warps

Haha nazi - ur funny If only you knew. Well, since he asked about their reliability, I answered him. I gather from the OP he's after something "old school", ie a bit different from your mundane shopping trolley, otherwise he would be looking at a late 90's Camry. Cheap, reliable, safe, cheap, economical and cheap. Can't go past one for a daily. Of course if you want something "old school cool" then be prepared to put up with old technology, rare and expensive parts, poor crash safety, and high fuel costs. I don't think that's restricted to rotaries only. 16l/100km? pffft. I bank on about 75L/100km on special stages, and about 20L/100km on liaison. Of course I avoid driving it on the roads at any other time as much as possible (because it's a dog in traffic)

Everything up to (but not including) Iron Chef's thread has been pretty much spot on. rotors are fun and very reliable if treated correctly. In fact in racing circles, I've read more stories of RB26's dropping their guts than rotaries. My RX2 rally car has the same engine it had in it over 6 years ago. I do an oil change after every big event, and warm it up properly before racing. Other than that, I drive it like I stole it. Have had the temp gauge on the wrong side of 120 deg C a few times when I was popping fan belts, and had other major cooling issues (all fixed now), and it still runs fine. Big carbied and ported rotors can be cantankerous in traffic and not much fun as a daily. An EFI 13B will still haul arse in an early RX, and be reliable and very easy to live with. Yes, the rotary scene draws a lot of wankers, but so does the WRX scene, import scene, v8 scene etc.

What is it about people posting tech how-to articles and them filling them with crappy mobile phone photos? Even the most basic phone takes half decent pics now, and digi cameras aren't that dear (my son's $70 job takes fantastic photos). Sorry for the rant but I take tech photos and write tech reports for a living and this kind of thing just sh!ts me no end. Now that's out of my system, I have a Nissan Service Manual, and there are no pics in there showing the rear axle installation. It does, however mention the bearing retainer ring which goes on the inboard side of the bearing. Note this ring is never to be reused, and a new one will be supplied with the bearing kit. Your mechanic is correct - there should have been one. don't fret if you can't find it, as a new one will be supplied (as long as it's not floaring in your axle housing somewhere ) The photo below shows a Mazda RX2 setup, which uses the same concept as all live axle setups AFAIK. note that the locking collar has been welded to the axle in the photo - not what I'd call good practice, but it's how I got the car. Apparently it was a common fix for early Falcon (c1970's) when the rear axles used to pull out whilst driving.

Have you fixed the leaking wheel cylinder? If not, all your brake fluid has probably leaked out. YOu should still be able to get front braking though, as the brakes will be on separate circuits. Replace the wheel cyllinder, flush the fluid and top up. This should bring it back. The slow leak in the booster shouldn't cause brake failure. If your booster system fails, then your brake pedal will just get harder. Still, worth fixing the leak as well. In fact, I'd be replacing both rear wheel cylinders (and probably worth rebuilding the front calipers too). If one wheel cyl failed, the other is probably not too far behind.

I agree with Dennis. while the first poster's tyres don't look too bad IMHO (and if they're listed as suitable for a 9" rim, then there's legally nothing wrong with them) anything more is just plain dumb and illegal. Of course for optimum performance, 235 on a 9" rim wouldn't be ideal - better to stick to a 8" rim. But then again, I get the feeling the car wasn't built for ultimate track performance. Now, as for fitting 215 tyres on a 9" rim - well that's just a plain wank, nothing less. Just because a bunch of idiots in Japan do it does not make it cool. The concept of severely restricting a car's performance potential just to look "tuff" is akin to removing springs and riding on bump stops, or big bodykits that do nothing more than add weight. Sorry - it's pure rice. If you accept it for what it is, then that's fine. If you sit theere and try convince others (and yourself) that "they fit with absolutely no problems whatsoever", then you need your head read.

And remember, it's a retainer, ie it retains the bearing on the shaft. More importantly, it retains the whole axle in the housing, preventing it (and your wheel) parting company with the car. Don't just bash the retainer on with a hammer. I'm inclined to think that if you need to ask questions on an internet forum, you probably should get someone more experienced to fit the bearings for you.

Refer #3 above C'mon. It's OK to admit your secret desires. It's a perfectly natural emotion, afterall

find me a brand new EVO for under $40k on the road and I'll buy one. Till then, the Rex does me fine, thanks very much.

Err no. They would fall under category 2. Only three kinds, No more. No less Yes, I AM taking the pi$$. To each their own, and that will never change. Ask the same question on a WRX forum and you'll get more of a WRX bias, but most will probably still agree that the Skylines are also a very good car. No point trying to force your own opinion onto someone else. If the dude likes Rexes, let him buy one. He won't be disappointed. He might stick with them, or he might want to go back to a Skyline. Personally I haven't gone back, but wouldn't mind owning another one day. Maybe when I clear some other cars out of the shed.

There are three kinds of people in the world: Those who own a WRX Those who want a WRX Those who have never driven a WRX

nothing wrong with Rexes. Yes, lots of them are owned by wankers, but then again so are a lot of Skylines, v8's, rotaries, etc. etc. I owned a MY02 from new and at the track, the only Skylines that beat me were highly modded GTR's, and even then I whipped them in the wet. GTSt's didn't even come close - wet or dry. This was at a proper race track, none of this 400m wank. I'm sure that a well modified GTSt in the right hands would have been quicker, but none of the ones I raced were that quick. I'd sold an R32 GTST to buy the WRX, and much as I loved the Skyline, the WRX was all round a better car (being over 10 years newer obviously played a big part of that). Yes, they do tend to understeer under power, but that's no more of a problem than something that wants to spin whenever you get on the power. Both can be controlled at the track unless you're a total gimp behind the wheel, As others have said, it's all about horses for courses. If you like WRX's, go for it (personally I'd buy an unmodified one, as they can be fragile is mistreated). I do like Skylines (hey, I like anything that's fast) but I can also appreciate what good all round packages WRX's are. I just picked up an MY09 hatch, and the performance blows me away. No other road car has put such a big smile on my dial in a long time.

blimey!! You guys have obviously not had to buy early rotary mazda panels in recent times!! People are charging hundreds for bent, rusty pieces of crap!! Might have to sell the chook cooker and get a DR30 to rally instead

My god, look at all those RX2's Good to see them put to good use, not just sik maccas cruisers or 9 second 13BT street sleepers

Performance wheels do 15x8, 16x8, in very deep dish (I think they even do a 15x10 with neg offset). They're australian made, can be custom drilled and cost far less than $2000. Why waste your time trolling Japanese auction sites when you can buy what you want here?

pfft - what would they know? Are you out there to win sheep stations or have fun? It's all about how spectacular you look and sound which is why I chose a RWD Weberised gravel rally car, rather than any of the infinitely faster FWD or AWD choices. I may be at the back of the field, but I put on a good show at the specce points

Exactly. I would have thought ride heights will have the biggest impact on the corneer weights. Remember, the chassis is meant to be rigid, so you can't really change corner weights any other way. Front to back is a different matter, so the more crap you can mount in the back, the better.

You'll struggle to get wheels / tyres with sufficient load rating to carry 2 tonne on a single axle (trailer plus load) You should easily get your trailer below 500kg with dual axle capability. I bought my trailer off the shelf and it has a 2.1 x 4.3 bed with fold up ramps. It weighs 560kg. with a bit of smarts and design, you will manage to get your trailer down below 500kg, even with dual axles. There's a fundamental flaw with the design of a lot of load sharing axle assemblies, that cause springs to break (they get loaded in compression when hitting big pot holes). HAve a good look at the spring mounts, and load on the springs before deciding on how to mount them.

Fixed

Pfft - drift boy wannabe. now watch a real race driver - the master himself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65iD4gkelfg...-impressed.html Around the 1:20 - 1:40 mark they show close up footage of his feet. Notice the heel toe double declutch on downshifts? That technique is very beneficial on fast downshifts - even on more modern machinery (gearboxes haven't changed much since the video was shot - despite what the marketing blurb tells you). Main thing double clutching on downshifts does is conserves syncros, to allow faster changes(as opposed to heel - toe with a single clutch). When a works rally driver (who gets a brand new car every event) does it, I think you should really consider doing it in your road car too, if trying to do quick changes. I've had cars with worn syncros, and it has been essential on down shifts. I have a very tight gear box in the rally car, and it's needed to allow fast down shifts. On my road cars it doesn't seem to make a big difference either way, but at the track I still do it to conserve the syncros.

4WD rally car means you need restrictors Will they let you run a >2L turbo AWD? What category would it fit into? You can get 16" rally tyres. There are heaps of brand new Bridgestones for sale on Ebay for $200 a pair. Buy a dozen pairs and you're set for a few years of rallying The stock brakes are heaps bigger than many other rally cars. A decent set of pads and airflow and you shouldn't have a problem in the dirt. Not like you're going to be regularly pulling up from 200kph The ATESSA will need to be tweaked to give it more FWD bias to work effectively on dirt. Sad fact is that the next best thing to true AWD is FWD. RWD rally cars are a long way behind. Of course I still refuse to believe this in my RWD dinosaur, but them's the facts. (ever seen the stage times of a well driven almost bog stock Hyundai Excel? Scary!!) Apart from whether it will be an outright contender or not, I reckon it would be great fun. My GTSt was very nicely balanced on dirt, so a GTR sould be just as easy to drive quickly, and make for great spectating. There was a guy running a GTR at one of our local dirt sprints late last year. I didn't get his times, but he certainly looked quick (and I don't mean totally sideways action looking quick either) 250kW is enough to scare you in the dirt anyway.

I saw them OK. Would have snapped them up if I had anything to fit them to. Don't think I would have fit the 13" wheels of the rally car over those brakes tho

Don't know if it's the same one, but just because it's missing the compliance plate does not mean it can't be registered. There are mechanisms in place to let you register a car that's missing its tags.

I'd say judging by the phone no, it's in victoria. Better yet, give him a call

Looks like it's on the market again

All right - which one of you guys bought it?