Thought id share my latest find.

Bought it as a rolling chassis, from what i was told it was ordered with a turbo from the factory, but i dont have any more info. Couldnt find much about the 12A turbos.
LS trim.

Alabama car, 1 owner. Car has been sitting for 20 years or so, only has 35k miles on it. Little wear from being driven, mostly just from sitting for so long.

Mostly original, exhaust is (i believe) a RB unit.

Big issue is the rust. The hood is pretty bad. The sway bar/steering rack/engine mount area has a good amount of surface rust on it as well. Front bumper area has some rust on it. Started working on grinding the hood, but it rained the next morning and i didnt have the car covered so ill have to go over it again.

Other than the rust, its a clean car. Interior is in great shape, body is straight, not too much i can complain about. Other than what looks like fire damage on the passenger side of the firewall, and on the inside of the hood.

My plan is to swap my street port 13B into the car from my SE. Just have to deal with the rust before i can get to the swap. And i have to find a radiator, a fan assembly, and a few other parts.

Ill be updating with my progress through the swap, havent had time to do much because of work and speedweeks and whatnot.

 

No factory turbos in 1980 but I was very amused that the factory quality turbo decals went very well with the empty engine bay.

 

I know very little about the turbos, thats just what i was told by the PO.
Are the decals factory? They looked the part, but i wasnt sure if they were just thrown on later.

 

I'm happy you found it and if authentic low miles has lots of potential.

The decals are not factory, I was trying to make a joke about how terrible and amateurish the TURBO stickers were, just like tacking a wing that has zero function just to make the car appears faster - which is why the empty engine bay was so ironically appropriate.

 

Glad it whent to an enthusiast! I was actually going to pick it up but i guess it was you that beat me to it..lol.

 

Don't worry I had a chuckle on the way home about it too.
Stickers will be coming off soon, it's on my to do list.

Speed:, Yeah the day I picked it up the PO said he had about 6 people ready to pick it up. Glad I was the first there lol.

 

Mazda didn't have a turbo engine at all anywhere until 1983, when they offered the Rx7 with a 12A turbo.

there were however several aftermarket turbo kits, and any one of them could have been installed when the car was new, or almost new, this would be really cool...

it is a nice car, and potentially something a bit special

 

There was a 12A with a Turbo installed,but like I said I got it with no engine so I have no way of knowing what was on the car.
I was told the turbo failed,and looking at the hood and the firewall it looks like it went out with a bang.

 

The old Rx-7 Club of America sticker on the back is a rare and cool detail. They only made 1000 of these special model LS's in white.

 

Did you get the 7 eleven sign in the background intentionally? If so, ROCK ON \m/

 

Yeah that was one of the first things i noticed. I think its a cool thing to have on the car.
I think the white goes really well with the gold rims. Definitely one of my favorite color combos.

Haha, just noticed that. No i didnt.

 

This car will look far better as soon as those Turbo decals are off of it. Great find, especially if the miles are correct on it.

What engine do you intend on putting in it?

 

My streetported 13B out of my GSL-SE. Stock except the porting and exhaust.

 

Should be a fun project!

 

Definitely. Main thing is rust ATM. Started on some of it,I just haven't had time off to work on it much. Hopefully it'll be a fairly straight forward swap once that's out of the way.

 

Nice project. I like the tires; impossible to find RWLs these days.
I don't think that's an RB muffler; the tips look too long to my eye, but it may just be the angle of the photo. The newer mufflers did have longer tips than the older diagonal-cut ones.

 

It might be something other than RB, not sure.
The car isnt with me so i cant take more photos at the moment, but ill get some more of it when i can.
Ive got the exhaust off my SE ill probably end up using anyway, we'll see.

 

Without papers, it could be 135k (or even 235k) LOL

 

Some good progress. Engine is in the car,still have to order new oil cooler lines and Rad hoses,start on the wiring,seal the fuel tank and finish priming the car.

But it's getting there.

 

I see you're using a 13B from an SE. Good engine choice. I did that swap on my 85 GS! Was s simple swap, no issues.

 

So far with the racing beat conversion mount it's been smooth. Only thing im dreading is the wiring.

Ill probably end up trimming the header and keeping the exhuast thats on the car now. Other than those things I don't have much fabricating to do,should be straight forward