The Mazda RX-7 FC
Once again, we got behind the wheel of a car I'd never have batted an eye at beforehand. The RX-7. This sporty looking chook-cooker has evaded my garage for quite some time, so now that it's in there, what's it like?
Baron slightly misses the apex at Laguna Seca
I missed the racing on Tuesday because of my holiday, and with the mighty Bathurst 1000 on the Sunday, I was fully expecting to miss that racing, too.
Thankfully, the race didn't start until 1pm, so I made that session. And I'm so glad I did! We had a great turnout (7 drivers at the least, 11 at the most), and some close, fast action! I myself had some amazing battles, but the most notable one has to be the Tsukuba Showdown...
Nismonath5 vs G_Asher!!! (Or @Draggon as he's known here)
Off the line, Ash had the jump. He made a clean bolt for it while I had to navigate the few cars between us. I realised during these early laps that for some reason I had no TCS. Normally I run 1 TCS, no ASM during the races, but instead I had 0 TCS, no ASM. So I had to be a bit nicer on the throttle, especially around hairpins, of which Tsukuba has three. Still, somehow despite my rather careful driving, I managed to pull back the seconds, split by split, until I was knocking on his bumper again. Catching up was the easy part, but actually braking past him was another. Ash's defense was solid, and he kept his car stable even through all the pressure I was putting on him. Eventually, on the fourth lap, I broke by...
The winning move
The loss of the lead must have shaken Ash, as he started making some mistakes, though thankfully the race was over shortly after, so he didn't fall too far back...
And Ash smacks the wall!
But really, great race mate!!
Now, some COTW regulars might have two questions...
1. Where was Baron in all this???
2. Where was VIC in all this?!?!?!
Well, Baron was sitting quite comfortably in the middle of the pack...
"Hmm, what a pleasant day for a Sunday drive..."
...and Vic wasn't even really racing, he was pulling some flashy slides! *CUE DRIFT PIC MONTAGE*
So what do I think of the FC RX-7?
Well, it's cheap, RWD and Japanese. That's three ticks in my books. It suffers from the ususal rotary curses. Low torque, bad fuel economy and (in real life), relatively short life. It's also let down by being on CS tyres, but the handling is still remarkably on point considering this lack of grip. It feels very predictable, you can often tell when the rear's going to swing out or when you're going to understeer terribly. And it's this sort of characteristic that I love in a car, as it usually compells a driver to take more risks in it, because they know how the car will respond.
It's a sleeper. 👍
The rest of my pics from Saturday!!!
As far as the next car, @Soyuz 77 had the choice, but Brad hasn't announced it. I'm assuming he's still busy or something, so hopefully he'll let us know soon. (Or Soyuz, inbox me with your picks for car and TT track and I'll sort it out.)
(I know it's not Oct 11 yet in the states, but it is over here in Kiwi land)
