the engine with the radiator out, and with the stock rotary you could have 2 people comfortable in the engine bay between the front of the motor and the front of the car.

[John F]

If you do not have a new-found appreciation for safety equipment, and do not feel compelled to re-evaluate your safety gear, the Ride-Along wasn't done right.

Well put, Will. I rode with Lester in the Locost just before he signed me off. Doesn't have the grunt my cobra has, but I can't stay with him in the corners (yet)