Project: "Last RX-7" by Herblenny
 

Brief information about me...

My name is Philip Sohn. I been in rotary scene for over 10 years and have owned my share of rotaries (RX-2, RX-3, 1st gen RX7, 2nd gen RX-7, 10 or so 3rd gens, RX-8, Eunos Cosmo 3 Rotor, etc).
Here are few pics of the cars I've owned..

1993 MB RX-7, 1972 Orange RX-2 coupe, 2004 Lighting Yellow GT RX-8
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1985 GSL-SE RX-7 mint!
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1991 RX-7 convertible (first rotary I bought)
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1973 RX-3 coupe (track ready)
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1993 RX-7 base blk/blk (my first FD)
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1991 Eunos Cosmo 3 Rotor
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1994 SSM FD (My other project)
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I also run one of the biggest rotary car event called, 'Deals Gap Rotary Rally'

And if someone ask me what my specialty is, it would be 3rd generation RX-7. I've owned more of these than any cars and have built 3-4 of them in the past. I personally think FD3S RX7 is the best car Mazda has produced and one of the top sports car available in the 90s and still one of the best today. For the past 8 years, I been collecting rare parts, manuals, magazines, and been lucky that some vendors appreciated my build and sponsored me (Thank you Exedy USA, WORK Wheels, Disc Brakes Australia, and Bride). Last year, I made it on to the cover of Modified Magazine and recently featured on S3 Mag.

https://img704.imageshack.us/img704/4554/rx7cover.jpg

Modified Mag feature: http://www.modified.com/features/modp-1001-1993-mazda-rx7-and-1991-eunos-cosmo/viewall.html
Modified Mag feature about my event: http://www.modified.com/events/modp-1010-deals-gap-rotary-rally/viewall.html

After over 10 years of owning and now my life is starting to change (Married and with a young son), I am wanting to build my "Last RX-7" and go out with a bang. I been studying and researching about 3 rotor RX-7 and that is what my "Last RX-7" will be.

From Now til SEMA 2012, I will be posting here my build process... Pretty much from a stripped chassis to show/track ready RX-7. This is almost 10 years of making in which that I been collecting parts for about that long... and how things comes around in full circle. So, please check often as I'll be posting detail process of this build.




Now to my build!

Friday Nov. 4th, 2011 - It was my last day at SEMA 2011 in Vegas, talking to some of my sponsors and checking out the cars at SEMA. But my main goal was to find a vendor/sponsor who will show my "Last RX-7" next year. After talking to few, I approached my sponsor Disc Brakes Australia who graciously supported me in the past with my other RX-7 and RX-8. I had this 5-10 minute spill all lined up and asked the owner of DBA about my car being at their booth next year. After 2 sentences out of my mouth, owner said, "Sure!". I didn't know what to say at that point.. I think I just mumbled on and finished pitching the car even though I already got an OK from the owner. He said, he will love to have the car and right and there, my dream of building a car to SEMA has begun!!!

Sunday Nov. 6th, 2011 - I flew back to Birmingham, AL day before and I got sick. This is the day I'm heading to New Orleans, LA to pick up my rolling chassis to begin my "Last RX-7" project. I was pretty sick in the morning where I went into UAB Hospital ER to make sure I was ok to travel. They gave me some antibiotic and I decided to head down there to pick up this 1993 Red RX-7. With help from a good friend John Lewis and loaner trailer from my best friend Leo Huang, we drove to New Orleans to pick up the FD.

And here it is!

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...enny/VRFD2.jpg

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Thanks to my friends in New Orleans, Jack and Jonathan from Gorilla RE I got the car loaded and then we went out to eat :)

Monday Nov. 7th, 2011 - We left New Orleans and headed back to Bham to drop off the car at my friend Walker Morgan's shop. He is by far the most professional and best fabricator in town. His skills are by far the best I have seen and he himself have worked on several SEMA cars and such.

Car leaving New Orleans
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At Walker's Shop!
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nice...I always had a soft spot for these cars...

Wednesday, Nov. 9th, 2011 - Been searching for my missing parts and trying to put my engine together so we can test fit it in the car.

Here is my 20B/3 Rotor, built D series engine. Engine was built by my builder Luis Canizales. I consider him to be one of the top builders in the country.

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Test fitting the motor mounts.
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Different flanges for the manifold.. trying to decide which ones to use.
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Ready to transport!
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Wednesday Nov. 16th, 2011 - I was going to install the engine earlier, but due to rain, I didn't get to until now.. I decided to delete PS, AC.. So, I used Mavel manual rack to install the 20B.

In the engine bay!
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Wednesday, Nov. 23rd, 2011 - Today, I took couple of my strut tower bar to test fit it on the car. Make sure if it will clear the UIM (No pics). Unfortunately, both bars did NOT clear. I also cleaned up the car a bit and pulled the body electric harness off of the car.

Monday, Nov. 28th, 2011 - I was thinking about the clearance issue and decided to go with Atomic Rex manual rack. I think this should give me additional 1/4 to 1/2 inch more clearance.

Wednesday, Nov. 30th, 2011 - Made a deposit for Atomic Rex manual rack.. We shall see how much space I'll have. If I could drop 1/4+ inch, I should be able to use my Cusco D shape strut tower bar without an issue.

Friday, Dec. 2nd, 2011 - A Japanese rotorhead in KY helped me out with translating the wiring diagram for the super rare, Defi DSSC. Thanks Yuki Sawai!!!

Defi DSSC is one of the rare item that never sold in USA and Defi did not allow this item to be sold outside of its dealers. Total of about 400 were made and I believe I might be the first in USA to put it in an FD.

Here are some pics of the unit.

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Sweet!! can't wait for progress :)

Good to see you on this forum as well! I miss my FD and will always have a soft spot for my first real sports car. One day I'll probably own another one if I find a nice clean example. Unfortunately those are incredibly rare.

Nice, love the RX7s and one day when I have a garage, I will get another one.

I had:
88 Turbo II (10th anniversary)
89 Turbo II
93 R1
04 RX8

awesome post, keep up the good progress!

You are so right about that... its getting hard to find clean FD these days.. Hence I'm going to keep my 94 for a long time :) So, you moved on to a better/new car?


Update!


December 6th, 2011 I got a call from my fabricator and he said he checked on the pricing for the Stainless 321 and going to order some for the new manifold set up. Man, price on 321 is pretty high these days! This means, my old SS 321 manifold with Racing Beat header flange is for sale!!! If you are interested let me know :)

Here are pics of my old flange set up!

Here are the pics and placement of the turbo.. Turbonetic T76.

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In the car with Hinson 20B /Pettit Subframe with this manifold with Garret T76 with T3 flange (Used to my on my friend's 20B).

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Certainly newer. Ended up with a 2008 Exige S240. Doesn't feel nearly as fast as my single turbo FD, but it is quicker than I expected. I was in the 1:45 range at Laguna with my FD with reasonable mods - intake, exhaust, IC, suspension, wheels/tires, and the stock twins putting out nearly 300 rwhp - and being very comfortable in the car having driven it on track for years. My 2nd time out in the Lotus bone stock and still learning the car I was turning identical lap times. Much more impractical car, but the attention it gets on the street is ridiculous. You'd think I'm driving a Lamborghini.

what a build.

Really nice cars.

I spent the 80s buying up RX-2, RX-3, RX-4 and RX-5 (cosmo) in the northeast and bringing them down to florida.

Thats awesome! I need to drive one of those one day just to compare.


Update.

December 8th, 2011 - My fabricator/friend Walker Morgan has explain to me how he was going to build the new 20B manifold. We've decided to use bit more expensive, 321 Stainless for the new manifold. I'm excited to see how its going to turn out!! Until then, I need to start working on the wiring for the car..

Here is a translated DSSC wiring diagram I received the other day... Only one in the WORLD!!!

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Also, I realized I didn't mention much about my engine...

20B/3 Rotor is from a last year made Eunos Cosmo which each engine is stamped with a letter and a number. Earlier series are just numbers and last series starts with letter "D". This one is the later more stronger motor. Complete rebuilt with all new internals and slightly ported (RE blocks are already has big ports) and REW exhaust sleeves are put in place.
I actually bought this short block several years ago from Hector Gonzales, former NHRA modified class racer in Miami. He was going to use this engine to build his drag car but ended up selling it because of some financial issues.

December 9th, 2011 - Today, I was thinking about stripping my MB FD and start thinking about what I'm going to do to the exterior of the car... I started looking over some old builds I did and thought about turning my MB to what my Blk FD last looked..

My 1st FD / my 'black fd' and how it last looked in my possession..

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I'm going to start parting out the MB this weekend!!!

Like that look. Matte black looks sharp on the FD