Hey ladies and gents. While browsing the interwebs at work, I came across this Car and Drivers article regarding a pretty interesting 1st Gen RX-7 on BaT. Take a look at the link down below!

1984 Mazda RX-7 Rally Car Is Our BaT Auction Pick of the Day (caranddriver.com)

 

Yeah that's "RAD Potential"s car. He has a good YouTube channel where he works on rotary cars and engines... mostly 1st gens but some FC & FD cars, plus REPU and RX3/4's. He had a series of videos showing him do a complete rottiserie resto of this car. I'm surprised he's selling it.

 

It's a 39 part series:

 

Its an exemplary restoration. I've seen a few of his videos. Very cool! I'm also surprised to see that he's selling this car!

 

Erich said, near the beginning of the series, he was building it to sale to fund other projects. At first he was debating on keeping it but early on he made the decision to sale.

 

only 16,000$? dude put a lot of hours into it ,

 

yeah that is kind of a 2019 price...

 

I was looking at this car on BAT. Not to pour water on the fire, but from a race car stand point, I am not seeing anything to warrant the price. Other than it looks great and is a clone of a famous race car.

What am I missing?

 

At the end of the day it's a modified car. It's been restored very nicely, but no one gets the amount invested back unless the car is highly sought after.
It has the Millen car's paint job but it's not a recreation.

Higher sales come from people wanting to pay more to experience RX-7s as if they were new.

 

The car was built on youtube so we know there was no micky mousing around and RAD is incredibly knowledgeable and probably built a rock solid engine / trans / chassis. If you wanted to restore it to factory all you need is carpet/ trim and door cards and the air quaity junk . He removed all the rust on the car , put the best stuff he could find on it, and built a really clean vehicle . Considering some decent examples with issues are selling for ten grand. Buying a mechnaicaly sound car for 16k with video documentation is a good deal.

 

Sorry, not sold on this. I mean yes it looks great and I am sure it well done and documented. But I have been around properly built race cars for years (even built a few) so a nicely painted car with a cage that has an otherwise stock suspension, stock brakes and cheap rear shocks isn't $16K special. Good for the seller but I really think some of the people on BAT either smoke crack or have too much money....or both.

Eye candy sells over substance I guess.

 

Just so every one understands, this is a RALLY car, ALL rally cars are STREET LEGAL. es you can build a race car for like 6-8 grand starting off with a junk chassis . Don't need DOT approved tail lights, don't even need functioning blinkers or turn signals, bumpers can be gutted etc. Rally car's can be driven to work every day, , between courses you have to drive on public roads. This is what you guys are missing. Thsi is basicaly a incredibly well built street car . If you wana slap carpet and seats in it, its only a few hundred dollars .

 

I followed the build on this car and was very interested in what it would go for after what we have seen on BAT recently. While this car is definitely cool it is nothing that is extra special, as sated before many people can make this car without much trouble. What really surprises me is that it will went for 16k while there are photos of it on its lid. It all comes down to the BAT type of person I guess, if they want it they will pay.