85RX7GS

iTrader: (1)

What is your car's history? Have you owned it since it was new? If not, where did you get it and how many miles did it have at the time?

specRX7_22

(im speaking for my dads car)

83 gsl... bought it as a race car already who drove it as a street car for awhile. 156,000 on the car, 5000 at most on engine.... bought it the original ugly brownish color and had it painted white, added sponsor decals, etc.

the reason he sold the car was he wrecked it pretty bad at summit point and was just getting his .com business going and didnt have money or whatever. so it was bought from him by a fellow srx7 racer and used as an scca school car (so actually my dad didnt buy it directly from the orig. owner). bought the car from tom (who used it as school car) it needed bodywork and and it had a bent frame (but it aligned). got a half *** job and it was ready to go.

last season my dad did a little off-roading at summit, hit a pot-hole and cracked the already bent and weakened frame. got it professionally welded the best the guy could do for cheap (sponsor). and now were gonna see how it holds up this season lol. thats about it.

oh... and at this very moment its at my dads friend (and track buddy) bret's place (Rotary Performance in manassas, VA) gettin a routine engine rebuild and LSD rebuild, and to see what he can do about the oil cooler leaking like a civ.

85RX7GS

iTrader: (1)

Cool! Thanks for sharing Anyone else?

Here's a brief history on my car:

The car was purchased from Continental Motors in Pittsburgh in 1985. It's a GS model - Tender Blue metallic, with optional aluminum wheels. The owner moved out to Jersey in '92 (documented on title). His son used the car for several years to commute back and forth to college. Between '92 and '98, the car received several parts such as a new steering box and column, a radiator and a starter. By the time '98 rolled around, the car had around 160,000 miles on the odometer. The owner, who bought a new Suburban, was no longer interested in maintaining the car, nor was his son. A decision was made to bring the car over to the local auto repair shop and put it up forsale. The car sat for 3 years at that auto repair shop until the owner and one of the mechanics decided to put the car forsale up on eBay since it hadn't sold. I noticed the car a day or so after it went up on eBay and contacted the seller and made an appointment to go down and see the car the next day. After seeing the car, I was convinced that THIS was THE ONE. A few days later, bought the car for $500.

Manntis

Some people posted their car's history in the 'getting to know' sticky thread

timmya2

i dunno wat my history is..

i think mine had 3 owners..


it crashed.. but wasnt big

now its my hands so i am going to take care of it..

its a part of me now

mperformance

I bought two for the price of one. One 85 GSL and one old crappy SA. Mine was in ok shape, completely stock with 160,000 miles and a healthy engine, but since then I have turned it into a nice streetracer and soon will be strictly a race car. The other car provided me with some valuable parts like retro air/oil cooler, body panels and extra engine and now the stripped carcass is sinking in a local dump.

I could have bought newer rx7s or a new sports car (love the recently released s2000 R) to go with my business, but since this has been my 7th first gen and my daily driver is a truck, I doubt I will ever buy a newer model rx, maybe the rx8

So far this rx7 is going to turn out better than my previous ones as I'm doing research constantly and spending money on the right parts. No show parts nor wasting money on stupid accesories, strictly performance and just stock looks, the way it's sopposed to be done.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

As opposed to present histroy?

Actually, I dont know the history of my car . All I know is that I saved it from the junk yard and brought her back to life. Boy was she happy .

~T.J.

mperformance

I mixed them all

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

My rotary MG Midget has a little history. I won't post anything here, since this is the 1st gen forum, but here's a link.
http://www.geocities.com/cd23c/mghist.html
And here's a link to what I've recently been doing with it.
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=121250
It's interesting to see how this car has come along, and how my plans for it have changed from time to time.

85RX7GS

iTrader: (1)

I guess I missed that.

error402

I'm the third owner of my '83 GSL.

1st was a doctor, who had many, many cars Porsche, Lamborghini, Corvette, ect... He drove the RX-7 as a Sunday driver and kept in garaged until he got bored with it and left it outside for 2 years.

2nd owner was a college student that used the car to get home and back to school. (90% highway miles) He found the car at the doctors house and bought it from him.

3rd owner is me, and you can tell based on my sig what I am doing, and have done to the car.

-Error

AdrenalifeRX7

Mine was bought originally by a woman from Santa Ana Mazda out in Cali. in '81. She must not have driven it much and it was well cared for. This guy that owns this bodyshop here in NY was in California on a vacation with his wife and he bought it off the owner. He had it towed on a flatbed across the US and brought to his shop. Here it was used as a show-off, big-day type thing, in which he would drive it to family gatherings and local car enthusiast get togethers. There is 65,000 kilometers on the chassis and 21,000 on the 13B. There's no rust anywhere except on the bottom inside sill of the drivers door, just surface rust. Well it turns out that the bodyshop owner knew nothing about rotary engines and he said that he was driving it one day and it started to smoke and some lights on the dash lit up. He put the car away in his shop and feared that the seals had gone on the motor. It sat in the shop for 4 years and he had never had the time to get it fixed. I'm assuming he didn't care since he had a stash of nice toys, including a Shelby Cobra Replica, a Pantera, and a Delorean. The car was ignored for 4 years. He kept it running. He told me that his shop got crowded with cars awaiting bodywork and he had to put the RX-7 up for sale. I was driving my 93 Probe GT to the store and I spotted this beautiful, red first gen outside his shop. I did a U-turn and hauled *** to his shop. He said he would sell it for $2500 and he mentioned that it smoked and probably needed a rebuild. He had originally planned to swap out the 13B and put a 302 Boss and Ford drivetrain in. When he told me that I knew I had to save this car. I talked him down to $2200. I bought it and had it towed to my house. Turns out the smoking problem was caused by the alternator. It was shot and the car would smoke at high rpms because of the lack of spark. I replaced the alt. and did a full tuneup and she's ran good since. I have had to replace the alternator 3 times since I have owned the car. It also needed new tires, but holy **** was it worth the money to buy this car?! Yes.

Manntis

I was thinking 'As opposed to future history?' but this time I decided not to be a smartass - thanks for picking up the slack, TJ

exodus82

I got mine off of my dad's friend from work. He bought it new in 81 and barely drove it. It was sitting at his dads house for a few years until his wife past away and he had two kids to take care of. He didn't use it anymore or want it so he sold it to me. It needed a new oil cooler and ignitor, and a few seals hear and there. He sold it to me for $1200CDN which is about $800USD. It was dirty as **** when i got it but a cleaned it up and got everything fixed i showed him some pics and he was seriously kicking himself.
Check it out.
http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...e=Mazda%20RX-7

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Anything to help .

~T.J.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

the S was purchased from the original owner, looked like **** from sitting, cleaned up nice.
The limited was on ebay, some dumbass let it sit for 6 years, can you say rusty?
the GS was in a junkyard, saved it. All I know about that one is that some ricer from a local high school had it and didn't know what he was doing, the engine is a pos, so off it went, body is nice and solid though...

JEC-31

My Tender Blue Metallic with optional alloys '85 GS (probably the most common RX-7 of the year) was purchased new in 1985 by a young UPS driver named Mark. It was on sale, because the new 2nd generation 7s were on the way and the dealer, Borgman Ford/Mazda in Grandville MI, needed to clear out the old ones. Mark could not resist, and told me that he felt justified in buying it because he and his young wife were childless and free to own a neat 2-seater. Well, that didn't last long. Shorty after their first road trip in the 7 to Ft.Myers, Florida, she turned up pregnant.

But Mark kept his toy, driving it rarely. In 14 years he only accumulated 77,000 miles on it, whilst keeping the interior immaculate and the paint shiny. The poor kids never rode in it, apparently. Once he fell out of the rafters in his garage and dented the driver's side headlight cover, and his only modification (mud flaps) caused some slight surface rust. He did mumble something about driving it through a winter or two...

Then, in spring of 1999, needing room for his new toy (a large boat) he put it up for sale, asking $3000. At the time I was sports-car shopping (being childless and free!) and Mark's GS was the 2nd 1st gen I test drove. I loved it! Offered him $2000 on the spot. After all, neither the horn nor the gas gage worked, and the tires were hard cheapos. He sighed and agreed. When we sealed the deal in his kitchen his wife mumbled something about him not being a very good bargainer. She also reminisced about that trip to Ft.Myers in it, with a wistful smile.

I drove the hell out of it. Discovered that the gas tank leaked if filled all the way, discovered that those crappy tires liked to spin me out on the wet, got caught in a hailstorm once, felt like I was going to get airborn at 100mph on the flat freeway, had the leaky radiator patched, stranded myself twice with the inoperative fuel level gage. But it was the funnest car to drive I've ever had. An awesome summer, to be sure.

Now it sits behind my house. That fall, when I was still rotary-ignorant, I went out to drive it to safe winter storage and what do you know: I flooded it and assumed I had killed the motor. The next year, once I bought a garage with a house nearby, I began to work on it. Then I discovered the Internet and this forum with some pictures of rear wheel-well rust. Now I'm planning on ripping every part of it for my project car (82 GSL, history murky), but I might still take the path of the torch and replace the wells, which are the worst of any under-100K mile car I've seen posted.

Want to hear a secret? At least once a week, if the snow's not too deep, I go out to it and just sit in it for a few minutes, feeling that cozy yet exciting 1st gen ambiance. Someday, I'll get back on the street and be one with the Original RX-7 again.

- Josh, with no apologies for the long post.

mperformance

great story man...your secret is safe with us

joelwahid

my car was the 2,076th rx7 made bound for the US, built 3/78. it arrived in the US on 5/25/78, msrp was $6,395 but an inland freight and handling fee of $125 was added, making the window sticker price $6,520. it was sold for $7,324 plus a $1,900 trade in, so the original owner paid a total of $9,224 for it at Bayshore Motors in baytown, texas. the purchase date was 6/3/78.
the original owner pretty much drove it around for a while, mostly in texas, but some in louisiana. he got kinda old and gave it to his son. when i bought it from his son (who was about 40 at the time) it had 38,600 miles on it, it was immaculate, so i paid 4k for it. it was my daily driver for a year, untill i got my s10. i couldnt afford insurance on both so i put the old rexer in the garage, and there it stays. now it has just under 51k miles on it. i have all the recipts from this car except the previous owners gas recipts, so mileage is verified. i start it up and drive it down the street every week or so to keep it reasonable. the car is all original except i got a racing beat header/pre-silencer, K&N drop in filter, stereo, and maybe some other small things i am forgetting. i have all of the stock stuff that i took off though. i am thinking about selling it and getting a different, less original rexer to do a turbo swap, or maybe just putting a turbo on this one, who knows.

mwpayne

For many years I've looked longingly at the 2 seater cars and especially, the sevens speed by me. But, alas, I was 20 and married with already 2 car payments. So, I put that dream out of my mind for nearly 20 years.
One day whilediscussing a friends' daughters' upcoming wedding (I was to provide the photos) I noticed a rusty white 'S' in his driveway. I really was kidding when I said, "Hey John, I'll do the photography for the car!" He quickly agreed! I drove that thing 3 hours back home with bad plugs and wires, it would do 30 MPH or 80, nothing in between. Fell in love right then and there. Ended up trading it to a mechanic in leu if him doing a brake job on another white (this time a GSL, great shape & no rust) seven I picked up for $700.00. BTW, I have no idea of the previous owners of the 'S', the GSL had 2 owners, I have all reciepts.
I am now the very proud owner of my first SE, picked up for $1300 with a mode one wide body kit. It has had 2 owners, well taken care of, but it had sat outside for many years. A 2 month stay at a body shop beginning next week to cut out & replace rusty metal & new paint will make this baby the talk of my small town. This forum only adds to the thrill it is to own such unique cars. Unfortunately, it's only practical for a family man like me to own one 'toy' car. So, the GSL will be for sale in the spring.