1979 Series 1 Mirage (Original)
09-25-14, 07:25 AM
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1979 Series 1 Mirage (Original)
G'Day from Australia.
Whenever I do searches, this site often appears, so I thought I'd join.
I've had my Mirage for about 4 years and have been restoring it slowly and thought I'd share some photos.
Cheers... Brup Brup
Whenever I do searches, this site often appears, so I thought I'd join.
I've had my Mirage for about 4 years and have been restoring it slowly and thought I'd share some photos.
Cheers... Brup Brup
Last edited by November Storm; 09-25-14 at 07:27 AM. Reason: Upload photos
09-27-14, 08:49 PM
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The following are some extracts from a forum on the "AusRotary" website:
Mazda’s Street Racer – Groundwork for a 1980s race program
In short, this is the information contained in what appears to be the genesis of the Moffat RX7s.
Only 25 Series 1 RX7 Mirage cars were built, each wearing the distinctive sunrise red livery completed with black striping.
This is a Mazda model, not dealership add ons.
At a cost of $13,995 they were $875 less than the “regular” model!
In the interests of weight saving the air conditioning, radio/cassette player and quartz clock were deleted. Gone too was the distinctive velour interior to be replaced with austere vinyl.
The front was revised with a deep air dam. The bonnet a scoop air intake, the wheel arches were flared and at the rear a full size spoiler fitted.
7 inch wide 60 series Dunlop SP Sport steel radial tyres fitted to their Aunger ‘Hotwire’ mag wheels. The spare wheel is fitted with a Goodrich ‘Spacesaver’ tyre .
A race orientated extended gearshift lever is also fitted.
Interestingly, a prototype of the Mirage was built for Penfold Mazda in Melbourne as a one-off by Peter Arcadipane. This was based on the standard RX7 however, and in addition to the fibreglass bits, it also featured a sliding sun roof. The bonnet scope was not fitted to this car which was white with a blue “Mazda” stripe fitted along the sides.
The spoilers and flares on these 26 cars were based on the full race RX7 exhibited at the Melbourne Motor Show in 1979.
All information taken from “Motor Manual” – Christmas Special 1979.
One of the 25 Mirage RX7s was sold by Phil’s Rotaries last year. Unfortunately it had been fitted with a turbo engine but at one stage I negotiated a potential sale price less the engine for around $5000. The car retained its original livery but had been resprayed. This was the second time the car had been sold by Phils during its life.
I believe it may have been the car photographed on the front of the Motor Manual as Warren from Phils advised the car had spent its early life been sent to dealerships on promotional duties by Mazda.
Warren emailed to me confirmation from Mazda that it was one of the 25 Mirages.
Found a note I made of the details of this car.
July 79 Build
Delivered Feb 80
Sunrise Red, black stripes
Factory flares, spoiler etc
Dealer Demonstrator model
One of twenty six odd Series 1 RX7s imported to Australia “Mirage”. 980 Series 2 Models
Note this information contained in a post on this forum under Hansford RX7. This may be the white prototype as in the above pdf.
Post subject: Re: Wanted: Old Series 1 Greg Hansford Special Rx7Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:06 pm
Rotor Junkie
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 5:43 am
Posts: 4802
Location: REACT, Canberra There did seem to be a factory demonstrator that was a group c type body kit on an s1. There was one for sale or year or two back in Geelong or similar, apparently had supporting documentation. I'd almost be interested in a s1 version as it would almost be eligible for historic rego!
'Tweety' sold one a while back with a 12aT that was apparently a Hansford special - also had the body kit and a leather interior. Was dark grey.
The problem is that some of these are not Mazda Factory things as such but local dealer 'specials' so it is sometimes hard to authenticate just what they are and if indeed they are something special.
I was also advised up to 150 Series 2 Mirages may have been built but I cannot confirm this advice.
My car has had the black stripes painted over, but they are still visible.
It also has a 13B with twin webbers and extractors.
The body is the original body including all panels. (doors & fenders)
The "Bonnet Scoop" (Hood scoop) had been removed, but there are traces of it being there once.
Brup Brup.
Mazda’s Street Racer – Groundwork for a 1980s race program
In short, this is the information contained in what appears to be the genesis of the Moffat RX7s.
Only 25 Series 1 RX7 Mirage cars were built, each wearing the distinctive sunrise red livery completed with black striping.
This is a Mazda model, not dealership add ons.
At a cost of $13,995 they were $875 less than the “regular” model!
In the interests of weight saving the air conditioning, radio/cassette player and quartz clock were deleted. Gone too was the distinctive velour interior to be replaced with austere vinyl.
The front was revised with a deep air dam. The bonnet a scoop air intake, the wheel arches were flared and at the rear a full size spoiler fitted.
7 inch wide 60 series Dunlop SP Sport steel radial tyres fitted to their Aunger ‘Hotwire’ mag wheels. The spare wheel is fitted with a Goodrich ‘Spacesaver’ tyre .
A race orientated extended gearshift lever is also fitted.
Interestingly, a prototype of the Mirage was built for Penfold Mazda in Melbourne as a one-off by Peter Arcadipane. This was based on the standard RX7 however, and in addition to the fibreglass bits, it also featured a sliding sun roof. The bonnet scope was not fitted to this car which was white with a blue “Mazda” stripe fitted along the sides.
The spoilers and flares on these 26 cars were based on the full race RX7 exhibited at the Melbourne Motor Show in 1979.
All information taken from “Motor Manual” – Christmas Special 1979.
One of the 25 Mirage RX7s was sold by Phil’s Rotaries last year. Unfortunately it had been fitted with a turbo engine but at one stage I negotiated a potential sale price less the engine for around $5000. The car retained its original livery but had been resprayed. This was the second time the car had been sold by Phils during its life.
I believe it may have been the car photographed on the front of the Motor Manual as Warren from Phils advised the car had spent its early life been sent to dealerships on promotional duties by Mazda.
Warren emailed to me confirmation from Mazda that it was one of the 25 Mirages.
Found a note I made of the details of this car.
July 79 Build
Delivered Feb 80
Sunrise Red, black stripes
Factory flares, spoiler etc
Dealer Demonstrator model
One of twenty six odd Series 1 RX7s imported to Australia “Mirage”. 980 Series 2 Models
Note this information contained in a post on this forum under Hansford RX7. This may be the white prototype as in the above pdf.
Post subject: Re: Wanted: Old Series 1 Greg Hansford Special Rx7Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:06 pm
Rotor Junkie
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 5:43 am
Posts: 4802
Location: REACT, Canberra There did seem to be a factory demonstrator that was a group c type body kit on an s1. There was one for sale or year or two back in Geelong or similar, apparently had supporting documentation. I'd almost be interested in a s1 version as it would almost be eligible for historic rego!
'Tweety' sold one a while back with a 12aT that was apparently a Hansford special - also had the body kit and a leather interior. Was dark grey.
The problem is that some of these are not Mazda Factory things as such but local dealer 'specials' so it is sometimes hard to authenticate just what they are and if indeed they are something special.
I was also advised up to 150 Series 2 Mirages may have been built but I cannot confirm this advice.
My car has had the black stripes painted over, but they are still visible.
It also has a 13B with twin webbers and extractors.
The body is the original body including all panels. (doors & fenders)
The "Bonnet Scoop" (Hood scoop) had been removed, but there are traces of it being there once.
Brup Brup.
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