I been looking for a fun weekend car for a long time, and have always loved the older RX-7. I came across a neat looking one on FB, and ended up buying it yesterday. It's a bit of an enigma since someone clearly spent a lot of time and money on it, but there is no paper work. The guy I bought it from had it for 3 years, and he bought it from the guy who bought from the fella who did all the work. The previous owner kept in his garage, changed the oil and tuned the carbs...that was about it. My buddy who is a BMW guy test drove it with me and loved it...it drives great, doesn't smoke anymore than it should, the oil pressure, voltage and temp all read where it needs to be. It needs an oil change and brake flush for sure, and I'm sure there will be a laundry list of other things to do.

I am excited to join the club, and any insight people can give on what I bought would be greatly appreciated!

From what I was told and have surmised, this is what I can piece together:

Engine:
Dellorto carbs
MSD ignition
Racing Beat headers and exhaust
Racing Beat braided oil lines
Racing Beat oil cap

Suspension + Brakes:
Coilovers (sorry I don't have a good pic, shocks are red and coils are blue)
Rear strut brace
Racing Beat front strut brace
discs in rear
braided brake lines
OZ mesh wheels

Body:
front bumper
new paint
new door and window seals

Odds + Ends:
FC seats
Nardi wheel
HID headlamps
new gauges in the dash

 

Classic good looks! FYI, you also have an up-rated alternator, as that's not stock - and appears to be an S4 (70amp) version. Great find, and love those old-school rear-views on the fenders,

 

Thanks for the heads up on the alternator...I am sure there are so many details buried in this car that I will uncover. Whomever built this appears to have understood the car, as the rear-views are a nice touch.

 

You also have the 1981-1985 side molding. The 1979-1980 side molding sit inside the side indent and the 1981-1985 are larger and sit below.

You also have the Rotary Engineering dash insert where the climate controls/gauges/radio are. And the sought after Racing Beat struct bar.

 

Great looking car!! what part of NC are you in?

 

@KansasCityREPU thanks for the info...the dash insert is pretty slick.

@73rx313b I am in Raleigh.

 

Finally able to respond to your thread. I saw it earlier and moved it here. What a fantastic car overall!! You are very luck to have found the car. Its an amazing example and the Tornado Silver looks great on the car. So many tasteful things have been done to the car without ruining it. I'm glad see that!

 

Thanks! I am very fortunate to have lucked upon it.

It drives as good as it looks. Really looking forward to learning how to drive it to it’s potential.

 

ThingOfBeauty (heavily biased*) with some nice, rare period Bling, like noted 3-gauge cluster - and that front spoiler, to name a few.
Hear the Dellortos are sweet when set up right.
Someone else has done all the heavy-lifting for you in improvements. Does it have the rear Disc brakes?
Change ALL your fluids if you haven't yet, or the PO has docs to prove its been done...
Synth gear oil in tranny and diff...
New fuel filter yearly, oil and filter every 3000 miles, watch the oil consumption so you get a fix on when to top her up - and you can pretty much drive her forever-

Stu A
80GS*
AZ

 

Thanks for all of that Stu. What do you recommend for tranny and diff fluid?

It does have rear disks and an LSD.

Just went for a morning drive before work...so much fun!

 

At least your passenger side one shown in the pic. Unsure if that affects vibration, but the sandwich design is so that if the mount fails, the "cup" portion will tend to stay on top of the "puck", and prevent the engine from sliding around. Check your FSM, and the stud location being linear, you can just flip it over. Cool car,

 

Thanks man! It's like that old bar game Photo Hunt...y'all can see things that I am totally clueless to

 

Redline seems to be the popular choice-


Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

transmission--> use gl-4. gl-5 has sulfur, which will attack the brass synchro rings
if rated for gl-4 and gl-5-->don't use it on the transmission

differential --> use gl-4 or gl-5.

gl-4 is hard to find

redline is expensive + royal purple is really expensive

How is it you have a sa rear end and fb side moldings?

 

Thanks for all of that!

In regards to the side moldings, I haven’t a clue. A previous owner fully restored and modified the car awhile ago.

 

I will add my input on the fluids. I do really like redline fluids. I have also used Motul gear oil and love the stuff. I've been running it in my Porsche and it's great stuff. Its expensive but you really do get what you pay for. I will use 75W90 in the transmission and 80W90 in the rear end. I have also used Amsoil's gear oil of the same weight with excellent results. Both are of top notch quality. One thing I learned over the years is not to out cheap fluids in a car and expect them to offer superior protection for the components. The cheaper stuff does work fine, but to me, its worth investing a little more to have a better product.

 

Snapped this pic of the front suspension. Looks like a ReSpeed coilover. Rear is ReSpeed adjustable perch and Koni adjustable red shocks.

 

Wow!! That's a nice find on the car!

 

Looks well sorted and the Dell has the RB heat shield which it needed terribly to run well. Used run one for years on my SA.

I'm in Charlotte, where are you in NC?

Consider DGRR next spring, its a blast.

 

I am in Raleigh. I was wondering about the heat shield...learning something new everyday about the car!

I'll look into DGRR...definitely up for getting involved in events and groups.

 

once you go, you will want to go every year.

 

I really like your car! The period modified cars are my favorite... Once you get them all sorted, there is nothing better.