savannah pics i took
 

took some pics of a 77 rx-7 my buddy owns. it is damn spiffy
has a mildly ported gsl-se 6 port 13b, al flywheel, crazy cool old school enkies, lots of other good stuff too.
he was nice enough to let me drive it at an autocross course too :-D
very weird shifting left handed and sittin on the wrong side of the car, but man was it fun. thanks Thomas if you ever read this haha
pics are here:
http://wheelspecs.com/gallery/savannah

anyone know where he can get a dashboard for it, or what gauge pods would fit? ive read that crx gauges fit if you heat em up i think, so i would assume a rhd crx pod would work fine. lookin for a dash cover for the darn rhd model is tough too haha
already asked the ausrotary guys and havent had a lot of responses yet.

gamble

Woah!! Where did those OMP lines come from? Those look perfect!!

~T.J.

i dunno man, i'll ask when i see him tomorrow though. he had to make the omp linkage himself and get it all workin but i dont know where the lines came from.

the car is in good shape for it's age! did he have any problems importing that car?

the car was already here in the states somehow. he prepped and painted it himself so it looks pretty good now. he jsut did a quick paint job on it though and said he'll prolly do a nicer job when he redoes it. right now his project is the interior though.
gamble

Thats the way I want mine to look. Nice bright white with dark windows. Ask him what % tint those windows are too :D. I really wanna know about those OMP lines though man, and also, if you see him again, see if you can get pics of the linkage he made :D.

~T.J.

Hmm, give some props gamble san. Where'd you meet the man is the real question. Naw hes a great guy. I figured gamble could use some help on his car too. The RHD is fun to tool around in, but hard to not run into curbs or drift into the other lane. The looks are priceless. The OMP lines he did himself and I believe just made it up as he went along.

now THAT is a beautiful car.

What did he make them out of though?

~T.J.

Just realized that is me driving in those pictures. Forgot about that.

thats bad ass!!!! i did one with a stock nikki 12a turbo,,,, my brothers friend since jr high school, fun and fast!!!! but WTF!!!! try making a left turn!!! you cant see shit!!!!

of course not
it was fun none the less

That thing is sweet.

Thats sweet!
 

I might be able to hook him up with the dash. It is coming over here from New Zealand. It should be here sometime this month. I havent decided if I want to use it or not. I might go with an aluminum race dash now for my RHD. I will post when I recieve it.

Ya how do you get those titled in the US? I am getting close to needed to know that. Does any one know???

CJG

:mad:

I cant get the damn page to load!!!!!

Obviously thats not a US spec car....

But I thought the first year of the RX-7 was 1979? At least here anyways. When did it start in other countries?

The first RX-7's were offered on April, 1978 as a 1979 model. I'm pretty sure that is the earliest the car was available in the US. I have no idea when the car was produced for the Japanese market, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't much earlier than the US debut.

I want a RHD car :(.

~T.J.

yeah our server just switched last week and a few people have been unable to view the page. some isp's here, and lots of aussy ones and out of country ones dont refresh dns servers very often so your isp is tryin to look at that link at our old server. goto your command prompt (run cmd or dos prompt either way) and type in "ipconfig /flushdns" and hit enter. should work if youre in win2k or xp. if not on those OS's let us know and someone with some exp with older stuff can help i bet

yes ben that was you drivin in the pics lol

the linkage was made with brass rod from home depot im pretty sure. still gotta ask him about the omp lines and tint too, dont worry i didnt forget :D ........ yet

gamble

Ok great. Thanks man :).

~T.J.

:eek: i love the way the side views are on the fenders. i want to do that with my car. but i dont think the stock mirrors will look right. those ones have a long neck on them. they look bad ass though.

nice car.

well since this car is a 77 I am sure they made it at least a couple years before 78.

Any news on my questions yet? ;)

~T.J.

Wow I love that car, white SA's are my favorite. Some one needs to go to Japan and pickup some fender mounted mirrors from the junkyards there, because they look awesome.

nope not yet, he went out of town for the weekend. i will let you know though :D

he said his tubing was just plastic tubing from home depot and the the rubber was just silicon rubber tubing

told you i wouldnt forget

The RX-7 prototypes were built in early 1977. After various tests and improvements were made to the design, fifty pre-production cars rolled off the line in January 1978. Full scale production started in March 1978 being rhd for the Japanese market. Some five weeks later the lhd model was produced reaching the USA in late April 1978 where they were designated1979 models.

Some of the preproduction rhd series were used as press cars in February 1978, including I believe a few shipped to the USA.

The only version existing in 1977 was a clay model and some experimental mechanical assemblies undergoing testing.

I will not go into the relative merits of lhd and rhd but two interesting points.

First, originally in Italy you drove on the right with rhd- the theory was it was easier to see the edge of the road.

Second, until recently in Trucial Oman it was optional whether you drove on the left or righthand side of the road! To avoid confusion most people drove in the middle with the largest vehicle having the right ofway.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

well i guess i'll let him know then haha
he told me it was a 77 and i thought that sounded odd, but its from japan so i figured it was possible.

i dont really like those fender mounted mirrors... they look fugly to me, and i couldnt imagine trying to drive a RHD car.

BUT one of you said that the first rx-7 was offered in april of 78 as a 79 model and sold like crazy, the RX-8 will be offered in april or may this year as a 2004 model, and *i think* sold out off all the cars for this year allready.

History really does repeat itself!

Sweet man thanks...But you dont happen to know what size? How did he bend it, etc?

~T.J.

I saw the build plate from japan which says 77. Hard to argue with that.

My savvanna has a number Stamped on the key, is it possible that this is the car number? I really dont think its a key code cus i have a lot of other original mazda keys and its nothing like that. they guy i bought mine said tehy originally made 300 or something for market testing in like 76 and he said that this was on of them. Any ways it has the original key thats shaped very odd and says RX7 use for SAVANNA on it. then it has a stamp "166" on it. is it possible that this is one of the first? is there any ways to check out the vin? The serial number on the door jam is like plastic punched and stuck over the original stickers. I cant find a build date any where. Does any one know???

CJG

The build date should be on a plate on the firewall.

hmmm size....
well its abouutttt that big around and he bent it with his hands i betcha. dunno i guess i'll ask him again lol

gamble

http://wheelspecs.com/gallery/savannah/aap
Woah! A back seat!

What's that cover behind the seat?

Its an RX-7 Tonneau(sp??) cover to hide whats in your cargo bay. Yes JSPEC had a back seat.

Paul Fitzwarryne-Yes exactly, that is where I saw the 77 date. Question answered.

Yeah, mine has a back seat too. That tonneau was good thinking on Mazda's part. I had one in the Jeep and I loved it!

The Twin Turbo RX-7, it does seem strange to have a 77 plate. Could it have been a badly stamped 7/79?

Yeah, Rxcetera has a Rhd savanna and it's a 78 build date on it as well.

I will take a pic and get it posted, so then you guys can tell me. I know exactly what plate it is.

CJG

So how many of us are there that have these in the US? Mine has never been titled how do i go about doing that?? hehe.
CJG

Now thats a nice speciman
post some pics when he's done doing the car
gotta love the oldschool

this one has no title I don't think, what do you need a title for?
In maine you don't need a title to register a car more than 15 years old.

I might try an dgo get it registered then. I wonder if it will work. Also i checked both of my 7's and i cant find a build date any where in the engine compartment. The only place i can find it is inside the door jam. My US rx7 and my rx3 and all my US cars all have the build dates stamped on a plate thats riveted on the door jam. But my savvan does not have one. all it has is a sticker thats all in japanese and thene it has hand writing on it. ???

CJG