First things first. We need a suspension. We want something that's really adjustable, something that can get us a lot of negative camber should we want it. What would you do for this? Well, you'd call up the Mazda Competition Parts Department (great guys!) and order their full suspension kit.
We're talking serious suspension here boys and girls. A coil-over setup with camber/caster plates, 2.5" Eibach ERS springs, huge Eibach anti-sway bars, Koni adjustable shocks, and adjustable rear camber links. Another bit that I ordered was a "toe steer eliminator bushing." The FC has this annoying habit of having the rear suspension change it's toe setting depending on suspension load. We really don't want that.
Suspension done. That exhaust. That 3" crush bent exhaust. It's getting real noisy and we've rewelded the downpipe a few times because the custom exhaust puts some stress on it that it shouldn't. Okay, we have to fix that. Welcome MazdaTrix. They sell a 3" Racing Beat pre-silencer that matches right up to the downpipe. We'll get somebody local to fabricate a piece from the pre-silencer to the muffler. I'm going to re-use the muffler I already had. Hopefully this will get the exhaust note down a bit and maybe even get rid of some of the leaks.
With all this getting done we need some way to monitor the motor. It was time to call Rotary Performance. We needed a dual gauge pod to stuff things into, and a brand new EGT gauge to watch the exhaust temps. This will finally let us move our boost gauge somewhere more reasonable, too. On top of the gauge stuff we turned to RP for ignition. They sell a Jacob's Rotary Pro Pak. A capacitive discharge ignition system for the leading plugs. Since we're running above stock boost we want to make sure it burns.
Now comes the fun part. Suspension is done, we should handle like we're on rails. Exhaust is done, that'll help the power a bit, but more importantly we'll sound a bit better and hopefully it'll be a little quieter in the cockpit. We can make sure we're not doing anything too stupid to the motor with the gauges. That leaves us with needing some more power.
First we'll deal with the simple ways to make power. Underdrive pulleys and an electric fan. This will remove some load from the motor, letting it put that power to the wheels rather "waste" it. Next we're going to throw an 11lb flywheel onto the car. The stock flywheel was somewhere around the 25lb mark. Of course, the free flow exhaust is already helping.
Fancy ways to make power. Well, there aren't any. FCs have a huge deficiency in their fuel system. When you open up the intake and the exhaust system you can make enough boost on the turbo cars that require more fuel than the stock computer can/will supply. These mods and an FCD are a good way to kill your FC. (Yes, I've run an open exhaust and an FCD for 2 years now -- but through the stock airbox, keeping boost down to around 10psi.)
So, what we need to look at is a fuel system. We're going to run a Bosch 044 helper pump, an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, 2 12A Turbo 880cc injectors, 2 Rochester 1050cc injectors, and a MicroTech MT8 programmable fuel/ignition computer. This is an upgrade from the stock system of 4 550cc injectors. This system is enough to keep us happy for years to come. There is no such thing as overkill when it comes to getting fuel into a turbocharged motor. The fuel system is coming to us courtesy of Maztech of Melbourne in Australia.
To handle the new setup we're going with a 1993 RX-7 Twin Turbo clutch disc, and an ACT 30% stiffer pressure plate. I've been told that this setup isn't the best for drag racing, but that it'll hold over 400hp for the road course. We bought this setup from M2 Performance.
Since we noticed that the temps were getting up there on hot days during extended lapping sessions we've gone with a real sweat upgraded radiator supplied by MazdaComp. It's a great unit that mounts in the stock location. All aluminum. Beautiful.
To keep things safe we'll be running a full roll cage, built by CSC Racing, in Toronto. A Simpson camlock 5-point harness holds me nicely in place while I'm seated in the Kirkey Intermediate race seat. All in all it's a very nice setup.
Future upgrades may bring a T04 based turbo, a heat exchanger (for the oil), and a front-mount intercooler. So far I think we've been smart enough with our upgrades that our future ideas are all just tweaks to what we've already got rather than requiring us to upgrade everything yet again.