talk to me about FD rx7

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

i've been wanting one for a while, almost pulled the trigger on one a couple of years ago from atlantic auto but got cold feet. will be a fun car, not a DD per se but will see semi-regular street (not track) use. anyone here semi-knowledgable about them and willing to share their wisdom?

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:57 pm

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:09 pm

"The FD Mazda RX7 is one of the greatest cars to emerge from the 1990s. It's gorgeous, it's rotary powered, it's easily modifiable, and it's totally unreliable.

But that makes it endearing. It's one of those rare cars that has a cult following until today, with an active community of owners and modifiers making sure that the car lives on even with its various faults and issues. That's why you put a Corvette engine one, to make it work." From R&T. Reliability is their short coming.

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

i (briefly) drove a LS powered FD an hour ago, very tempting to go that route.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I know of an FD expert in the Pacific NW, he lovingly refers to them as "Financial Disasters".

Someone was asking about what was necessary to get an FD into good shape, and he had this breakdown:

Quote:

To do a full R+R on a FD, you are looking at $6-12k for a rebuildable car that let's say for this example needs coolant seals (varies by area).

Car: $8k (clean paint, normal interior ware, few to no mods, blown coolant seals, 80-100k)
R+R (Remove/Reinstall): $1k (includes fluids/shop supplies, ect)
Engine rebuild: $3-4k (depending on where you send it)

Now, once you get into one of these cars, I usually end up having to do the following since it's a 80-100k car.
Engine wiring harness: $1100
Turbos: $250 used/ $2800 new
Vacuum system overhaul: $400-800 depending on solenoids/hose kit
Clutch: $450
Cooling system overhaul: $350-700 depending on radiator/hoses

This does not include wheels, suspension, bushings, or aero/body.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:01 am

I bought one years ago for a DD when I lived in Virginia. It was that or an NSX, but the NSX footwell was too tiny for my giant feet. It was awesome when it was running right, but after 9 months of weird failures and thousands of dollars in repairs, I sold it. After that I bought a used E36 M3 which I abused for 80K miles while doing nothing other than basic maintenance to it. In retrospect, I had also looked at a new ITR, and I probably should have bought it. The FD was beautiful and fun, but complicated and fragile.

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talk to me about FD rx7

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