mdpalmer's ls1-fd rx-7 build thread

[mdpalmer]

Hey Richard 

I have not measured the new heights with the new wheel/tire setup. I have the info from my old setup... see attached pic. Just over 25 inches on the fronts and just over 24 on the rears. It should be a little bit lower on all fours with the new tires. As for the coilovers... I love them. The damping adjustments are awesome and I love the spring rate for dual purpose use (street/auto-x/track). 10/8 kgf/mm springs.

HOWEVER: I will post pics later, but my stainless steel brake lines are trashed thanks to the zip ties eating thru them. These units don't have brake line mounts for the front dampers.

Very nice Mike! Gotta love silver FD's  . Just curious, what your ride heigth set at measured from the ground to the top of each wheel arch? BTW - how do you like the Pettit's?

[Brent]

Looking good Mike.  Nice choice in wheels and tires, and tire size.  This will give you alot of fun all around; whether it be the track, autoX, or street .  Best part is that if something happens to the wheels, you can simply replace the damaged piece of the wheel for $125-150.   For those that asked, this set up will also work without rolled fenders.

Gotta love the silver FD with black CCW's 

[largeorangefont]

Looking great Mike!

[mdpalmer]

So I just got back from my first "spirited drive" today with the new wheel/tire setup. My girlfriend and a buddy with a blown 2011 Mustang GT went up near the Malibu canyon area. We went to an event called "Supercar Sunday" earlier in the morning and decided to make a day trip out of the drive. I put about 130 miles on them today, in town, parking lots, freeway, twisties in the hills, you name it.

Let me get this out of the way: this new setup is phenomenal compared to what I had before. The tires are incredibly sticky and I was blown away by how much grip they had. I had to work up to it, but when I really pushed them... they still stuck! I can't wait to drive the car on track, it's night and day, really. The ride was just fine, honestly, I can't tell any difference from what I had before. I was concerned that it would be harsher due to the short sidewall on the tire... but I couldn't tell the difference. Plenty of clearance for the wheels/tires in the rear. The fronts would rub when I had a lot of steering angle and if that side of the car was loaded up in a corner (we were driving thru hairpin-like turns at some points). I was also concerned the steering effort would be increased... and it is. Just a smidge though! Nothing else feels different about the car except the amazing stickiness!!

I'm so happy with these!!!!!! 

Here are some pics.

Z06 carbon showed up to Supercar Sunday




Buddy /w the blown GT showed us this little road. One way street down hill!! Actually kind of scary to drive it, sick sick road though.


This is right down on PCH, the ocean is just a stone's throw over the houses in front of us

Looking good Mike.  Nice choice in wheels and tires, and tire size.  This will give you alot of fun all around; whether it be the track, autoX, or street .  Best part is that if something happens to the wheels, you can simply replace the damaged piece of the wheel for $125-150.   For those that asked, this set up will also work without rolled fenders.

Gotta love the silver FD with black CCW's 

Damn, I thought I was done spending money on the FD and you go and post a pic like that. Now I need a 99 spec front end That is very true about replacing parts of the wheel.

Looking great Mike!

Thanks Ashley!

[evilarexeven]

I know that one way downhill you're referring to.  I used to go on spirited rides with my R6 up in that canyon.  Awesome stuff man!

[Brent]

Man, that looks like an awesome day of driving and hanging out!  I like the 93-95 front better, I'd leave it.  More classic look for the car. 

[FC3S Murray]

Man she looks good with some new kicks! That thing is pure aggression.

[mdpalmer]

I know that one way downhill you're referring to.  I used to go on spirited rides with my R6 up in that canyon.  Awesome stuff man!

I couldn't imagine doing these roads on a bike. Bike guys are nuts!!! Here's a clip my gf took from her perspective with a gopro mounted on her front bumper. We started at the top and ended up at PCH in Malibu. I'm trying to chase the Mustang guy, he's crazy fast on this road. This was the last "run" we did that day. We wound ourselves out thru some other roads earlier on, no vids of those. I shoulda put the camera on my car dammit

Man, that looks like an awesome day of driving and hanging out!  I like the 93-95 front better, I'd leave it.  More classic look for the car. 

It was awesome I like both front ends.... but I like the 99 spec better for some reason 

Man she looks good with some new kicks! That thing is pure aggression.

Thx homie, my car has needed some new shoes for a while now 

[mdpalmer]

This was a "cars & coffee" meet organized by a bunch of folks who live in Palos Verdes. Real nice crowd. Check out the pics. Here's more info for any of the local guys who want to go:

Link to flyer

Link to map

My car


Meiogirl's car


V8 powered Porsche 914




Segregation :p


What old people do up here early on a Sat. morn.


Super duper clean Delorean. The owner even had a DMC jacket!! lmfao.


Super clean Austin Healy


These guys must know each other lol 550 Marenello Ferrai IIRC


Pulled back view of part of the lot. It was a busy day here!!!


Old school Avanti


Of course an F430 was there.


This GT was gorgeous. Pic doesn't do it justice. Talk about a cop magnet though


Old school 5 oh. I have a soft spot for these.


Wonder whose ride this is


2 Z06s next to a ZR1


Z06 carbon


'nother nice looking GT


Miami Vice looking Testerrosa? I love these cars.


'88 Toyota MR2 (mister 2 as Redondo Jon calls it ) /w what I believe to be an OEM supercharger!


engine bay pic:


Horseless carriage lol.


My favorite car there. Sounded like it had a v8 in it!!!! It was tiny, looked like a shoe. We caught the owner when he was leaving and he said it is a "Griffith". Fisa did a quick search, and it sounds like the car is based off of a TVR.. not sure of the details....




Carerra GT




25 yr old who drove the CGT lol


Dual purpose car/boat lol

[AHarada]

Cool pics Mike.  Your car looks beautiful.

[digitalsolo]

Nice pics. 

[Sho Amo]

That Griffith is sexy as shit. So your girl drives an FD as well? That really kool. I need to get mine into something fun.

-Andrew

[mdpalmer]

Man she looks good with some new kicks! That thing is pure aggression.

Cool pics Mike.  Your car looks beautiful.

Nice pics. 

That Griffith is sexy as shit. So your girl drives an FD as well? That really kool. I need to get mine into something fun.

-Andrew

^^ Yeah, gf has an FD, the yellow one. Cop magnet. I had a cop follow me almost 8 miles back to my house when I drove that thing to work one day. Will never drive it again lol.

^^ thx guys, funny how pics hide little imperfections and what not. But, my car is a driver, not a showpiece Yes that Griffith was sick sick sick. It just looked cool and was so tiny. And when I heard it rumbling by... man it was something else. Awesome car for sure.

In other news: there is another event at El Toro down here in sunny SoCal. Here are the details. I posted this in the "events" forum too.

EVENTS FORUM POST

----------------------------------------------

Here's an email I sent to my "car guy" list:

Hey guys.

-The Porsche Club of America (PCA) Orange Coast Region (OCR) group is having a car control clinic at the El Toro airfield near Irvine (GREAT, GREAT venue for something like this!!!)
-I know a lot of you guys have seen my vids, but for those that haven’t here’s an out of car clip from last Sept 2011 to give you an overview of the auto-x layout (they change it up every time with cones)


In car clip from the Dec event:


-Sat, Feb 18. $130
-They provide an instructor and what I assume is a hotdog/hamburger lunch. Last auto-x they had pretty tasty dogs (/w grilled onions if you got there early lol) and potato salad+drink.
-According to their site, NO HELMET IS REQUIRED. So don’t use that as an excuse why you can’t go
-For any newbies, and even hopeless drivers with some experience like me, this event should really help with learning your car in a low stress (both you and the car) environment.
-From what I heard, they are supposed to set up a skid pad with water on it to practice oversteer corrections and what not.
-Afternoon session includes a “mini” auto cross course to “practice” your newly learned skills (whatever that means).
-I have done two of the PCA OCR autocross events and am very impressed with their organization and overall execution, they put on a great show. I assume this one will be as good as before.
-Even if you have a total shitbox car (geo metro, Honda civic with no mods, minivan, etc.), you should consider coming out. Especially those of you with a project car that never seems to get finished, you should come out and “get it out of your system” with said shitbox
-Same goes for those of you with new rides. Time to break that thing in

Event link:
https://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.advert/uidEvent/45602BB3-9D01-B546-E9ABB521ED424F61

Create an account to sign up.

Driver’s list:
https://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.status/uidEvent/45602BB3-9D01-B546-E9ABB521ED424F61

Please pass this along to your fellow drivers/car nuts, I really think this will be a good event and folks should at least be aware of it. See you at El Toro!

-mike

[evilarexeven]

hmm tempting!

[mdpalmer]

hmm tempting!

^^ Hey, was that your LS2 FD I saw from the body shop pix? I think Danh or Jamie took them. There is still some room if you can squeak out... and guess what, there is a driver's ed thing at buttonwillow the Saturday (feb 25) after that and my gf is bailing on the El Toro event to do the BW one... I said fugg it I'll do both El Toro and the BW event... LMK if you can go to the BW event we are planning on driving up Friday night and stay at some crappy hotel the night before

In other news, I've been giving joyrides non stop for the last couple weeks, funny how word gets out someone has a new setup and they want to check it out. This was about 2 weeks ago. Local guy riding shotgun who has a really nice black (my fav color) bolt on rotary FD, I just found out these guys live up the hill from me, so cool to meet them He took the vid with a camera phone (hence the vertical bias). Just goofing around, no crazy stuff. Goosing the gas