So I've known this guy for a while who was doing this monster build in a 2nd-Gen RX-7. It's originally an N/A car, but he converted it to Turbo. The car was down for at least over a year getting a fairly stout 13B built for it. High-compression rotors, big street-port, Haltech EMS, T70 turbo, big fuel system, 18psi (a LOT for a Rotary). He had it dyno-tuned, and it made 417whp on a Mustang Dyno on 100 octane unleaded, so it's hard to say what it would put down on a DynoJet. Either way, he's always wanted a piece of my Eclipse, and last night he called me out, so we met up earlier tonight for a little action.
My car literally had sat for about 3 weeks prior, I did nothing special, haven't changed the tune in ages, just pulled it out of the garage and drove it to the meet-up spot. It's running 30psi on 111 octane leaded racing fuel, and it's tuned to somewhere around 11.9-12:1 afr's. I can't really up the boost any more as I'm maxing out my injectors because I still have a single in-tank pump and stock feed/return lines.
I have no clue how much power my car is making, I've always guesstimated it at 450whp, give or take. He claims his RX-7 weighs 2,650lbs. with him in it, which seems light to me. My car has to weigh at LEAST 3,200lbs. with me in it, so I'm not sure how it will turn out. I know I will definitely have a major traction advantage on him going from a 2nd-gear roll, which is what we were doing.
So we line up on the freeway side-by-side, I'm brake-boosting, and I'm pretty sure he is too. He honks 3 times, and we're off. I immediately pull quite hard on him, at least 2 cars it seems. I no-lift-shift into 3rd and maintain my lead, crack 4th and he's still way back there! I feel happy.
He claimed he had major wheelspin in 2nd, but I didn't notice from my car, his car seemed to pull clean through the gear.
He signals to me that he wants to go from 3rd, so I agree. We line up again, only this time he decides not to honk and just goes for it. I'm brake-boosting in 3rd, but I'm still way out of my powerband, but I go for it anyway. He pulls on me, but I stay with him. I hear his car breaking up pretty bad, then he mis-shifts into 4th. I shift into 4th and fly past him. He comes around me with his hazards on, and pulls off to the side of the freeway--blown motor. Yep kids, this is why I will never own anything powered by a Rotary. He no longer has any compression, we had to push his car off the freeway and he had to call AAA for a tow truck. I drove my DSM home safe and sound.