Did I miss the "Rotary Boat"?
 

Recently got a car I want wanted for a long time, my FC convertible. I've had an RX8 and always loved rotaries. I've started researching options to build it up, and going through my options to get a turbo int he vert. That said, I've noticed a lot of links, articles, and other items are dead, the forums are fairly low volume these days, and that even on eBay I have a hard time finding parts for anything older than an FD3s.
Most of the threads will talk about grabbing a TII transmission for example, but I haven't had any luck in finding one via forums lqk, junkyards, or even ebay. Same with manual steering for example, alot of parts aren't being made any more and I have to buy used to source one.

Now, if my platform were an RX8, those drivelines are all over the place currently. Which leads me to my question, did I miss the boat on my dream car? It seems the FB/FC are getting hard to find and the FD 13BT and 20B are the oldest things I can sort-of readily find to swap in. I really did not want to go the LS1 route, but I am concerned before I get too far with the Rotary about parts availability.

Any feedback? I know a lot of people on here have been around for a while and will have a better feel for the rotary market.

This is a 3rd, fun only vehicle so I can do whatever I want with it so no concerns there, but I would hate to get halfway through a design/plan and find out I can barely find a transmission to match for example.

Thank you for any info!

its true that the Rx8 is easy right now, Mazda made a lot of them.

that being said the Rx8 will probably go the same way as the FC, where people part them out because its tuesday, or it needs gas or something, and then some years later, there aren't any anymore.

i have a friend in Europe who asks for Rx7 parts, and i keep telling him that they have been gone around here for a long time.

that being said, all the normal wear bits for the FC, like plugs and filters and bearings are only a couple days away at most.

the engine/trans bits are usually not too bad if you're patient. worst case Mazda actually still has stuff new, it was never cheap though.

and the cool bits, the HKS's and GReddy's are actually really cheap, and really easy right now, they are so old that most people didn't know they existed in the first place, so demand is low.

if you want the happy example, my FC i got as a bare shell, and the bits i've been able to get have made me just want to build the FC i wanted in 2001. i managed to get, an HKS S type intercooler, HKS Racing suction intake, the S5 T2 Aero kit, Mazdaspeed steering wheel, and rear strut bar, a Red Mazdapseed horn cap. for seats i have a nice pair of S5 T2 seats. i was able to score a nice black dash, carpet, A pillars, and all the other interior bits. ecu is Re-Amemyia

and best of all, most of this stuff, which was unobtainable 15 years ago, was basically pennies on the dollar today.

so you have a point, but its actually a good time to build an FC

The parts are available, you just have to adjust your expectations of price. You're not going to pick up a T2 swap or whatever at a junk yard. Or get a T2 trans that doesn't need a rebuild for cheap. Rx8 is probably in the prime age for that as you have observed.

It's still way cheaper than building an FD, trust me. You could literally buy both a good condition T2 and a good condition convertible for half the cost of a clean FD that still needs a bunch of little things.

that makes me thinking of not selling my extra TII gearbox, it only needs a 2nd gear syncro.

This couldn't be more true. I sold ALL of my FC's and parts hoard and my FD still has years of "little" work ahead of it.

My advice to you- plan the direction of your build. You can quikcly exceed a budget and get lost in "scope creep".

If you're not making big power or racing just swap in a rebuilt TII engine that matches the series of your car with an N/A flywheel that has a heavier duty clutch. Run a Power FC modified for an FC Make 250-300 WHP which will be plenty of fun and call it a day. A quick spooling turbo is much more fun for pleasure driving.

If you don't have the desire to drag race or destroy anyone you come across you wont have the desire for anymore power. I had a vert that made 350 whp and it was plenty for the car, it was hard to stretch it out or public roads as my desire to not drive like an ass and put other people at risk is ever increasing with my age.

I sold 2 TII transmissions for $350 a couple years ago. The problem isn't that the parts don't exist, it's that people have bought up the cheap FC's and have hoarded the parts as they have been parted out. The "good" parts cars are less plentiful.

I shipped axles and a driveshaft from VA to CA at close to the same time and it was worth it for me to do it. Hold onto your trans and jump on the deals.

How I misspelled rotary that day, I'll never know.

FC owners are still cheap bastards, it isn't that say the transmissions aren't still out there, it's that by now they need rebuilds and a rebuild for a TII/FD transmission is about $1000 even if you have a core transmission. They are priced that high because the rebuild parts cost about $700. add in shipping costs and a transmission winds up being a $1400 project alone.

Same with engines, i have plenty of parts to build TII engines but trying to sell them rebuilt with core for $3500 just doen't happen often enough for me to bother, i'll just sell the individual parts to people because the rotary market has been drying up, regardless of what people say here.

how about turbos? well, they also are getting harder to find and most of them need to be rebuilt now, that's another $700 bill.

i find it funny when i have a $12 trim piece listed and some asshole offers me $5, like that even covers shipping charges. it's actually quite infuriating.

now you start to see why i don't really even bother with FC stuff anymore, just provide some items for sale here and there yet the cheapassness still exists. yet a decent TII can fetch over $10k now there is no reason for people to still treat these cars like they are worthless yet many of the kids entering the market still have that ideal... well screw that, i didn't keep parts in good condition for a decade to give them away.