The Mazda RX7 is a sports car produced by the Japanese automaker Mazda from 1978 to 2002 and is a hugely popular car for tuning or modification. The original RX-7 featured a 1146cc twin-rotor Wankel rotary engine and a sporty front-midship, rear-wheel drive layout. The RX7 was a direct replacement for the RX-3 (both were sold in Japan as the Savanna) and subsequently replaced all other Mazda rotary cars with the exception of the Cosmo.
The original RX7 was a sports coupé. The compact and light-weight Wankel engine or rotary engine is situated slightly behind the front axle, a configuration marketed by Mazda as "front mid-engine". It was offered in America as a two-seat coupé, with optional "occasional" rear-seats in Japan, Australia, and other parts of the world. The "occasional" rear-seats were initially marketed as a dealer installed option for the North American markets.
Car Tuning
Car tuning is both an industry and a hobby, in which a car is modified in order to improve its performance, handling and looks and improve the owner's driving style and the RX7 is an extremely desirable car for performance tuning due to the nature of its rotary engine. As most cars leave the factory set up for average driver expectations and average conditions, tuning has become a way to personalize the characteristics of the vehicle to the owner's preference. For example, tuning cars may provide better fuel economy, produce more power at high RPM or the ride comfort may be sacrificed to provide better handling.
Car tuning is related to auto racing, although most performance cars never compete. Rather they are built for the pleasure of owning and driving such a vehicle. Another major facet of vehicle tuning includes performance tuning to the car exterior. This includes changing the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle via side skirts, front and rear bumpers, adding spoilers, splitters, air vents and light weight wheels.
Below is some information about the most popular types of car tuning:
Engine tuning as of late has been marketed as the replacement of basic engine components with after-market versions that perform the exact same functions as those replaced while promising an increase in power output. When tuning the engine car tuners usually install new turbochargers, modify the car's engine cooling unit, replace the air filters but they could also install a more powerful engine on the cars they modify.
For example tuning a car could involve hacking the ECU to gain more power.
This is another popular type of car tuning. Suspension tuning involves modifying the springs, shock absorbers, swaybars, and other related components of a vehicle. Shorter springs offer an improved lowered look and a lower center of gravity. Stiffer shock absorbers improve the dynamic weight shifting during cornering, and normally have shorter internals to stop them from bottoming out when shorter springs are used. Stiffer sway bars reduce body roll during cornering, thus improving the grip that the inside tires have on the surface; this improves handling response. Other components that are sometimes added for tuning are strut bars which improve the body stiffness, and help better maintain the proper suspension geometry during cornering. On some cars certain braces, anti-roll bars, etc, can be retro fitted to lower spec cars from sports models.
For offroad vehicle tuning, the emphasis is on lengthening the suspension travel and larger tires to increase ground clearance.
Lowriders with hydraulic/pneumatic suspensions use another unique kind of suspension tuning in which the height of each individual wheel can be rapidly adjusted by system of rams, even to the extent that it is possible to "bounce" the wheels completely clear of the ground.
Body tuning involves adding or modifying spoilers and a body kit. This type of tuning is done to improve the aerodynamic performance of a vehicle, as in the case of some wings or bumper canards, or, to lighten the vehicle through replacing bodywork components such as hoods and rear view mirrors with components made from lighter composites such as CRFP. With body tuning cornering speeds and adhesion can be improved through the generation of downforce.
|