Ray green, you are my hero. Clearly the most a$$ in chair miles of any RX7 owner I know. Very cool.

 

How awesome!

 

My first RX-7 was a tired '81 GS that I bought when I was 18 in 1999. I needed a car to get to work (which was a remote fishing camp about 400 miles north on some very dodgy roads. When I bought it, I didn't:
- Know how to drive stick
- Know anything about cars whatsoever.
- Have any mechanical inclinations at all

I fell in love with that old car and it's funny little engine. It was a heap, though, with 200K hard miles and a very rusty body. I wasted quite a few dollars on bodywork and paint before I dropped it like a bad habit for my beloved '79 GS jalopy.

That car was cosmetically challenged to the extreme but very solid mechanically. I picked it up in 2001 at age 20. That car taught me how to drive because I started my foray into Solo II the summer after I bought her. Over the next seven years, I went through two engines, three exhaust systems (until I got the sound just right) and raced the pants off that beautiful old heap. While I had the '79, I bought another '79 in Spark Yellow that looked very pretty but turned out to be a pile of rust held together by a decent paintjob. It was flipped to a young guy who wanted to try his hand at fixing a rust bucket. I sold the jalopy in 2008 which was probably the second-worst decision I've ever made.

For the next six years, I was in an RX-7 drought. I stopped racing and got rid of all my spares, manuals and cool RX-7 stuff that I'd accumulated over the years.

Until...

October, 2013. My wife called me over and handed me her iPad. "Take a look at this," she said.

It was a gorgeous Stardust Blue '81 GS with (what I found out later) were some very rare Enkei EK94 rims and a glass sunroof (which I'd always wanted in an RX-7)

"I can't look at it," I said and handed the iPad back to her. "It's too pretty."

"You should go buy it," she replied.

So I did. Turns out she'd been plotting with my father to get me back into RX-7s because "I needed a hobby." So at 32, I sat in the driver's seat of an RX-7 for the first time in six years and it felt oh-so-right.

So, I'm on my fifth RX-7 and, hopefully, my last.

 

You sir have an awesome wife. I get the stink eye any time I even mention working on my car.

 

My fiance was like that with my current one after only 12 months of me being without a rotary. She couldn't stand 72 months

 

29 ASE Mechanic/chemical engineering student

Why? Dunno, I wanted a RWD older car and I liked my MX3 so figured I'd stick in the family. I guess it just snowballed from there. Here I am now and I've got three of these things.

 

40 / Electrican. My then girlfriend helped buy me my first RX7. It was summer of 1991 and I was about to become a senior in HS. I wanted it bad especially since it was black and being sold by an older kid from up the block who I looked up to. It was an 83 and I was $200 short of the $800 price tag. She came over about an hr later w the $$ so I could get my first car. as I'm reading the stories I can remember how awesome and destinct the rotary felt starting up and driving slowly every morning until the choke kicked in on the way to school. All that car needed from me was oil changes. I remember the selling point was "look how smooth the idle is after the choke kicks in". It was @ a perfect & quiet 1000. That car was all orginal, clean and a blast to drive. Thinking back it was a total score.

 

58 Auto,cycle technician. Have owned Four FBs over the years. Bought the 85 SE in 1993 from original owner with 59,000 miles. Has been garage kept all it's life. First them and then me. Car is in very good condition,interior perfect,no rust,everything works, runs great. Has been maintained by me and kept original with as many Mazda parts as possible, just got it's first clutch at 137,00 miles. Currently going through the suspension, new Tokico blues, RB springs, urethane bushings. When these cars were new i worked as a flate rate tech in the local Mazda dealer, had a hard on for an SE but couldn't afford one. Had a couple GSs and one GSL. One day was talking to a guy who said he knew where one was for sale, went and looked at it-it was near perfect. Turns out the car belonged to the wife of the man selling it. She had passed away three years before, he couldn't drive a stick, so it sat in the garage since the last time she drove it. Adult owned, it was CLEAN. Bought it immediately for 3000.00. Had to wait almost ten years to get one, this was as close to new as i'd ever get. Turned the engine over by hand, checked the fluids,aired up the tires and jumped the battery and drove it home. Like someone else said, i'll own it til i can't drive anymore.

 

83 gsl at 17 and i paid $1200 i was actually looking for a car for my mom she didn't want it but i did. That was a really bad deal i had no idea what i was doing at the time and the car was rusted so bad i ended up scraping it.

79 sa for $3000 at 19. I got this one for a steal completely rust free and all original the guy i bought it from was very nice he should of been asking 5k. This probably the only rust free 1st gen in Minnesota it is a keeper for sure.

 

Bought mine at the age of 21. . .(an 84 GS) from an Air Force Chief. Said his family was growing and obviously could not fit them all in this 2-seater! Car was in great shape too! Could not pass up buying it for 8k. Did not know a damn thing about the RX-7 but after reading a repair manual on how to do minor maintenance on it, read up on how the engine works, learned it's handling characteristics, and would occasionally race a friend (he owned a 300ZX) when cruising to the beach, I had no idea how attached I would become to it! Heck, when I had to do an overseas tour, I "sold" it to my brother with the agreement that when he was ready to sell it, I would be the buyer!

He drove it for 4 years and blew a rotor. . .he "sold" it back to me afterwards!

Once repaired, I had it running for a while until work (and family) kept me from enjoying it, so she sits mothballed. . .FOR NOW!

Every year, I open the hood and (with determination) say to myself "this is the year I'll get her running again". . .and she sits idle. . .again!

2015: Haven't opened the hood yet!

 

28, deli clerk, got her in 2010 as a project/ rescue, the other prospective buyer was in the words of the previous owner a Mexican kid who wanted to make it a low rider. I had always thought that the gen ones were cool and $500 later she was mine, and not a low rider, a fate worse than the shredder.

 

59, Network Analyst (Whatever that means). I bought my first 7 in 1985, I was 29. It was an 82 GSL. I was a programmer at that time and had a run of good luck with some software. I had seen them around but had never driven one. Fell in love on the test drive. I lowered that car and put an ArKay turbo in it and eventually blew up the motor. It was a much better car as a daily driver without the "upgrades".

Still driving my 2nd FB as my daily.

 

I bought my first and only Rx-7 in 1980, I was a Design Engineer working on high pressure reactors. I bought a 1980 LS off the lot and still have the same car today. I sold an 1973 Roadrunner to buy the car seemed like the thing to do based on the rust and maintenance issues with the Roadrunner. Attached are two pictures of then and now. The older picture shows the car the day I brought it home, you can see the Roadrunner in the background. The current picture was taken last year before I put the car up for winter storage.

 

What else is there to say?

 

Im much younger than most old guys. Im a commercial loan banker (aka special assets manager) for a nationwide bank for the past 25 years. Im a hands on guy and my real job is totally the opposite as Im also a residential/light commercial hvacr tech & installer as well as a mechanic (operating out of my garage). Funny that i go to work on Mondays with black stain on my finger nails as I hate using gloves.

Rotarywise, i was exposed to them at age 15 and bought my first RX-3 in 1985 as my 2tg corolla was not fast enough against a rotary at LA street race (stadium way).

Im looking forward to being a grandpa so i can teach my grandson tricks of the trade lol.

 

Yup. Agree Ray. THAT is my perfect SA: yr/model/color. And an original owner. kudos-

Stu Aull (60, TV cameraman, 4th SA, prob last)
80GS
Alaska

 

I'm 48, a dentist and a writer and have never bought an Rx7 in my life. And I probably never will.

In highschool, we all admired the cool English teacher with the 1983 GSL complete with Aviator sunglasses and leather driving gloves.

I finally convinced my Dad he should get one and after dithering for years, he grabbed one of the last ones. Around that time I had also just got my driver's license so I likely put more miles on it than he ever did. When he passed, it officially became mine although I suspect it had been mine much earlier. It didn't need restoration, just a rejuvenation. Unfortunately the original engine now sits on my desk after less than 70k miles due to severe chrome flaking. It has a Mazda remanufactured engine now and I have 82transam's 12a keg ready to crack open for a rebuild as a future backup. Likely my son will need it when he assumes guardianship.

 

46, Building Maintenance tech.
I have owned 6 Rx-7s over the years, I bought my first Rx7 (a black '83 gs bought in '92 for $500) to protect my 85 Honda Civic S(also bought in '92) that I was daily driving and using for an auto-x car, the Civic was a FL. car all its life and was owned by a retired navy guy who moved to Ohio. He also had a right hand drive turbo fb from Japan that he brought with him when he was over there. He had to sell one of the cars for a mini van because he was having his second child. I went over to look at the Honda but asked about the RX-7 when I saw it but it was NFS.

Anyways the first Rx-7 was a beat car that already had rust issues when I bought it, I put a set of snow tires on it and a hundred lbs. of weight in the rear hatch and hit the road. It was a great car in the snow, as long as it wasn't to deep. I drove that car for 2 yrs. and then sold it to a friend who daily drove it for another 2 yrs.

2nd rx7 was a silver 85 GSL-SE with maroon cloth that I bought in 95 to replace my Honda as my summer daily driver/ autox/ track day car. That was a great car, I kept it mostly stock except for new adjustable struts/shocks and a Momo steering wheel. I kept that car until 2000 I didn't drive it very often and sold it ,because I had bought a 99 Mazda Miata sport to use as a daily / autox car. anyone see a theme here?
The friend that I sold the 83 gs was looking for another rx-7 to auto x and were sitting around having a couple of beers and decided that we should build a race car and found a lightly modded 79 in copper in 2001. So with hardly any mechanical skills what so ever and the greatest line in the world "how hard could it be" we started taking the car apart, and found some pretty bad rust so... I found another 79 in the news paper for sale I bought it for $500 in 2002 this one was a base model wasted black interior dark purple exterior, yes Purple. We then set about to split the costs of modding this car which became this car with much blood, sweat, head scratching and of course money.



The car is now mine completely after "trading" my friend a decent '88 gtu for the title and his half of the SA.
this is his current car



After using the SA for many years I still use it for auto-x and some track days but after seeing a few people trash there cars at track days I decided to buy a " real race car" with a roll cage and protect my happy little SA. so I bought this



its an 83 that I put a ton of work into to make it look like this it was just a roller without a motor or trans. it has taken me about 5-6 yrs to get this far.

Here's one more of both of the hanging out together

 

38 and am an engineer/integrator.

was looking for a 13b to put into my 1974 BMW 2002 and round a newly rebuilt motor (PO did not hold back on the rebuild as it consisted of brand new housing, large street port, etc)...problem was that it was still attached to an RX7 with a widebody kit that was just started to be installed. PO spent so much money on the car and was selling it for a descent price, it made sense to just buy the whole thing. ended up finishing the 2002 and selling it in order to start building the widebody. funny thing is that i've pretty much upgraded everything the PO owner did before so tossed out the new tokiko blues w/ RB springs for adjustibles and coilover setup, newly rebuilt GSL-SE motor replaced by REW, RB Street exhaust for custom, etc. have pretty much touched every part in the car now. build still in progress and slowly moving forward w/ building vmount.

 

I'm 25 now,26 in May/warehouse mgr
When I was 19 my girlfriend bought a 85 tender blue gs, which we drove on dates because my 70 cutlass sucks on gas mileage. Her dad then bought a 84 gsl-se Dover white with grey interior, for some reason I didn't know why at the time but I loved driving that car, knowing nothing about rotaries.
After being around them for a while I had to have one. The first one I bought and drove was a red 83 gs which got wrecked.
Then rxtasy3 let me drive his 84 s with its 13b monster, and I've loved the 13b ever since, and realized why I liked driving my girlfriend's dad's se.
Long story short and several 7s later I was lucky enough to buy her dad's se which I'm now restoring, and is the car in my avitar.

 

The Wankel wins another convert.

Here's some photos of rxtasy and his "13B monster" (on the right) and project7's GF's dad and his very venerable SE (on the left) while attending an OGTA meeting a while ago:

 

thanks Ray for posting those pictures, it's been a while since I've seen it all one color lol. Good times
One day I'll get it repainted to its former glory, except now it's carbed and faster

 

I'll be 24 in a week. Valet on the strip. Got my 83 GSL at 15 1/2 when I got my permit. Daily drove it for a few years till I got another daily. Got sucked into the rotary scene when one of my older friends got his 84 GS. I was 13-14 when I got a ride in it and learned more about the rotary. That sold me.

 

I have seen that car in person and it is every bit as lovely and pristine as the photo makes it out to be.

 

57, Assistant District Attorney, Bought my RX-7 GSL in February of '84, a few months after I passed the bar exam. It was a decision between the RX-7, the Honda Prelude and the Pontiac Fiero, Clearly I made the right choice and have never looked back.

It was my daily driver for 25 years until I bought a 2008 Porsche Cayman S. Now the RX-7 is a garage queen. It will never see snow again and will rarely see rain.