I've bought a thing

"Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney" (braddelaparker)
07/02/2018 at 09:42 • Filed to: race car, because racecar, rx7, fb, spec, NASA, racing

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1985 RX7 set up for Spec RX7. Grabbed it for a song along with a trailer that just needs a touch of work and should be able to be flipped.

Car sat for about 10 years, so we’ve got some work to do to revive it, but it’s in really great shape otherwise. Needs a new transmission, but came with a spare. Had a small incident in its very last race that mangled some bodywork on the front, but it all looks like it’ll bolt back up just fine.

SpexRX7 is a NASA class that doesn’t have any national support but has some strong regional running groups, particularly here in Texas and also in California. Mostly stock FB RX7s running on shaved Toyo Proxes RA1s. Hopped up carbs and exhaust, stock brakes, and plain jane suspension upgrades. Super excited to get going. Went halfsies on it with a buddy who is a pretty quick shoe in a kart, we should have a lot of fun.

DISCUSSION (9)

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
07/02/2018 at 10:27

Nice! You know you’re in deep when you start buying cars that come with logbooks instead of titles. Spec7 has also been an SCCA class for a very long time, which means you have choices for your preferred flavor of sanctioning body. I’m surprised the class still messes around with shaving RA-1's and hasn’t moved to the RR or other flavor of r-compound rubber molded to 4/32ths from the factory.

Those dated SCCA and NASA decals do a good job of dating the last time the car ran. Beyond the body work, how much updating is it going to need to get an annual tech?

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/02/2018 at 10:39

Is the SCCA still keeping up with Spec7 at a national level? At least around here the guys we’ll be running with have said that SCCA doesn’t put on Spec7 and these cars wind up running in ITU where they’re not competitive at all.

I’ll say that our car is wearing shaved RA-1s, and some guys are still running them, but it seems like the RR is actually the preferred tire as of today.

I think getting it tech’d will hopefully be fairly trivial. It’s going to need new belts, a new driver’s side window net, and we’ll need to add a window net to the right side of the driver’s helmet. We may go ahead and replace the seat as neither of us are in love with it. Aside from that I think we’re good, but I expect a few other things to pop up. Thankfully we’re plugged in with the group of guys running out here and they’re hungry to add to the class size, so we’ve got good support to get running.

Kanaric > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
07/02/2018 at 10:41

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Spec RX7.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > Kanaric
07/02/2018 at 10:45

It’s pretty regionalized as far as I can tell, but I like the concept. It’s like Spec Miata but without all of the tryhard/blowhards who have $50k into a “Spec” class car.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
07/02/2018 at 11:18

I think Spec7 has always been a regional “regional” only class, which means support and rules can vary with division and without unified national rules. In the RMDiv, the class has been around for something like 20 years. The car counts now are a lot smaller than they used to be, as most of those folks moved to Spec Miatas (of which I completely agree with the desire to not to crash play with), but there are still a group of folks playing with them.

Some of the spec7 guys also migrated to the IT classes,as they can run in ITA. I think the IT rules allow further preperation of the car over spec7 , but there’d be folks to play with among of the Hondas and Spec Miata refugees who got tired of replacing body panels on a regular basis.

With the proviso that I don’t know anything about the NASA rules, the biggest think I can think of that might catch this car out was the big 2007 revision to SCCA roll cage rules. So long as car was log booked prior to 07, older cars were grandfathered in on most aspects of the old cage rules, but I think there were some aspects of the new door bar rules that old cars had to be updated to. I’d have to give the GCR a close reading to rememb er the exact details. I do know that when they came into effect, I had the door bar on the driver side of my cage reworked to meet the new rules.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/02/2018 at 14:06

Okay, I think that all jives with what little information I could find about Spec7.

This car was booked before ‘07 and late ‘07 was its last race, but it also has had an additional door bar welded in to either side of the cage, so it may be compliant. Cage compliance was my biggest concern, but our buddy who tagged along and races currently knew this car and didn’t have any concerns about it teching. We’ll see!

MM54 > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
07/02/2018 at 18:56

As the owner of a street-driven 85 RX7, I approve.

Let me know if you need any tech help. I’ve had mine most of the way apart and back together a few times.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
07/02/2018 at 19:37

Cool. It sounds like the door bars were updated then.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
07/03/2018 at 10:59

The welds are....less than spectacular, but they’re there . May have a mobile guy come up and clean them up to be honest.