I have a great story for you.
I am sure you have all heard of keeping up with the jones' right?
Well now they are keeping up with me!
My neighbor(jones) has serious rx envy.He has liked my molly ever since she was dropped off.Well the other day he TRIED to one up me by getting one of those porches that kinda looks like an RX(944?)Any who.It's a four boinger,no turbo!
Albeit,it's good looking,but come on.Did he have to make it so obvious.Now I had some envy when he had the 69 camaro.rrrwwoowww! But a datsun would have been better than this.I really can't believe porche would put their name on it.It's SLOW!The rx would definitly spank it and send it home to mommy!I just thought this was funny,I like to shine up the rx in the driveway just so he can look at it.maybe he'll ditch the porche and get a real sport car

 

porsches are real sports cars, they always have been, just cause it isint a bat out of hell doesn't make it a non sports car, the rx-7 wasent designed to be a dart, it was designed to handle and take corners liek nobodys business, and that it does, same goes for the n/a 944 porsches, they handle quite well....

 

MY 1954 42 hp Nash Metropolitan was built for..... looking cool. But it still gets more looks than my RX, but so would anything maxing out at 55mph on the freeway!

 

Some would argue whether a 924 or 944 is a real Porsche. Nevertheless, they were the direct competitor of the RX-7 at the time. Happily, the RX-7 wins that competition.

 

The Rx-7 was a copy of the 924.

Anyone who says the 944 isn't a real sports car hasn't driven one.

 

yeah i'm suprised no one has dropped this old line here yet


the rx-7 is the "poor man's porsche"

 

That is quite a stretch to say a copy. One could make a similar claim about any car, including the 924.

 

no, the 924 or 944 is the "poor man's porsche"

 

It's not a stretch, at the time it was clear that the RX-7 was meant to be an affordable 924. The same with the 2nd gen and the 944. You have to remember, in those days the japanese companies made no secret that they were going for the affordable market and were simply undercutting the Europeans at their own game.

It wasn't until Acura when the Japanese companies decided to start competing with the Europeans instead of living in the markets under them.

 

hahaha amen brotha

 

Porsche Over priced lawnmower engines on Crack!! Driven by Geeks

 

If so, what was the Datsun 240Z a copy of? There may be a better case the other way around: The 924 was a low-budget copy of the Japanese 240Z. For that matter the Triumph TR-7 was also a competitor of the 924. Since the name is similar, maybe the RX-7 was a copy of the TR-7, LOL.

Many cars have similarities with one another, due to the era's prevailing styling trends, country of manufacture, target sales price (which affects design choices such as rear drum brakes), etc. Some cars have more similarities than others. In some cases, there are deeper connections as when the Lotus Elan is said to be the inspiration-in spirit as well as styling-for the Mazda MX-5 Miata. Then there are the bizzare "odd-couple" styling similarities such as the Lotus Elite and the AMC Gremlin.

Competing in the same market segment does not make the car a "copy". They all have similarities--starting with four wheels--but they are all original cars. The RX-7 is no more a copy of the 924 than many other sports cars. The RX-7 was developed from the beginning by Toyo Kogyo as a rotary-engine sports car. To me, the engine and styling in particular stood out as fresh and individual.

 

The actual quoted comparison, by Don Sherman of Car & Driver, was the RX-7 is "a poor man's C-111".

Somewhat better company!

 

I don't know what you've done to your car, but if you take a stock FB and a stock 944 and put them on a road course, I think the FB owner will be running home to mommy -- hate to say it, but it's true. I've driven a 944 (a good friend had one), and its a helluva car. It's well balanced, soundly built, has very good brakes, and has good torque. Where the FB has a solid rear axle, the 944 has IRS. Where the FB has the trans up front, the 944 has a transaxle setup for weight distribution.

Now I love RX-7s, and my FB will always be with me, but let's not get carried away with thinking it's better than every other car out there performance-wise. "A man's got to know his limitations." -- Clint

 

But it IS better than every other car
A stock RX-7 might have trouble, but who keeps either car stock? In fact the reality on the road courses was the RX-7s spanked the Porsche 924's and 944's on a regular basis. Some other Porsche models did a little better but no need to mention those, different class anyway...(there are a few minor limitations )

 

Are you arguing that the 240Z was original? That's as asinine as the Rx-7 being original. The Z was the first (strongly committed) attempt at breaking into the US market. It was done by borrowing styling from the popular european cars of the time (most notably the E-type) that would clearly make a hit and offering the car at a cut-rate price. I thought everyone knew this.

The 924 and the Rx-7 were not in the same market segment. The 924 cost almost twice what the Rx-7 did at the time. The Rx-7 was Mazda's last hope at reviving the struggling rotary engine. They wanted to keep the engine alive but needed a car that wasn't going to be as sensitive to fuel economy as the sedans that they were producing at the time. So they took parts from their other cars, set the rotary engine in it and wrapped it into a car that emulated the popular style of the time (the 924 was THE hot car of the time) so they knew it would be a safe bet. Just like Datsun had done 8 years before, they studied Datsun's success thouroughly and knew exactly what they were doing. It was a hit because it offered most of the Porsche's performance at almost half the price.

 

Yup, the 944 has been called Porsche's best handling car on many occasions. i've also driven the 944. I love my Rx-7 but around the twisties, the 944 (with comparable power) would leave it behind.

 

Ok I could be wrong (i probably am) but why then is everybody saying that the 7 spanked or rather just beat the porsches of the same year. my friend has a 944 turbo that is slow as hell, I kill him literally in my 12A STOCK. but i'm still not dissing porsche

 

Then there's something wrong with his car. Turbo 944s did 0-60 in the mid-low 6s.

 

There must be something wrong with his car. Turbo 944's would kill a LOT of cars back then. But getting back to non turbo 944's, they only came with 140 hp. I'm not sure how much they weighed, but I have a feeling that with the way porsche was going in that time (getting more into luxury) that the 944 weighed more than 2800 lbs which would put it in the 8 and 9 second 0-60 times with the stock engine. Thats right where the 7 is. They say the RX-7 was the "poor mans porsche"? Well, I agree fully. On a good day, an RX-7 can compete fairly well with a 944 on the track and the street.

 

On any day, the RX-7 can and did compete very well with the 924 or 944 on the track. The race results speak for themselves; we spanked them. Even when first introduced, the stock RX-7 was faster 0-60 than the Porsche 924 and Datsun 280Z.

 

mmmmm.... porche.

But where would i ever be able to purchase a porche for $300?

Like they said before, RX-7, the poor man's porche, but dammit, i would love to put a wankle in a porche.

~Sup

 

I said it was not a copy. No car is totally original and they all share some similarities. You said the RX-7 was a copy of the 924, and that the 240Z borrowed stying from other European cars such as the Jaguar XKE. But both of those cars in turn borrowed styling from earlier cars. For example the flowing lines, long hood, and short tail of the Jaguar is also seen on the 1949 Aero-body HRG. The 1954 Pegaso Z102B, Zagato-bodied Fiats, and the 1930's Bugatti Atlantic coupe also has similar lines. To some degree, all cars are influenced by or "borrow styling" from each other.

I consider the RX-7 original. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "original", but claiming it is "asinine" to call the RX-7 original, is somewhat extreme. While it is true that the RX-7 suspension and steering components were similar to earlier Mazda cars, they are not identical. The rear suspension was similar to the RX-2, but the Watts link was adapted from modifications made by racers to the RX-3. And although the steering box came from the RX-3, the shaft diameter was increased and bearings relocated to reduce play. Even the 12A engine was significantly improved for the RX-7. From the very start, the goal for the RX-7 was to build a true sports car, and it was designed from the beginning solely for the rotary engine. To me, that makes it original. As for the styling, I think the overall look is original also. The RX-7 may have been influenced by style elements of other cars, but those elements were around long before the 924. The fact that it has neat, clean lines and the 924 also has neat, clean lines only means that neat, clean lines were in fashion. If making comparisons, the RX-7's roof and rear window profile look more like a 1972 TVR 3000M, and the sloping nose looks more like the 1973 Monica, or possibly a later Lotus Elan.

On the other hand, the Porsche 924 is perhaps far less "original" than most cars. One of the design goals of the 924 was to use as many exisitng VW or Audi parts as possible. The engine was shared with the LT van, the transaxle was from a Audi 100, the steering rack, safety column, and struts were from a Golf, the suspension was from the Super Beetle, control arms from a Scirocco, driveshafts from a VW 181, and the list goes on... It was known as a classic "parts-bin" job, and certainly less "original" than the RX-7. In my opinion the 924 has overall styling similar to many previous cars. Any other styling similarities that the RX-7 may have with it, are also shared with earlier cars.

When the 240Z was introduced in 1970, Datsun already had a well established export business to the US market. Everyone knows the German designer Count Albrecht Goertz is responsible the styling of the 240Z, and it was his original design, modified slightly by Datsun. The drivetrain was based on the existing Datsun Skyline and Laurel, but added independent suspensions. There are styling similarities with other cars, and while the Jaguar XKE and Porsche 911 are often mentioned I think it favors the 1964-68 Ferrari 275 GTB, 1968 Triumph GT-6, or 1962 Bristol 408. Most of the world did not think it was "asinine" to call it an original car.

And the Japanese do not always copy European styling, the 1961 Datsun Fairlady came out more than a year before the MGB, but the MGB looked almost identical!


Depends how you define market segment. The RX-7 was designed to compete for sales with the Porsche 924, Datsun 280Z and Triumph TR-7; the small low-cost sports cars. Price is simply a factor in competition within that market segment. The base price of the RX-7 was $6,395 and the Porsche was around $10,000. It says a lot for how good the car was by what it was compared to, i.e. not the "poor man's Porsche", but the "poor man's C-111."

 

Simply said, the Japanese in the 70s and 80s weren't looking to compete directly with the Europeans. They knew they didn't have the market clout to do that. Instead they were offering similarly styled cars with 85% of the performance at 60% of the price. Mazda was clearly looking at the 924 when they were designing the Rx-7. Sorry, it's a copy.

 

So you mean a "copy" in a more abstract marketing sense that it was designed to be used for the same purpose and by the same customers, in the same sense that a fast food Hunan chicken dinner is a copy of McDonalds quarter pounder? Ok... I was referring to the actual automobile itself being original. By that logic the 924 was a copy of the 914, and the 1993 RX-7 was a copy of the Acura NSX. And it was more like 105% of the performance; the 924 was very smog-hobbled.