RX7???

[wozzaG40]

I have been thinking for a while about getting another car (not selling the G though) I stupidly watched the fast and the furious Tokyo drift the other night which only makes me want a Jap car even more.

As the tittle suggests I have been thinking about and RX7 and was wondering if anyone on here has owned one, driven one or has some real experience with one?? I would be grateful if you could share this with me.

I know they are not the most reliable cars out there but I am not looking at using it as a daily or anything anyway.

Thanks

Wozza

[supercharged spaniel]

My mate has three ha ha yes three, he imports them and sells them on.
 here's one of them..they drive really well but he crashed one because he had the coilovers too hard on the back.  The boost kicked in and he lost it and went straight into the back of a skip wagon writing it off.  Didn't have his belt on as he was just testing it down the road..bad times..hes fine but was gutted.  They are as youll be aware wankel rotary engines..not sure on the overall benefits other than the reduction is cc's.

They seem to have a lot of unecessary electronic shite that apaprently can be removed and run with other means that are beyond my knowledge.  My mates most used one currently has some issues with boost solenoids?  and without them working it wont boost.  It also uses a stupid amount of fuel currently.  They're damn nice looking cars and feel great inside...but typical of Jap cars the plastic is cheap.

[Alex]

I've got the horn for RX-7s at the moment, one of the guys here has one and it's absolutely awesome. A proper Jap muscle car, stunning lines and it looks awesome modified. But, like a G40, maintenance is absolutely critical and if it does go wrong expect big bills.

[SuperMario]

LOVE these cars! get 1!

[wozzaG40]

Dan that is a stunning car, not to keen on the front splitter though. I know my house mate has worked on a few and he said they tend to have quite a few common faults but if you keep on top of it and don’t expect it to do stupid mileage everyday then you should be ok. Saying that I was told the same thing about my G40 a few years back when I bought it but that has been a right little workhorse for me over the years. Although I am sure the 3 services a year I was giving it helped.

I know I am really going to have to get my head around a few things before I purchase one, common faults, parts prices etc. etc.

Although living with a mechanic helps an awful lot.

I shall start to have a look at prices over the weekend and see what I can afford, do not want the G to go without.

Not to go to far in to specifics as I am no doubt wrong but I think they are equivalent to a 2.8l turbo??

Thanks

[Alex]

Wise words from an RX-7 owner

n short, you can't get something round a circuit quicker for the same buying price.

Maintainance and running costs however are a different story.

New rear brake discs from mazda £120 each (no alternative "blue print" parts available)
New front brake discs £90 each (no alternative "blue print" parts available)
New clutch (non mazda OE, but OS Giken or Exedy blueprint part) £350 + Flywheel or re-skim. Suitable for 300hp only, anything more needs uprated clutch for £400+, my most recent was £1200 for clutch and flywheel and i got that trade with no VAT.
exhaust manifold bolt from mazda £27 each
Exhaust manifold nut from mazda £12 each (you need 12 of both of these if you have to remove the twin turbos, which you WILL have to 2 or 3 times a year if you keep the twins and track the car)
exhaust manifold gasket £120 + VAT

So those are some random parts costs, then of course there is the inevitable engine rebuild that will cost you £2500 minimum whether done professionally or done yourself (im always willing to help with that if needed though!)

Fuel costs on a standard car are probably around the 18mpg urban and 23-25 mpg motorway if driven respectfully.

Mine is lightly tuned engine wise (decat, downpipe, larger intercooler, boost raised from 10psi to 14 power taken from 275hp to 319hp) and i get 4mpg on any circuit, 10 around town and 18 max on the motorway. It is however mapped very safely with loads of fuel in the map.

It will use about a litre of oil every 1000 miles under normal driving or about a litre of oil every 50 miles on the track (with a good catch can setup)

Brake PADS are not that expensive (a full set for standard brakes can be had for under £100) and the standard brakes are pretty good, 256mm all around and 4 pot aluminium calipers up front ( i ran my car when it was standard on the ring with standard brakes no problem and was running approx 8:45 BTG)

They are an expensive car to run, and expensive to maintain. However they look great from the factory and im convinced as i say that you cannot get something round a circuit faster for the same price (which is about £5000 + another £1000 for reliability mods nowadays!)

Closest youll probably get is an older elise but then you dont have anywhere near the straight line speed.

If you want it as an every day car, dont buy it. Simple as that - no point looking into running costs and maintainance costs, just trust me - dont! If you want it as a second weekend/track day car though i dont think you can go far wrong if your willing to put in a little effort. Its cheap to buy, unique, parts are *Fairly* readily available, it looks great from the factory and goes really well from the factory and with a few mods and in the right hands out performs cars worth 10x itself Added to that it doesnt matter how many million horsepower skylines and subarus and supras are in a car park (if thats your thing) everyone looks at the RX7 and asks you if it has two engines.

If you got any specific questions just give me a shout.

Oh by the way, i have one for sale - ive had it like two years now, just put a fresh engine in it and lost motivation to sell it; but really need rid of it now as im going racing next year so need the room. Its black, good paintwork, mazdaspeed alloys, leather interior and ill sell it for what it owes me. it is an automatic, but i have most of the bits to convert it to manual which means youll pretty much just need to pay for the labour to convert it (about £500)

Lemme know if your interested, i think i can let it go for the 3500-4000 mark and as i say it has a fresh engine with less than 100 miles on it and all NEW (not recon) internals which you dont get with your run of the mill £2500 rebuilds at specialists (new "engine block" for a rotary)

Apologies for the essay! And as i say that video is two full laps so you cna pick and choose what you wanna use from it, if you choose to go with it.

Carl

[wozzaG40]

That is really good information and very detailed.

Thanks Alex

[supercharged spaniel]

totally over the top though.  That rx 7 above that i posted had the engine rebuilt by my mate himself and it didnt cost anywhere near 2500 quid lol..

[jesseg40]

dont do it wozza, i no a bloke with 1 its never runnin rigth spent 20k + still only run 340 bhp! its had that many engine rebuilds it stupid that how its got 2 20k +, id think realy hard about that lol

[sinister polo]

my mate has one, and due to an ignition problem the car cut out on him and went into safe mode i think,
anyways due to the design of rotary engine when it cut out it just flooded the engine, cost him about £3000 to have it fixed,
as it damaged alot of internal parts, ruined the cat which was titanium (that cost over a £1000 with new exhaust system),
plus loads of other stuff.

i think the rotary engine is a good concept, but financialy unviable!
my mate gets about 20 mpg, every time he drives it hard he has to put a load of oil in (he has to keep a big drum of it in the boot!), if something goes wrong you have to have real deep pockets!

good lookin car but to much hard work in my opinion!

[wozzaG40]

Does seem to be a recurring theme here i think.

Although they must be working for someone surely???

I know when they brought the RX8 out it had considerably more safety features and restrictions on the engine to stop the problems.

[supercharged spaniel]

its exactly the same as g40's though everyone always goes...'ooo theyre really unreliable'  when theyre not.  Its cos everyone always talks about the stuff that goes wrong. 

[wozzaG40]

I have a feeling that you are right mate, I just think I need to be a picky with this purchase as I was with my G.

I mean if someone asked me how many things I have actually replaced or fixed on my car they would say it was unreliable where as I would just say it’s the price you pay for a 18 year old performance shopping trolley which some crazy German decided to but a supercharger on.

If it was a standard RX7 I would expect more but once you start to “modify” it and push more power through the engine what can you really expect to happen??

[jez1272gt]

A friend of mine at Uni had a black Effini Edition Rex and it was awesome but as everyone says and it is true, they drink loads of fuel, loads of oil and are tempremental, fucking quick and drift so well its untrue!  He said that he would only ever buy another one if it was mint and had full history and low miles. Getting harder these days though..

[wozzaG40]

Well I have nothing but time to find one, I am in no rush. If I can not find a good one I’ll just buy another bike instead. Although I would like something Jap on the drive to intimidate the G40’s and I think a decent skyline is out of my price range considering I only want it for fun!

You wait this time next year I’ll be shopping at ALDI, eating Spam for dinner and busking on weekends to get money to fuel the rx7