24 Hours of LeMons RX7 College Build

[79-TA]

As you modify the car, document EVERYTHING. You don't want to face the wrath of LeMons judges.

[justphil]

i cant wait to get this thing running. i bought this car a year ago with the hopes on getting into lemons!
hahaha

[454bug]

As you modify the car, document EVERYTHING. You don't want to face the wrath of LeMons judges.

I agree... I just participated in the New Orleans race and I had all my "PERFORMANCE" documentation in order... Hence, NO PENALTY LAPS!!

I read the rules VERY literally and thought that ANYTHING not listed on the "Safety Items" list was subject to the $500.00 limit... The judges informed me they really didn't care about anything that didn't improve the performance of the car... Items I had to purchase but didn't matter included: Mechanical fuel pump (non-performance), Water Pump, Spark Plugs, Spark Plug wires, Distributor Cap and rotor, battery box, Battery, gauges, switches, etc., etc. After this last race they updated the rules and stated some of these items had been added to the "Safety Items" list so they would officially not count against you... They even listed "driver's comfort" items as "safety" items and would not count against you... some of those items listed included A/C, stereos, etc...

They're really looking for items that's going to give you a mechanical advantage in the race (i.e. - Springs, shocks, headers, carbs, efi, performance intakes, aftermarket performance ECU's, MSD boxes, performance coils, etc.

You've got a great platform to start with... The car looks great!

I agree with "Damn True" about the radiator... I only saw one collision all weekend during the New Orleans race. But, if you have the welding and metal material available to you I would consider doing a couple of things... First, since you lost the weight off the back of the car by removing the back deck lid and rear glass it would help the overall balance of the car's handling by moving the battery to the extreme rear of the car... It's amazing what the moving of the roughly 30 pounds from the extreme front of the car to the extreme rear of the car would do for your weight distribution... It would only cost you the expense of a long "positive" battery cable... I would also consider moving the radiator straight back towards the engine in a more vertical position... remove the mechanical fan and install a junk yard electric fan (roughly $10) that has it's own built-on shroud on it... I would then weld a couple of horizontal pieces of metal from one frame rail to the other across, in front of the radiator, for that all important crash protection that Damn True was alluding to... You might then consider purchasing some cheap, thin-wall "stove pipe" material from Home Depot and flatten it out and make an "air inlet" passage box from the grill area to the radiator face to funnel the cool, outside air to the radiator...

Just some "food for thought"...

Good Luck and any way it turns out I promise you guys will have a BLAST!!

[WILWAXU]

Looks like a fun. Where are these ran at?

[Damn True]

Looks like a fun. Where are these ran at?

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/

[69camarokid]

Alright. So today Phil, our teams second in command, or as he refers to himself, Captain Kirk, and I went out and reeked havok at the local pick your part. We only found 1 RX7 Fc like ours to plunder.

But we got a new radiator, fan shroud, AIC controller, and a few otehr odds and ends. Or so we thought we would. I couldnt believe how ridiculous some of the prices there had become. They wanted 70 bucks for a used super ****ty old radiator! insane. So after ditching the radiator our bill was a little over 50 bucks. But luckily right before paying ai noticed a sign for a50% off this weekend. So we hid our parts in teh trunk of a random car under a bunch of other parts and will head back this friday to get them.

And my nieghbor, who works for a tubing company, let me know that his company is a bit slow right now and has a crap load of extra tubing laying around so hes going to measure our roll cage demensions and build the cage for us. And our latest and 6th member of our team is a welder by trade and is going to weld in the cage. Everything is starting to fall into place.... famous last words i know.

[justphil]

quiet spock!

we still need to get the rest of that random stuff attached to the IAC .

pick your part got super expensive really quick.

ridiculous

[SocalRedline]

Just joined the team. I'm Mike, the welder/fabricator/tuner. Looking forward to helping with the build

[69camarokid]

Hey Mike, you joined up. Nice. Youll like this forum. The tech help and people rock.

soooo.... u wanna tune a 69 camaro with a corvette LT1 nad 6 speed? lol

[SocalRedline]

Heh...I could always check it out little more complex than my 1776 aircooled motor

[Nessumsar]

I'm so jealous!

The Stig and I were looking for a car to do this with for about 3 months. I've wanted to do this for a long time.

I would probably put the hatch back on, but with lexan; I think the aero gains would be more than the weight gain. Also, brakes are one of the first things to go. With that in mind, go to Lowes and grab some 2" flexible ducting and route cold air from the bumper to a hole in the rotor guard. This will drastically reduce brake fade.

If you guys need any help, you know how to get a hold of me.

[SocalRedline]

Say we skip the glass, find louvers for the thing :D

[79-TA]

went out and reeked havok at the local pick your part. We only found 1 RX7 Fc like ours to plunder.

Only one??? My record so far is 5 salvage yards in a single day, including 2 pick your parts and 2 ecologies.

I'm so jealous!

The Stig and I were looking for a car to do this with for about 3 months. I've wanted to do this for a long time.

I would probably put the hatch back on, but with lexan; I think the aero gains would be more than the weight gain. Also, brakes are one of the first things to go. With that in mind, go to Lowes and grab some 2" flexible ducting and route cold air from the bumper to a hole in the rotor guard. This will drastically reduce brake fade.

If you guys need any help, you know how to get a hold of me.

Ok, lets make a team! I'll go troll craigslist. The reason my family's last effort fell apart was we didn't get accepted to the event we applied for (I made a typo in our email address on the application form!!!) and my grandma wasn't keen on having a rolled Mustang GT in her driveway for another 6 months.

[Nessumsar]

Brett, it on like Donkey Kong!

[-The Stig-]

That looks very similar to the RX7 we looked at for the LeMons.

Is the alignment all extra F'd? Does it pull scary to the right? The one I test drove had a welded diff and a tweak in the front alignment so it pulled stupid crazy to the right. If it was fixed and drove straight it would of made a bitchin little drifty car. Welded diff = ftw.

[ill steez]

any updates?