Nik da Greek

Wotcher all. Thought you might be interested in a few pics of my new daily driver. This is my third RX-7 over six years but my first first gen one. I've got a single turbo FD that's basically getting just a bit anarchic to use as a daily any more so strated trying to think of something I could live with day to day. It wasn't easy, it had to be fast (enough), cool, stylish, interesting, comfortable, entertaining... the list of cars that filled all my criteria got shorter and shorter until there was only realy one choice left.

I give you my sensible, reliable economical everyday transport. lol






We didn't really have the myriad options and trim levels that you guys got in te States, all the SA22s were sorta equal. This is one of the the last ever built, judging by the VIN number this was the 66th-to-last car Mazda ever built. So he's a standard UK series 3, no aircon but pretty much everything else. Pretty much unmolested except the emissions nonsense is all long gone in favour of an exhaust made one-off by a Rolls-Royce engineer. Strange but true.



55 thousand miles (genuine) from new



All I've really done is change the stereo because who the hell has cassettes nowadays?

Nik da Greek

Engine bay pretty immaculate, all stock save the airpump is obviously disconnected. may have to give some thought to losing the beehive though




All the UK cars came with the 12A engine IIRC


Even the wheels look like they've never turned in anger, shame about the 15-year old tyres though lol




It's almost too good to be driving, especially through all the salt and grit of winter. But only almost. I love this car, can't believe how much fun it is to drive and how appealing a little car it is. I think the FD might need to get used to this view, sulking in the garage;


That's it then. Thanks for having a look, any comments gratefully recieved. So long as they're not tooooo rude hahaha

rwatson5651

iTrader: (5)

Looks like you will have to change your sig!!! lol

You are coming around to what has made me love my SA for 34 years. There is nothing as simple and pure as a 1st Gen.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

beautiful tender blue FB you have there! looks to be very well maintained!!

drdode

Awesome!

DarrenTRS

iTrader: (1)

Awesome indeed! Interesting to see how the UK Models differ from North American Spec.


But in other news, let's see that exhaust....

WAS:12A

iTrader: (4)

Nice looking S3 you got there!

Wish there were more clean examples like that around here...

Nik da Greek

Cheers, guys! The car was the cliched one owner who only drove it on Sundays sorta thing. The old boy who owned it traded his '79 car for it, and when he died, his wife kept it for sentimental reasons, but she couldn't really drive it due to not having power steering and so on. She used it like once a month to go get her hair done.

....which is why I was worried it may be suffering waterseal corrosion but up till now (touch wood) it seems fine. That's how it's managed to get away with 55k from new, anyway. I got it from the guy who works on my FD, who's just a total petrol head and collects random cars, he rescued it from her when she finally decided she had to let it go. It's lovely, like I said, I can't stop driving it. Like cars used to be back when I was young lol.

I'll get pics ofthe exhaust when I get a chance to get underneath and do some corrosion protection. The dude who made it was a Rolls-Royce engineer who was a friend of the family, he used to do all the maintenance and servicing on it. Which presumably is why it's in such good condition.

Thanks again for the kind words

iowa_hawk1

iTrader: (4)

Are you certain that your car is an '85? The interior shots show what would have been an older interior in the US. The wheels appear to belong on a GSL-SE, but your engine is obviously not an SE since it's a 12A rather than a 13B.

RX-7 Chris

iTrader: (19)

All S3 cars outside the US got the SE suspension, 12A, and still had the old interior.

OP. I really like the car. Check out this forum if you haven't had a chance : http://www.rx7fb.com/index.php

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

very nice car!

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

Wow, nice car. Will make a great daily. Too bad the winters are going to eat it up. I want to see pics of this custom header.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

That thing is gorgeous! Make sure you get a ton of undercoating on there and good luck with it!

HALTECH 7

Simply beautiful.

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Awesome car, congrats!

Nik da Greek

Thanks again for all the positive comments, guys. Car's definitely an '85, as pointed out, the UK cars were a few steps behind the US and JDM markets. They stuck with 12A engines throughout, and rubbish emissions control (thermal reactors rather than cats etc) mostly due to the fact unleaded petrol was pretty rare in the UK back then. Interiors were also a model behind by the end of production. Only way we gained was that most everything came as standard, rather than being options. Main exception was aircon, which no UK cars had. Must have been our wonderful climate lol. Mine has an aircon button in the heater controls, but that's cos Mazda were basically using up what they had left in the parts bins by then rather than make up any more!


Made some progress today. Finally managed to get a dry day when I wasn't utterly spammed with work to the get ol' boy up in the air and have a go with some rust protectant. There's obviously some rust, but not too bad (yet) and I wanted to get some protective stuff on before the salt starts being laid on the roads. Hopefully if I can get through winter without too much harm being done, I can then take him off the road to give the underside the proper POR15 treatment come the better weather. That's the plan.

To this end I've been using ACF 50 which is a magic jizooom that rust converts and forms a film that stop water/grime penetration as well. I swear by this stuff, used it on bikes for years and it's just magic. I think it was originally comissioned by the US Navy to keep their planes and helicopters working in the North Atlantic, so ought to be up to keeping my FB relatively healthy! The best thing is, it's washable-offable with some degreaser come summer so I'll be able to paint POR on without a lifetime's prep work like if I used waxoyl or something more "durable". Besides, waxoyling is the single shittiest, most horrible job ever by all accounts. Anyway...

This is the O/S rear arch before


This is it after brushing, cleaning, then wiping everything over with ACF 50. You can see on like the shocker and exhaust shield how it's already started to convert the surface rust. In a couple of weeks' time I'll get in and do another application (weather permitting) and catch anything I missed


Front arch after cleaning/treating


All this is pretty sound though the nadgery corners by the brake cooling ducts, the edges of the wings meeting the arch, etc are all pretty cheesy to be fair. Hopefully there'll still be enough metal there to paint come spring



Also got the essential stickerage sorted out lol.



And managed to get what pics I could of the exhaust that's alleged to have been made up by a Rolls-Royce engineer. That much is true, evidently the guy was a family friend who serviced the car for the previous owner, but whether he "made" this exhaust or knocked it together from off the shelf bits I have no real clue. It certainly seems to be all-stainless. Any of it look familiar to anyone? (BTW, it's bloody hard to photograph an exhaust from under a car on axle stands when you only have an 18-200 78mm lens and its minimum focal length is about the length of your arm. Bloody hell, the contortions I had to go through to bring you these pics hahaha)

*ahem* Back box


Over-axle bend


Mid-section


headers and front pipe


..and from above


I only had time to get one side of the car treated today, so hopefully tomorrow will be dry and I'll be able to finish off. Probably get better pics of the zorst from t'other side as well, sorry again for how shocking those ones were. Oh, for a pillar lift.....

Nik da Greek

Oh, forgot my other essential modification. Finally accepted it's a physical impossibility to fit a cup holder into an FD so I used the epicly cool rotor cup holder I've been hoarding for years in the FB. Finishes the interior off a treat lol




Also discovered a can of prehistoric touch-up paint in the boot that looks as though it was last opened when li'l Baby Jesus was sweeping up sawdust shavings after his ol man finished making pipe racks for the day. It's still good, though, blimey but they made paint out of serious chemicals back in the day

Banzai

iTrader: (13)

Nice car. I'm also lusting after that cup holder! US cars only got there air conditioning after arriving in country at the port. A lot of them recieved this as an option/upgrade before arriving at the actual dealership but not all. Your muffler does look custom made. The chrome tips are bolt on from the factory. That is an original can of factory supplied touchup paint. I still have mine too but, it's pretrified hard as a rock.

cshaw07

iTrader: (14)

uh... me. Listened to my scorpions cassette all the way to work this morning. People think im weird too, I'm 22... and dont own any cd's, only cassettes and vhs tapes, by choice. I've yet to scratch a cassette tape haha

Nik da Greek

Lol. Tragically, I'm nearly twice as old... and all my Scorpions stuff is still on vinyl . Admittedly, it's not very portable or easy to access with a car stereo, but....

I have a USB turntable that I'm currently using to MP3-ify all my old records with. Still can't bring myself to sell them on though, evn if they do take up huge amounts of space. Nothing, but nothing gives as good a sound as an LP played on a decent stereo (leaving aside the whole album art, sense of occasion factors). It's noticeable that even with noise removal and suchlike, MP3 tracks I've "recorded" myself from vinyl sound better than ones downloaded or converted from CDs

Cassettes, though, just pissed me off. Hissy, fluffy sound quality, heavy, clumsy, degrade really quickly, and trying to unravel four thousand yards of your once-favourite compilation tape out of the rollers of the tape deck whilst stuck in a ten-mile tailback on the M1 is not my idea of musical nirvana (no, not that Nirvana!)

RX-7 Chris

iTrader: (19)

Nothing wrong with vinyl. I have over 800 records varying from the teens to the '80s. I agree that they sound way better than cassettes.

cshaw07

iTrader: (14)

i know they sound better, it would just be too hard to fit a record player in my truck/7 lol

iowa_hawk1

iTrader: (4)

You just need a better cassette deck. Get your hands on a vintage Nakamichi properly aligned and you will be hard pressed to hear the difference between your vinyl and a cassette recording. As an added bonus, you don't have to worry about laying down a fingerprint or a scratch on a cassette shell. Try to pay attention to driving while getting a cd out of its holder and into a cd player while keeping at least one hand on the steering wheel at all times.

Nik da Greek

So moving on from the great audio debate lol, got hold of three old skool JDM wheels (Sharak X-4). Unfortunately the fourth was mullered and the guy I bought them from had chucked it, which is annoying as it may have been straightenable. Never mind, I actually rather like the idea of miss-matched wheels front and rear, seen it on a few cars and I think it can work well with the right style of wheel

Test fit using the very non-scientific method of propping the wheel against the car . I'm waiting on spigot rings since the bore on these is massive and it'll be flapping around like a ***** in a shirtsleeve if I put them on like this lol. Bloody Christmas post... CBA to put them on then take them off in a couple of days to fit rings. Soooo lazy, lol.



excuse the hazy photoshop skillz lol


Like I said, it's only a shame there aren't four of them. I think if they fit these might end up on the front and I may get some Minilite/Watanabe-style with a bit more dish and in 15" for the rear eventually. Can't believe how many decent tyres there aren't available for 14" wheels I drove about a 150-mile round trip to the FD club Christmas dinner the other night, coming back in the small hours and even my wife noticed the car was slithering around all over the place (it was about 2 degrees above freezing, no idea what that is in Fahrenheit, sorry). Someone pointed out that the Goodyear NCT tyres on the car have been out of production for fifteen years, so that might explain why they're a bit lively now the weather's gone cold and wet

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Damn those wheels are gorgeous, really a shame it's not a full set. I agree, the tire selection for 13/14" wheels has really gone to hell, hardly anything good left for them anymore.