i looked throgh a lot of japanese mags, amercian mags, and never once seen the FB designation for the first gens. All of the has the SA22C. Can someone clarify this for me. Thanks

 

look at the vin number

jm1fb etc or jm1fc or jm1fd

 

ic, but why does all the jap mags state them as SA???

 

Only American cars were designated FB. All Australian and Japanese 1st gens are SA's. Can't quite remember what the reason behind this was though.

 

North America (includes Canada, that bigger-than-Australia chunk of land north of the US) introduced standardized VINs in the early 80's and FB ended up the first two letters signifying that particular car ('JM1FB33...' etc. with J=Japanese M=Mazda 1=Passenger Car, FB= car line line, in this case RX-7, 33 = 2 door hatch back, and so forth)

As an FB is different in body shape, bracing, options, etc. than a North American spec SA, it is known as an FB to enthusiasts as '1st gen' would be too vague.



As an interesting side note, anSA (1979 model) came in fifth place in the last Cannonball Run (the race, not the movie inspired by it)

 

oic, thanks for the info.

 

Now that that has been covered. I wonder what the desiginations were for the RX-2, 3, and 5?

 

I'll check my RX-2 next time I'm out where its parked. I believe there was an SA in it too.

 

In the US, the RX-5 would have been the REPU (PA136) and the Cosmo would have been the RX-6 (CD23C is the 13B model. The Japan only 12A model was known as CD22C).

 

European cars after 79/80 were designated as FB's too