oh dear I bought an RX-7

[78Z]

its an 1981 - rust free, good interior, one owner from new and a log book that has everything including everytime he filled it with gas from new! And I got it cheap, cheap. Its a real fun car to drive even if its not British.

 

[Banjo]

Great little cars, go like snot. Start saving now for the apex seals (engine rebuild).They had notoriously short lifespans even when maintained to the highest standards. But it sounds like the rest of the car is worth putting them into when the time comes. I wish I could find one that well documented. Enjoy it!

 

[Steve]

Lucky man! Enjoy your new toy, you did well to find one like this.

 

[Sherlock]

Cool... Looks nice, I'll have to pop up sometime to check it out in person.

And, by the way, I just love those years of RX7

 

[Eric]

I notice you're in Airdrie. You'll want to become familiar with RX-7 Specialties in Calgary ( https://www.rotaryengine.ca/ ) who will be able to help you out with specialised bits. Great cars - fast, agile and simple to work on. The rotary takes some learning, but its much simpler than a piston engine and the newer style apex seals can be retrofitted for a very reliable, durable motor. Have fun! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[78Z]

Thanks for the link - web page isn't much I'll have to swing by some time. From the log book with it the car has been amazing reliable so far.

 

[aeronca65t]

Welcome to the Mazda clan!
Your car is becoming rare, since hot-rodders seems to like using these engines in all sorts of other cars. Hang onto it...it's a keeper!
I especially like the first-gen cars since they are pretty light and simple. The front-engine / solid rear-axle design is just as God intended cars to have!
We have several of these running in our club races. One early car (like yours) is still runnning it's original stock engine with over 100,000 hard miles. As far as I can tell, the tip-seals (a huge problem in the old NSU Wankels and early Mazdas) was pretty well worked out by the time Mazda started building the RX-7. I did take one of these engines apart and it isn't all that difficult to work on (but parts *are* pricey).
Though I like the first-gen cars, I think the third-gen RX-7 is one of the most beautiful cars of all time. Unfortunately, I guess I was in the minority, since they didn't sell very well.

third-gen RX-7

 

[waltesefalcon]

Nial, I agree with you about the third generation of the RX7s. Beautiful car, I kinda wish I knew where I could find one for a decent price.

 

[78Z]

I looked at buying a 3rd generation one a while back. It was reasonably priced but they have a lot of issues with cooling, turbos, and general complexity. The rotary engine seems to last well if its maintained well but the turbos have short life even perfectly well maintained. The best looking car of the 90s imho.

 

[sammyb]

Great cars...cheap to buy, and fun to drive. Congrats.

Apex seal problems have plagued all the rotary cars, and was still a problem on the third-gen cars, which is why the Renesis engine (RX-8) utilizes a curved lip, rather than traditional apex.

I was actually reading an article last night on rotary engines, and one of the statements was that the higher the RPMs, the longer the apex seal will last. That's why the NSU Ro80 had horrible engine life, becuase the owners would lag the engine frequently at low revs -- stressing the seals. (The article was in Octane magazine, and this is the first time I've heard that statement, but I could see how it could be accurate.)

And as far as being the only one who thinks the third-gens are the most beautiful, Aeronca, it will make you feel better to know that the reason the 93-95 RX7 (and the third-gen 300Z) sold so poorly in America is that they went from entry-level sports cars to $30,000 sports cars in a time when sports cars and coupes were selling very poorly.

GM also thought the 93-95 RX7 was one of the prettiest cars ever, which is why the 97-2004 Corvettes steal many of the lines directly from the Mazda. When I used to park my '99 C5 next to my buddy's '93 RX7, it was just hysterical to look at! It's like the Chevy boys just Americanized the RX7!

[ QUOTE ]
As far as I can tell, the tip-seals (a huge problem in the old NSU Wankels and early Mazdas) was pretty well worked out by the time Mazda started building the RX-7. ...Though I like the first-gen cars, I think the third-gen RX-7 is one of the most beautiful cars of all time. Unfortunately, I guess I was in the minority, since they didn't sell very well.


[/ QUOTE ]

 

[Nunyas]

I like the 3rd gen 7's as well. A friend at work has one, and for a while it was giving him constant heart ache, but he stuck by the car's side and had "one of the best" '7' shops rebuild the engine for him.

For what it's worth, poor sales weren't the only thing that caused the 2 highest profile sports cars from Japan to disappear. I specifically recall there being discussion of import export trade agreements and even tariffs being thrown around by the Clinton Administration around that time era. More specifically, a "luxury car" tariff that would increase the cost of Japanese "luxury cars" by 100%. I think the price point that was set at the time was $35K. In 1995 the MSRP for the RX7 and the 300ZX was over 36K. I could be wrong in how they applied the tariff, but I know that the RX7 was affected. See this article concerning the trade tariffs levied on Japan in 1995: US Wields the Stick, Japan Wields the WTO

RX7 sales couldn't have been extremely bad. I know they weren't in huge numbers, but the sales numbers couldn't have been so low for sales to be the only reason to pull them. Just look at how many you still see on the road these days (I'm talking 3rd Gen here). I don't go a single day without seeing at least 2 (not counting my co-worker's). At the same time, the RX7 wasn't exactly a "high volume" car in sales, nor are any of the cars that it competed against (Corvette, 300ZX, Supra, etc.). However, the Japanese aren't stupid. They knew that the RX7 would not sell at $64K. In 1995, the MSRP of $37K for the RX7 was a deal when you considered the performance of the car versus its competitors, but at $64K ... well, you could get the same performance for half that if you bought domestic (e.g. Corvette MSRP in '95 was $31K)... I used CarsDirect to look up the MSRPs of the cars in 1995... hopefully they're accurate /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Anyways, the rumor I've been hearing lately is that the '7 is going to be brought back to the US within the next 2 years. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[78Z]

The reason they pulled them after '95 was it didn't meet the emissions standards coming in for 1996. They continued to be sold in Japan for several more years.

 

[sammyb]

These were all correct reasons for the RX7 being pulled. Mazda was having financial trouble, and a creating an export-ready RX7 didn't make sense. It was low production.

It is also correct about the luxury tax. I had forgotten about that. (I got hit with the last year of the luxury tax on my '99 Corvette.) My Father actually looked at the last gen 300Z-convertible, but couldn't stomach the high MSRP made even higher by the luxury tax, which was at its peak that year.

The domestic emmissions standards were slightly changed for 1996, but not significantly. As I recall, the RX7 was one of the only cars that couldn't meet them. Mostly, there was a gas guzzler tax, which would have contributed to a huge added cost to the MSRP.

I still love those 3rd gen cars. Too bad that I'm too tall to fit, otherwise I'd pick one up. They're pretty dang cheap now.