An End-of-build Retrospective on my Rx7 Evo GT by gmonsen

Budgeting

Its also about balance in terms of costs. No 20b conversion is an inexpensive undertaking and mine was no exception. So, in each separate area of the car I may not have done whatever the ultimate might have been. Had I done so, it would have doubled the cost and not really been a factory evolution at all, but obviously a very, very special one off show car. I wanted to build a car that Mazda could build today for the same time-value-adjusted-dollars as the cars cost when introduced.

Im not about giving advice, but cant help but emphasize something I just said. In every area of your car, there are aftermarket pieces that cost three or more times the average price for that piece. Take Ianetti seals at, what, $1500 whereas other very good seals are $600 or so. If you try to find and buy the best piece everywhere, your build is going to cost you a fortune. If you can make it a rule never to buy the most expensive pieces, but to try to buy at the top of the middle, you can control your ultimate costs much better. At the same time, this budget control helps ensure you dont end up with a build where one or two things are great, but there was clearly not enough money left over for some areas and they suffered.

I hope there are some things here that some of you haven't seen... 

EXTERIOR

Ill start with the few exterior modifications Ive done. The exterior of the 3rd generation Rx7 is as near 

perfect a design as possible, so I didnt want to change the lines in any way. All my efforts were simply to 

see if I could enhance it a bit through small details.

New Emblem 

I never have liked the emblems that came with the 3rd generation Rx7, though I have used the Efini emb-

lem for many years. They dont mean anything and there is no heritage or legacy symbol for Mazda or the 

Rx7,

like there are for Jaguars or Ferraris or Porsches. Maybe thats why the Mazda emblems are all made out 

of plastic?

The Rx7 is very much like the old Datsun/Nissan Z cars. Everybody knows what a Z is and everybody 

knows what a 7 is and so Ive commissioned a new set of emblems that are the same size and shape as 

the Efini emblems, but simply have the number 7 inside a rotor shape. These will replace the front hood 

and rear hatch emblems and all other identification.

The emblems are going to be made of three layers of metal welded with parts painted or polished and will 

be about the same size as the stock Efini emblem. Ill update the pictures here with the completed emblems 

when they are done.

_______________________

Here is the final design for the emblem:

Here are the initial drawings I did for it:

This shows the 3 pieces that will make up the emblem:

And here is a version of the emblem out of polished metals:

_______________________________________

Knight Sports Sleepy Eye Headlights

Everyone knows that the FD was not blessed with the best nighttime lighting and many upgrade it. I chose one of the best of the traditional JDM kits offered: the Knight Sports 

High Intensity Discharge (HID) sleepy eye conversion that provides much better high beams at night and looks a lot better in the up position than the stock frog eyes. The 

Knight Sports kit is very well made, installs perfectly, and works as well as factory.

Here they are from the side and above showing the lower sleepy look:

From the front they look more aggressive and the HID's are very bright:

_______________________________________

Aluminum Grille

I have always loved the grille on the early FDs, but you cant really see it on a black car. I also have always loved the grilles on Maseratis and Ferraris where they made an 

aluminum grille surround. So, I commissioned an aluminum grille surround for my car. I really like the way it outlines and picks out the shape of the grille.

Here are a few of the grille being made:

This takes some olde-fashioned skills in metalshaping:

And of the grille installed. The fit is perfect:

As you can see, its a real piece of jewelry when its polished:

HRE 543R Wheels (17x9 and 17x10)

Generally, the most common types of wheels on FDs are variations on the 5 spoke designs and the basket-weave designs. I had several sets of 5 spoke wheels in the past and 

have basket weaves on other cars. I really spent some time thinking about what I wanted on what was to be a more luxurious iteration of the FD theme and I have always said 

the FD lacked those little detail touches or “jewelryâ€Â that so many fine cars have always had. The polished aluminum grille and valance were added as just such details and jewelry.

I thought about wheels the same way.

There were only so many manufacturers I really wanted to pick from including Fikse, HRE, and a few others. The wheels had to be made and finished in the best manner possible 

and, while other manufacturers have some good-looking wheels, few have the level of design, craftsmanship, and finish I wanted. 

I decided I wanted a busier look with more spokes. While the 5-spoke designs look more powerful and sporting, the designs with more spokes provide a lot more detail for an ex-

terior that, while gorgeous, is quite homogeneous. I looked at a number of designs and came down to the Fikse and HRE 10-spoke designs.

Here are the Fikse Aro and Mach V wheels I liked:

And here are the HRE type 543R wheels I finally selected:

I picked the HREs for several reasons. First, the curved shape of the spokes  from center to lip  is very close to the curve radius of the fenders. I believe theres a subcon-

scious link between the wheels and fender curves that you sort of subconsciously appreciate. Second, they are finished remarkably well and have the 3-piece design with the highly 

polished nuts holding the pieces together.

The HRE's are like a diamond bracelet on my girl:

I think you can see how visually harmonious the spokes are with the fender's curves:

I guess I would comment that I have always liked 17 inch wheels over 18s, because I like having more rubber to cushion the ride and for the section to provide better warning of impending breakaway. I may try some 18-inch wheels someday just to see how they look versus how they ride and whether theres any handling issues. (This is obviously one area where I went way overboard and did not follow my own advice about not buying the most expensive thing in a least in this category.)