my gf's little brother and all of his friends do not have nor aspire whatsoever to obtain their drivers license even. and that really is the first step towards gaining an interest in cars. tbh, with the cost of fuel, insurance and maintanance/repairs, it's easy to see why they'd opt for public transit. these cars definitely DO NOT attract the type with no interest to learn or put in time and effort.

but all is not lost. just last week sold the gf's dads fb to a youngster. bout 17 or 18. and this car needed immediate attention. had been sitting for years, although the compression on the oe reman was still great, it needed a lot of work. i was extremely weary to let a good condition fb go to a young guy. but he surprised me with a genuine interest to get it going and restore its beauty..and keep it rotary

 

and it's just crazy though, because we live in a day and age where everything you could possibly need to know about anything really, and then some, is right there at the touch of a button. now maybe that's part of the problem. i know i'm extremely grateful for that, and use it whenever possible, but maybe it's spoiled a lot of the youth. there's no resistance really

 

I think having the ability to get information so easily has made these cars much more popular and kept a lot more of them on the road.

w/o the internet I definitely wouldn't know 90% of what I do now...

 

oh absolutely. for those who can appreciate it. but technology really is a double edge sword

 

and you could know all that you know now without the internet.. books have been around a lot longer than cars

 

If you are saying that the internet has not made learning and passing on information easier and that it's just as easy to learn from books then you are in contrast to experts in the field.

I don't live in a town with many rotary drivers or really anyone who I can bounce ideas off more experienced owners for real world advice. That is true especially given that my rotary is a turbo swapped and mildly modified convertible. If not for virtual correspondences, pics, videos, write-ups, emails, forums, and PMs I would have sold my rotary years ago simply out of having no one to work on it for me. My learning has been a love but also necessity because there is no one else to work on my car.

 

i don't recall saying that at all. quite the contrary, actually

 

what i mean is that the difficulty of life is only relative to how easy we think it can/should be.
if the internet never existed, we'd read books to get the information we needed and we'd think that this was the easy way. because we wouldn't have to do what was done before books. which is have an actual living person give us the information straight from their mouths.

technology makes life easier. that's the idea. before the remote control, we used to get up and change the channel on the television. now that we know how easy life can/should be, if the remote is broken, we'll watch the same programming because we can't be bothered to do what was common practice before it. the ends no longer justify the means. the ends have lost their luster. we become spoiled

 

The scene is alive and well in my driveway!

 

Haha, and all over my garage, my living room, and my bedroom.

 

We just had a meet with about 40 rotaries from the Wisconsin/Illinois area. Other than that I don't even get love from RX-8 owners

 

I'm in the mid michigan area, I've seen 1 FB, 1 FD, and besides my FC, another that a guy pulled me over to look at his TII, but he was a young kid and just wanted to slap everything on it and go track it....made me sad, it was a nice looking TII

Other than that, I ain't seen shat, took me years to find my GXL, feel bad that its my summer daily, I bought it with 75K and now its almost at 100K

 

I live in san diego and I still get admired from the import drivers. Its a classic car that will always demand respect. Rx7s for life.

 

I wave at all the RX8s in my area!!! The only one that waves back is my friend that helped me with my TII swap. Even the most common rotary owners, RX8 owners, seem like they aren't even part of the rotary community. No waving or anything. I waved at a guy with an RX8 in a parking lot and he gave me a look like he had no idea why I was waving. Makes me sad like I have no friends.

 

Isn't a sudowoodo a type of pokemon? You could make pokemon friends instead of rotary friends. ^_^

 

Someone recognized my name! I feel special. And Pikachu doesn't like me because his moves don't work on me.

 

now I don't have an FC anymore but an FB now and im actually one of like maybe 3-5 people who have a rotary around my town thats even running in lower part Idaho.

now there are some built FC's running around but everyone is selling them cause they want bigger engines.

I have had people ask me why don't you LS swap your car? I tell them cause my tiny rotary is better and I don't even have to engine swap it for power

Also I know what people mean about RX8 guys they don't even appreciate where there cars evolved from. I use to talk to all rx8 drivers when I had my FC and they would just think it was to old and could run anything. I had 160hp running and was always getting into trouble with the Honda,and Diesel drivers like seriously they would leave me alone because of its age and cause it was damn sexy

in all reality I get offers on my FB because its original and straight body like my FC was and I just tell people its not for sale and people get sad face about it.

 

I saw a turbo supra in my area few days ago, it was semi beaten up, with really nice new wheels and I taught I would see a young drifter driving it, but it was a gray haired, middle aged man. Then I realized I am not that young anymore, and that many newer sport cars had gone out in the last few years. You really need to be passionate by 90' cars to buy one of this era. 350Z, G35 coupe and S2000 are becoming older cars now and you can buy them pretty cheap. So why bother the complications of an older car, when newer sports car are affordable, unless you really are a die hard fan of the 90's?

While trying to be realistic, a 182hp car isn't impressive for a younger guy that can buy a Mazda 3 with almost the same Horsepowers. Weight to power ratio isn't the same, I know, but people are bragging about hp nowadays and 200 isn't powerful by today's standards...

Before the wide flat screens and GPS available in newer models, the interiors of our cars didn't look outdated, but now... You can buy a focus with more technology than what was available in the top of the line luxury cars of the nineties!

I was amazed that my first RX-7 had power windows, power sunroof and ajustable seats, nobody is impressed with silly things like that anymore! Rx-7's are old, outdated, all that's left is the rarity and the feeling you got driving,or building one.

I'm a die hard fan by the way, but I don't think it's the best car of the world anymore, it's just my favorite car ever.

 

funny thing is im gonna be 22 next month and my first sports car was a 1988 mazda rx7 FC N/A when I first drove that car home for 300 miles it was like a match made in heaven.

even now that im driving my older 83 FB it still feels like im flying that car. I guess rotary engines just get me going in the way of the sports car.

I had family tell me someday I would grow up out of the sports car phase and I told them "its not so much the car but the engine that makes it feel sporty and besides I bought it for a daily driver this time around so I can learn more if I want to get another one."

 

I just turned 24 and my first car was a fc too. I think it is something about the way rotaries run that, even the slow ones, feel like they are going really fast. I've had a lot of people ride with me in other cars; the auto vert I had was really, really slow. Getting on the highway though, at like 70, they'd freak out and tell me to slow down and then see the speedometer.

Also, now I've seen a lolicon, a pokemon, and a brony on this forum.

 

Haha I know what you mean about getting on the highway at a decent speed and ppl thinking we were going to fast.

But if I get the chance again I'm going to buy another FC T2 this time if the opportunity shows itself and if I have the funds to do so.

After I gave up my first one all other cars have never really compared to the rotary engine no matter how big or bad they were or held me back in my seat it just wasn't smooth lifting or high enough rpms for me to wonder how much faster I could really go.

I still get asked about the FC but my buddy drives her now and prefers it over a 4cylinder any day.

 

There is no rx-7 scene in Seattle. I mean Seattle proper. I am the scene and I drive a stock 88 GXL. After 15 years of driving FC's I feel lucky to be in a stock GXL is great condition. It took me years to find. Only thing for sale around here is beat to ***, "stanced" or a vert.

I don't drive much anymore but I feel like I need to keep it or I will regret it.

 

As many of you know I used to restore/restomod FC chassis cars. There was a time when the craft of doing so was lucrative and yielded a good side income. I could take an s4 car put an s5 T2 engine in it and get it running right and the car would sell in a week. I stopped doing that when I had a mint condition S5 that I swapped to turbo and priced it under $5000 and had a hard time moving it. Yes the "scene" is "dead" really. I have owned over 26 FC chassis cars, there was a time when the parts and cars were like gold, even now the FD chassis seems to be strongly dipping in value. I wouldn't suggest banking on "holding on to one" for the prices to skyrocket... But enjoy the inexpensive fun that the car is.. They will never be a super desireable car, nor will a low mile mint example ever shock the gents at Barrett Jackson.

 

You can't say that they won't be super desirable, nor super valuable. Who would have thought that a Datsun 510 would ever command the prices they now do? Or A Nissan Sunny? With so many FCs being molested (both good and bad) in 20 years, finding one in good shape is going to be very difficult, there will be some demand, which will drive prices up. I've seen early 1st gens in OEM condition sell for over $15K. I've also seen them sell for $300.

 

This is exactly why I Can't bring myself to ruin my new 86 GXL. I am going to put on a nice set of wheels that fill in the stock fenders and call it a day and just cruise it.

I can probably say I am the only one in the Midwest right now with a rust free all original 2nd owner 34k (almost 35k) mile GXL. Completely unmolested and restored with the right goodies. If I had a 3 car garage I would not even sell my turd 87 base, and turbo that hog and run it into the ground. Winter forces my daily inside my heated garage.