This site is a repository for information about the 3rd generation RX-7 (1993 - 1995 in the US, and 1992 - present in Japan and possibly other places overseas). There are other good sites out there for the 1st and 2nd generation cars, but I have chosen to concentrate on the 3rd gen cars since that is what I have. Links to 1st and 2nd gen sites can be found in the FAQ or Links sections of this site. There are also a lot of other good 3rd gen sites out there as well, ditto on where to find links.
I would like to thank all of the folks on the RX-7 mailing list for the huge amount I have learned about the RX-7. I have saved all of the good posts to the mailing list on this web site, and tried to give credit to the original authors where possible.
I would also like to thank Damian Dela Huerta and Brab Barber for help on the "cutaway" graphics on the site. (See the Upgrades and How-to pages.)
I want this site to be a repository for information. There are several good sites with great pictures of the RX-7, so I will be going light on that, with the exception of inline images directly related to the topic of each page.
I want this site to be fast with a 28.8 modem. My goal is to keep the inline graphics down to reasonable sizes so the pages load quickly. However, some how-to pages may require high resolution images so the details of the engine or part in question can be seen.
I do most of my work from a laptop, so I want the site to be easy to read with a small screen of resolution 800x600. That modem and screen should be the minimum hardware config I think should be necessary to view my site.
Frames pretty much suck. Let's leave it at that.
The random image display on the main page is a perl script written by Matt Wright. It is freeware. The following was taken from his header for this script:
#Basic Random Image Displayer Version 1.2 # #Copyright 1996 Matt Wright mattw@worldwidemart.com # #Created 7/1/95 Last Modified 7/20/95 # #Scripts Archive at: http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/ #
Let me know if you see any areas where I am not meeting these goals or could improve the site in other ways.
Site History:
I started the site in late 1995 while I was still looking for my car (1995 bought new in July 1996). I had started saving all of the good posts that came across the mailing list, for future reference.
This site was originally created under the "RX-7 Files" monicker, but someone else later created a cheesy site and used my name, so I switched to "Lightning in a World of Thunder". This new name came from the advertising campaign for the 3rd generation car.
The site was originally hosted by Mindspring at http://www.mindspring.com/~steve.cirian/rx7 with the space I got as part of my dial-up account. I ended up getting a business account with Mindspring when people started exceeding the maximum monthly download byte limit (something like 2 GB a month!) for a personal account.
As part of the business site deal, I got my own URL, ScuderiaCiriani.com, where I moved the rx7 directory. Scuderia is an Italian term than roughly means "racing stables", a reference to the pre-automobile days when horse racing was the only game in town. A lot of Italian auto companies or racing teams use this term, e.g.- Scuderia Ferrari is their racing operation.
I was starting to exceed the basic business web site account allowances in terms of space and download bandwidth, so I went looking for another ISP. I think MindSpring was OK, just a little expensive for the next level I would have had to go to.
At that point, Net Wizards graciously volunteered to host the site. (Same URL as before: ScuderiaCiriani.com/rx7 - just a new ISP). Net Wizards have been very good - great customer service, very prompt in responding to questions or concerns.
For more info on the site's history, see the What's New page on the RX-7 site home page.
Please read the legalese and copyright information page for information on those topics and terms of use.
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