Hey my long love affair with my 1979 RX-7 is about to change. She is needing a new clutch and her 29 year old paint has got to go. So with that in mind I am thinking changes and modifications all at the same time.

So best place to get a GOOD clutch and should I get a new flywheel at the same time. She's got almost 90,000 miles on her.

Next I am going with a brighter yellow than her original and I am thinking body kit and maybe some louvers and even a tail. What are your thoughts out there.

Then if I do this might as well turbo her and get her to the track. . .

So let me have your thoughts.

 

complete restoration. leave the body kit out of it as well as the turbo. the original spark yellow was kind of a rare color, as you may want to leave that as well. you may want to switch over to a racing beat exhaust, a ewber carb with racing beat intake manifold. you may want to upgrade to an aluminum radiator, etc....i'm a purist and i personally am into restoring the 7's and maintaining their current shape and more often than not, the original color as well. i'm not a fan of body kits.

as far as the clutch is concerned, an oem mazda unit would be a good choice. i've never had any trouble with napa'a clutches. just remove the flywheel and have it machined. replace it with a lightened steel or aluminum only if you are planning on modifying the car.

 

Agreed. I think most folks here will concur: the stress of a turbo on an old, 90K motor is asking for heartbreak. While your car is down for the paint job, send your Nikki carb off to Sterling at
http://www.pbandjracing.com/
along with your intake manifold. Sterling's modded Nikki carbs and ported manifolds (yours) are popular performance upgrades. Add a Racing Beat header and exhaust system and you'll have a nice quick ride, IMHO.
And you might find the original Sparks Yellow color actually "pops" nicely - don't judge by your old paint - the 79 brochures illustrating the Yellow cars show these are BRIGHT!!
Good luck on the resto - make sure you get some before/after pix posted!
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

You can also try mazdatrix or racing beat for good clutches. But the oem lasted a long time, so it should again.
Putting a turbo on a carbed 12a will require a lot of work. If you stay with a carb, then you need all sorts of old fashioned parts that are not going to be easy to get. Easiest way is to put in a 13 b and its fuel injection system and turbo that, or better, the 13 b turbo and its fuel injector and engine management system. That had been swapped into my 85 GSL at one point before I bought it as a shell. But now you are talking tons more work and money than a new clutch.
Better to put on a better carb, the racing beat holly or weber, or the sterling, all as suggested above, along with the racing beat header.
You could also get a street port built. It would cost you a lot less than the 13b turbo route is likely to cost, and if you add the better carbs you will get well above 150 hp at the wheels. (Unless you can source a working 13b turbo from a crashed or clean air act challenged gen 2 to save bucks)

 

either racing beat or mazdatrix for the clutch stuff, for a streetcar i like the steel flywheel, it feels like what should have been on the car from the factory.

i'm a fan of the original color too, but a 79-80 can pull off something brighter. try the yellow from like a 2003ish mazda protege 5

my favorite setup for the rest of the car is,

RB streetport exhaust
lighter flywheel
tokiko illumina shocks
RB springs

car becomes really fun to drive power is up, but not enough you can use it, if you go to the track its really balanced. you can go further, but it doesnt get more fun, only more expensive and faster.

oh also ditch the points ignition if you still have it, the 81-85 electrionic is simple to wire up, and works so much better

 

oh yeah forgot, if you have an original 79, the 81-85 brakes are better, all the way around. and they had a limited slip diff in later years too

 

I believe Billy at respeed also has options on flywheels and clutches.