Categories
Automotive On The Job

Apex of Failure is Preparing a New 2011 Entry for the Chumpcar Series

RX-7 Chumpcar Apex of Failure

My hat is off to these guys. They are a Pacific Northwest ChumpCar “crap-can” team that is building their 2nd RX-7 for competition. After a challenging 2010 season, they have found a new platform to build on and you can check out their blog at http://roadtochumpcar.com They update all the time and the photography is great from Gabe McGinnis. Here are some recent photos of their progress:

RX-7 FC Chumpcar
The donor car that will replace last year’s bent car. They are transferring as much as they can to this car.


Tearing down the old car
Tearing down the old car and prepping parts for the new car.


Mazda RX-7 FC Engine
The current driveline out for inspection



Prepping the interior of the second car for racing



Great shot prepping the car for the cage!


Subscribe via email to their updates and follow what should be another exciting season. We’re proud to be their website sponsors at MotoringBlogs and wish them a great year!

dc

Categories
Automotive Ramblings

2009 Portland Rose Cup Races Recap

Got a chance to hang out at PIR for an afternoon with Paul, Ed, Bob, and Brenda for the Rose Cup races, featuring the Trans Am series. The weather was a perfect high 70’s and cleared up nice by the time the main event was on. Congratulations to Tommy Drissi for his authoritative win in that Jaguar!

Here’s my quick pics from the event {yep, they’re over Photoshop’d, sue me!}:

A Mazda RX-2 Custom
Mazda-RX2-at-PIR-Rose-Cup-2009

An exceptional Porsche 951
Porsche-951-at-PIR-Rose-Cup-2009


Congratulations to Tommy Drissi!

Tommy-Drissi-PIR-Rose-Cup-Trans-Am-Winner


The Chicane at Portland International Raceway:

Chicane-at-PIR-Rose-Cup-2009


The Sports Car Shop support rig with the race cars:

sports-car-shop-transporter

Check out the entire gallery, unedited:

dc

Categories
Automotive Classifieds of Interest

1973 Mazda RX-3 For Sale in New Jersey

When was the last time you saw a nice looking RX-3 for sale that wasn’t a race car? Not in the last decade at least for me… Maybe Paul will leave a comment with a humorous little tale from our college days when we last inquired about an RX-3 😉

Here’s an RX-3 survivor for sale on the east coast for $7900 that I spotted on VWVortex:

quote from seller’s post:

it is a 1973 mazda rx-3 2dr. fastback blackwith black interior. it is powered a a 13-b rotory motor street ported with race beat intake, race beat header, holly carb, exhaust and muffler. this thing sounds real mean. backed by a 4 speed trans with race clutch, battery relocated to truck with an alluminum fuel cell in the trunk, electric fuel pump with electric cooling fan as well. has fiber glass fenders and hood with hood pins. lowered about 1.5 inches via race springs in the front and blocks in the back. has heavy duty front sway bar and posi rear. very very sharp car and very fast to boot. gonna take it to e-town tonight to see what it can do. lots of mods and very sharp. asking $7900 or best cash offer will consider partial or full trades for a really nice v-dub.

I know I haven’t seen one of these for sale in quite a long time and this one is in reasonable and drivable condition. The 13B upgrade and performance accessories certainly sweeten the deal and guarantee this is a little screamer.

But $7900 seems crazy to me because I think you could fetch a far better first generation RX-7 for that kind of money. It’s not like the RX-3 set the world on fire like the seven did, so I have a hard time giving it this kind of billing. But the seller is on the east coast, and it’s probably been 20 years since anyone has seen one this decent in salt country.

Regular readers will note that I took a little break from blogging this past weekend. Work has been kicking my ass and the weather was really nice here in the Willamette Valley this past weekend. So I unplugged and decompressed, enjoying the weather and quiet. As such I’ll be getting the updates from GermanCarsForSaleBlog and RareSportBikesForSale out a bit late. But follow the links now and be ahead of the curve if need be – there’s some good stuff in there. And I’ll be doing a writeup of a recent interview with the previous owner of this 82 Porsche 911 Turbo modified by DP Motorsports, which has was owned earlier by Mario Andretti and Pete Rose. Some good reading in the works, stay tuned!

dc

Update: This listing has long since expired. Check out these other Mazda RX’s for sale right now:

[AffomaticEbay]Mazda RX[/AffomaticEbay]

Categories
Automotive

I’m FunCheapCars.com Newest Contributor

There are some semi-major announcements coming regarding the future of dancrouchblog.com. But before those details are finished, I’m going to also be blogging over at FunCheapCars.com. I stumbled onto the site a few weeks back and fell in love with the concept being a cheap-ass myself. A couple of days later I saw their post calling for contributors. I was very happy when they accepted my request to help out.

My first post is about the beloved Mazda MX-5 Miata NA. Check out some of their other posts:

I hope you’ll come join us if you’re into affordable and fun cars!

dc