The MCN Sport Chambers Performance SRX7 FC Build

[MikeFitz]

I personally want to see Mike Fitz kick ass in this car for a few simple reasons....

1. He is genuinely 120% grateful to anyone who has helped him out with the car. Down to the smallest things, its plain to see that everyone's efforts, big or small are greatly appreciated by Mike. Which is brilliant to see.

2. He has managed to build an absolutely top class car that most of us can only dream about without the use of a blank cheque book and more through hard work and huge sacrifice's, all for one car... along with the help and guidance of some very very talented friends who deserve major credit for their work..

3. Because he has built a completely outside the box car as far as the irish drift scene is concerned.. Stepping into unknown water which is helping to keep the series fresh, interesting and moving forward.

4. And just coz its well cool........

Hands up who's not gona smile when they hear Mike screamin off the start line and up towards the first clipping point in this..

Thank you sir, when youre tired and broke and questioning are you mad to be doing what youre doing its comments like this remind you what its all about. While we were on the way back down to Buttevant with the trailer at 6 o clock Friday morning after pulling an all nighter Holly had the laptop out and he read out this comment. Thanks again

Im gonna be smiling on his drivers door into clip 1 :-D

Really Cant Wait to see the IRISH MAD MIKE out in this thing, great work from all involved will be a great wee motor to go, and cant wait to hear it scream!!

Thanks Chris! All you'll be hearing is the sound of 13B exhaust getting away from you though!

All i shall say is: I CANT WAIT!

gonna be EPIC

just read through the full write up. an unbelievable amont of work and money gone into this. hope it all goes well for ya. u and ur team deserve it!!

Thanks lads, give a shout up at Mondello and have a sniff of some race fuel!

[tezdude]

That is dedication right there, the very best of luck with it mike, you and the team really should be proud its an savage car

[MikeFitz]

After months and months of work, a broken hand and a complete change of plan engine wise later, the RX-7 FC3S has fired up! That was Thursday week, and after an all nighter at MCNSport we made it up to Drift Jam in Punchestown to get the new car out on track for the first time.

Before I get to that, Id like to point out something: After coming out of Darren's RE86, being fitted with various FD parts such as the upper inlet manifold, ignition system, custom wiring and Power FC, with a map that was put on that ECU by Hayward Rotary in England with the ECU arriving that day, and the engine filled with the best part of a litre of automatic transmission fluid by Darren to clean any carbon that had built up on the seals, the 13B fired up on the second turn of the starter. I could barely believe it. All the work. The worry of changing to a rotary for a man who had been reared with pistons, with nothing more to rely on than a man's word and encouragement and a mentality that was saying 'go big or don't bother building it', it was here, in the bay in MCNSport where Darren's Need For Speed car had been built into what it is, alive in front of me. Not even a wiring or vacuum problem. Just an even tickover (and a LOT of smoke from the ATF!). Relief? You could say that

So after various checks for leaks and an adjustment to the exhaust angle where it meets the V Band on the turbo, it was time to wheel it out. Happy Darren done the honours, and for the first time since it was a standard NA FC, the RX drove out the doors of MCNSport as a very different beast to when it came in. This is what it sounded like:

YouTube - ‪IMAG0019‬‏

[pole drift]

Jesus thats one sweeeeeeet sounding car!!! Your a lucky man

[tezdude]

That Fc sounds evil

[MikeFitz]

And so we made it to Punchestown, Darren, Holly and me bleary eyed in the Transit, Happy having to go home and put on a few arms on his SR20 R32 and get it down off axle stands to get it to Punchestown aswell.
After more brake bleeding (a favourite pastime of the previous night) Holly and me took the car for its first power runs to see if the HKS external wastegate would hold the Owen Developments special at a safe bar, which it did without any adjustment, it was time to get out on track.
With the rev clock delivery being late I did'nt have any gauge as to what revs I was at except my ears, and with the shriek of this thing it was easy to think that you were revving the nuts off it all the time. All the same, it felt fast but it was running out of revs fast, the boost threshold very narrow and hitting a brick wall of fuelling. This could have been a number of things, but was quickly traced to too much fuel pressure. A drop of 10 psi and we went for another run.
Oh my God.
I have driven a lot of cars in my time, through writing for Modified Motors, teaching in the Prodrift Academy, just being in the scene, but this is honestly the most responsive engine I have ever driven in a car. Now it's early days, and reliability is the first priority, but I couldnt help by being blown away by the sheer willingness of the thing to REV! That and the fact that it feels like its between 420 and 450bhp on my extremely accurate arse-dyno! You just couldnt help being excited driving the thing. And also turbo lag is non-existent. I had heard Darren and other people raving about rotaries, and I had driven a few single turbo FDs which were really good, but felt a little lacking in torque, but from the little test I've had in this Im really happy.
In the name of reliability and a bit of power we are running a petrol/race fuel mix, which will help keep charge temperatures down and detonation, the rotaries enemy, at bay.
One thing that I'm in awe of is Hayward Rotary's map. Carl Hayward has never seen this car. The plan was for him to come over and map the car in real world conditions in Mondello, but when he heard what turbo we were using and we were running race fuel, and due to the fact that he was simply flat out with work, he said he could put a safe, rich map on the ECU to get us going, taking into account the street port and all the other bits to run the car until he could come over and check it out. He got it spot on. Its as crisp as a two stroke Tayto. Carl Hayward, I salute you!
Now the flip side is that the FC tried to kill me several times! We had really old Tein coilovers on the back to get us going until the AVOs arrive and the Teins were sprung for a tank or something, not a severely lightened FC! This mated with standard-ish steering lock and wrong offset wheels with spacers on the front and a lack of castor adjustment and only rough geometry settings meant the car was extremely difficult to drift on the bumpy circuit.
And another reason why it was so dangerous to drive up there: The grip. The way this thing puts down power is just crazy. Press the throttle and it tries to leapfrog in the direction the car is facing. Im after getting a major lesson in weight, both getting rid of it and where to put what youre keeping.
So at this stage Strait Talkin' Dan is painstakingly going over the paint again and we know what weve got to do to get her handling right. Its not going to be easy and will require testing, which is expensive when youre burning race fuel, but its gotta be done. Straight away I can tell that it's not going to be an easy car to drive and is going to require a totally different driving style to what Im used to, but that can only make you a better driver in the long run.
This things got potential.

[Taffy]

sounds sweet mike

[tomsheen]

nice one lad best of luck with it.. i dont really no what to say just well done.

[Diesel-Dick]

u must have done honours english for your leavin cert! all that reading hurts my eyes! worth it tho, wat a car!

[git]

u must have done honours english for your leavin cert! all that reading hurts my eyes! worth it tho, wat a car!

i sware to fuck hes a shite ride ,but an excellent speller and writer ,well done on the build mike ! sounds good ......