driftingmyFC

last year freshly graduated form hs I was looking for and s13, all I could find were automatics, then I when to the tools store for a rotary kit and saw an 86 sport with a 5 speed, I was for 1,300. Then the next day I took it for a test drive and feel in love, I offered the guy 800 and he took it. it has 158k on it but it runs hard. everything was stock. the only problem was starter solenoid that it.

Was looking for rotary tool kit and ended up with a rotary car!

DriftN7

I bought my 88' TII just last july, it has giving me hell, but I still love it so much its a love hate relationship, its on its 2nd rebuild, and a lot of minor stuff that was a pain in the *** like alternator, battery cables, spark plugs, random dead batteries in the morning. But its been a great ride. Idont rereat it

mylove=88rxseven

my story.
i was 17 and going to a tech school on the weekends to get a degree in automotive technology. well while i was going to school one of the kids in my class brought in his silver 88 n/a gxl. i had no idea what it was but it was beautiful. i asked him about it and he told me it was an rx7 "huh" whats that so one and so forth. eventually it came about that he hated it and was selling it. now i had been saving money to buy my first car and i new this was it. so i told him i had $1k and he said he would take it. then we took it out on the free way and that was it i bought the car. after that it was love and hate relationship between me and her because i new nothing about rotary motors, and not much about cars really. so things broke i fixed and learned and finally it ended dont really no what happened but one day she just died at a red light and refused to start again. i took it to a grage but no one would work on it so i sold it for $100. and bought gay mazda protege"moms idea" then wrecked it then bought a subaru 2.2l loved that car it was always fun but just not an rx7. wrecked that car and bought a 91 civic to go back and forth to school. sold it and bought a 240sx. what a piece of crap it ran for about two weeks then blew a rod thru the side of the block. finaly out of scholl i picked up a 95 jetta for free drove it till some how the engine seized "still cant figure out why" we tore down the whole motor and nothing. then i needed a new car so i looked and looked then a friend told me his friend had an 88 rx7 n/a for sale and he only wanted $500 so i went and looked it started right up on the first try so i bought it. well it has turned into quit the project do to every wear and tear item on the car breaking. and now i really need a new frame because it is really rusty. but the engine runs like new. except for this weird starting problem when its below 32degrees out. it always starts on the first try if it 33 degrees or above. oh well at least it runs.
so thats it i will love her till she dies and then i will buy another one

Ex-Eg-Driver

iTrader: (1)

Craigslist.

Asking price $2,500

Lowballed to $1,900

WIN.

85RexGSL

i got my 1st gen from my old boss's nieces friend, because he didnt want her to have an rx7 so i told her i was interested...got it for 400 bucks...then i got a phone call from my old co-worker telling me they got a 2nd gen in(used to work at st vinnies car lot) so i went down and had him hold it til i had the money...400 bucks..didnt run, needed a starter and fuel pump,which i got from a few guys on here cheap and bam runs awesome and is now my DD...kinda just fell into place i guess..

RB_eater

iTrader: (1)

I was in love with RX-7 since I was 12/13. When I found was eamed like a good car for 1650$ I bought it. Afetr 2 blown engine and body work it's still not running lol. After all that work I woudn't give it up though.

Archie

iTrader: (-1)

LOL @2ndGen.rocket being a young kid and still liking RX-7's. He wants nothing to do with them now.

Riicedevil

well in the begining when i first had my lisence i saved up about 1,800 for a 1990 240sx it was really a P.O.S...i drove for about half a year ANDD drifting in it was fun when with friends but i learned one important thing never let ur best friend barrow ur car when ur on vacation....or u'll find ur car sitting on ur drive way with a blown motor and a paper that says "we paid for towe truck atleast!!!" but in the end he gave me 1,400 and he got to keep the 240sx.....a month passed and my other friend had a 92 civic hatch in his garage he said it was for sale...i didnt really think about buying it,..until i got desperate, i needed a car badddddd so i checked it out it and at the tiume i was young u know so salvage title? who cares im young and i dont know the the F&%$ im doing so why not buy it?!!? so i did and man that was such a regret...for one thing its a civic....like ther isnt enough civics on this god forsaken planet and secondd it wasss a rust bucket with dreams of becoming niceeee, buttt dreams cost money which at the time i ddint haveee.3 months went by my girlfriend said it looked like a midget van...andd when i think about it it kinda does look like it..during that time when i heard the name RX7 i would think of a high priced car with a twin turbo setup which i couldnt afford or wasnt close to my budget so i didnt care (i didnt know about the fc or fb during the time i only knew about FD's since most the time they were mostly talked about in import tuners.) well heres the interesting part i was driving one day and a friend of mine who i didnt meet to long ago hit me up and said he just got in a AE86 for sale and sooo i was intrigued i mean dude 86?! why not!!! when u hear 86 u think of king of drift!!! the great dori dori!!! so i pull up to his shop chillaxin on the couch as always till he calls me out to the front. I see the 86 its bright orange and automatic....so im thinkin swaps changing the trans lower it and rims but then...when those ideas came up i see a red car with a forsale sign up right by another one of his hatches he was also selling..i asked him what was it? he told "oh just an rx7" so in my head was like dude why the price 2,200 and why doesnt this one look cool like vin diesels in fast n furious?? HAHA so i walk over n baam! i fell in love. im not saying i dont like FD there actually ****** sexc i'd take a fd ne day!!! but dude 14k dont just pop out of no where i had to be realistic and not only that but fc's just look great he asked me like 5 times if i wanted to pass up the 86and i ended up pasing....so after that, i gave him the keys to my hatch and off to work with the fc. gave it RB exhaust ordered some tein springs and i purchased off ebay a s5 lip. and till this day....i dont have ne regrets...yes rx7's might have issues with rebuilds and weekly check up in the mirning when i wake up to make sure my new car ok....but its worth it i learned alot about rotary's...ANDDD!!! one time when me n my girlfriend were laying down she says "i can hear ur heart beating" and i replied with a "it doesnt beat...it rotate's" and after that she smacked me n told me how cheesey i am and how much time i spend with my car...but hey like i said its a rx7...its worth it....

Neo_Drift

Well I found my first one on a local kar site. kslcars.com while i was looking for 240s.
i found it for $1500. bought it, and got it registered and insured and was driving it the next day.
Then a month later I found my second one for $500 on craigslist.
I bought it, and tried driving it. won't pass emissions tests.
Now I got rid of my first one to get my miata, and my $500 one has become my crazy project car. (long term project though. very long term.I'm trying to do as much funding as I can for it with the parts I sell off of it. hehe. Then I'll slowly put money into it after.)

ShadowArtsFC3S

iTrader: (2)

Some really cool stories guys.

Heres mine...

I first started off liking RX-7's waayy back when my friends step dad had a red 85' RX-7 5-speed. I was about 13-14. Thats when I learned how to drive a manual transmission. On a 1rst gen! Woot! He let me move it around the parking lot. So, I got in... started it up... and that was the first time I heard the wankle engine. I fell in love with the sound. So, by the time I got my license. I did my research on RX-7's. And saw that there were "newer" body styles. I just completely fell in love when I saw the sexy 2nd gen, and I just had to get one. My buddy found 2 N/A RX-7's. One was a Black/Black 88' GXL (running), and the other was a Dark silver/maroon 87' Sport (not running). So, I went and bought them both at the same time. Since then, (2003) I have owned 5 FC's. All N/A's , and all S4's. I think im ready for a TurboII now. lol.

p.s. To this day I still think no other cars have the sexiness of the RX-7's.

need RX7

iTrader: (4)

I first saw the FC at age 14 in Initial D (I know, I know...), shortly after I began researching it and ended up joining here. I couldn't find any for sale in my area for the first year or so, finally I saw one for sale on autotrader, at a dealership way down in the ghetto. I went and checked it out on a Sunday (no dealers around) and the thing was a rustbucket piece of ****, I didn't even get a look under the hood, but if it was maintained like the rest of the car, it was bad news (and they wanted $3000 ) . Fast forward a few months, I see a TII for sale online for $2500 with 88,xxx miles, located about 1/2 hour away from me. I went to look at it and when I pulled up I was amazed. Shiny red paint, immaculate interior, it looked like it was in very good condition. I looked it over for a while, and my heart sank when I took a look underneath. RUST everywhere, including a few giant holes through the floor. ****, looks like this one isnt gonna work out either. After a few more months, I see an '86 Sport for sale on a local car forum. The pice started at $2000, dropped to $1800 after a few days, then all the way down to $1200 after a week or so. When I saw $1200 I was like 'NO WAI!!!!!' I went and looked at it, it seemed alright. It had trouble starting, and a little exterior rust, but looked pretty solid otherwise. This is the one I ended up getting (paid $1100, the guy ended up blowing the starter trying to start it too much), had it towed home, and it just sat in my driveway for a while. Moved it into the garage and began working on it. I replaced the starter, and it was still hard to start. It needed oil in the spark plug holes and lots of cranking to turn over, and it revved slow and flooded alot. New spark plug wires solved the hard starting problem, but when I drove it around, it seemed very slow (acceleration was very sluggish, and it just didn't pull as hard as it should.) I just sent out my injectors to be cleaned and flowed at Witch Hunter, hopefully that will help solve the problem. I also found some more rust on the underbody a few days after buying it, so that pissed me off (its my fault for not looking though). I think someone ran over a huge rock at one point too, there's a big dent in the floor and one of the doorslls is sort of bent upwars a little bit. Oh well, it doesn't track or anything, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm working on sort of restoring it so I can sell it for more than I bought it for, and buy me a nice TII from the south or west (rust FTL).

Holy ****, thats the longest forum post I've ever written in my whole life.

ovation4what

i drove past my car every day for a year on my way to school and just kept looking at it...sick to my stomach cause the thing just sat there and never moved, finaly i convinced my mom to let me buy a car, which makes no sence cause i had the money to pay for it, but then after like 2 months of playing phone tag i finaly got the car :}

ecko

iTrader: (57)

I never liked the way the rx7 looked at first when i saw my friends 87 se.This was last year when i was 17 and at first he offered it to me for $2500 but didnt want it.One day he comes to my house with it and takes me for a ride to the mall and the ride was great and i loved the sound.Since that day i really wanted one and found one couple of months later.It was an 87 se project.I was so excited into fixing it and ended up putting $500 in to the car and never got it running.So i sold it and waited another few months and found this sexy red 89 s5 and bought it for $2000.Now i enjoy it evryday and to mess around with it.Had it for about month and a half now.I thank my friend to geting me into ROTARY..

1st7

iTrader: (1)

About 3 years ago i was working for Toyota and some guy was going to trade in his Black '87 GXL (original owner car) for $300....i stepped in gave him $301.
Sold it 3 weeks later for $1800..... A week later i bought an '86 GXL automatic for $400, 2 weeks later i sold it for $1200.........
A year later now im back to where i started with my 3rd FC.
Black '88 GXL.

arad99

iTrader: (2)

My first 7, I bought on eBay. It was an 86 NA. I saw it, liked it, bid on it, bought it. But after fixing it up I decided to sell it.

Thats how I found my 87 T2. I had an ad in the paper saying that the 7 had a rebuilt motor. A guy calls me up and says he saw my ad in the paper and he wanted to know if I would be interested in rebuilding the motor in his sons T2. His son had "blown the motor" and he was willing to pay me $1000 for my labor and he would pay for the parts also. After I compiled a list of the parts that he was probably going to need and how much the parts were going to cost, he dropped the idea of rebuilding the motor like a hot potato. I told him I'd give him $1000 for it just as it sat. He called his son at college and gave him the bad news. The next day, I towed the T2 home.

The T2 had a completely redone interior, new seats, new carpet, new dash, short shifter. The tires are like new. The wheels are like new (oem). It mostly rust free and now the motor is rebuilt and has a new clutch.

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

Had a luxury model first, $750, bad clutch, bad brake caliper, bad interior, faded paint, blew the enigne in exactly 6 months, sold it to someone else.

Found new one on kyrotary.com, $1500, rebuilt engine, with a bad oil leak and small fuel leak, one of the nicest cars i've ever owned.

vegas mike

well i have a 90 crx that is turbo and pretty quick, but that project is done now. for the last month i've been searching on craigslist for cars under $1k
i've been looking for a couple different cars. on this past saturday i see an ad "89 rx-7 $200" so i click the ad and of course there is no pic, but the ad says it's been sitting for a few years and that it blew the apex seals. i call the guy and ask if the car is complete and if it is an auto or manual.
he says it's complete and it's a manual, so i drive about 45 mins up to the guys house and he has the car in the back yard. we walk in the back yard and i could not believe the condition of this car. turns out it's been sitting for 10 years and hasn't been washed in over 5 years. the doors haven't been opened in about 5 years. the interior was covered in mold and mildew, but flawless other then that.
the exterior has a small bit of rust on the sunroof panel, but not inside the track and there is a small dent on the rocker panel. he also put a small dent on the fender and repaired it so there is some primer on the passenger side fender.

it ended up costing me $200 for the car + 165 for a tow. it took 4 washes to get the exterior clean'ish. the interior has been cleaned, but we are taking the carpet out to clean it real good. it took over an hour to get the car out of his back yard, but now it's at my home waiting for a new motor.
as of right now i am debating on if i'm going to do a turbo swap or just stay with the na motor. either way the engine that is in the car is dead.
here are a couple pics of the car

Ex-Eg-Driver

iTrader: (1)

Nice pick up!

InsomniacFC

iTrader: (4)

I'd been driving mostly FWD auto econoboxes and having my fun with them. Taking corners and zipping along delivering pizzas. Although, I never really liked the idea of FWD. I saw an episode of KUNG FU: The next generation or something and the son was peeling out to go get a bad guy in his Dodge Stealth and the front wheels were spinning in the dirt and I thought it was the lamest sight i'd ever seen (why didn't they give him a Viper?).

So, I knew as soon as I had money to get my own car, and not a hand-me-down, it would be RWD or AWD. I looked into AWD first since I'd seen so many rally videos on the internet/speed channel and thought that would be fun to do seeing as there's a lot of countryside around here, but there were not that many subies around here for cheap. At least, not those with less than 300,000 miles and grateful dead stickers all over them. I found quite a few Eclipses/Talons/Lasers, but after a conversation with a friend explaining that only some of them were AWD I gave up on that.

RWD seemed to be a easier route. This was before everyone and their mom knew what drifting was and you could find one that was not drifted to hell or expensive for no good reason. Another friend started showing me some drifting videos and I got into the whole thing. I really wanted a "hachi roku", but most of the ones that I went to look at were long dead or full of hobo cloths and lawn chairs (no joke). A MKIII turbo Supra was out of my price range and the nicer 240's were mostly automatics, for some reason.

So, I gave up my search for a while. I just saved money and cruised craigslist and the paper for a deal. Meanwhile, i'd been reading up on forums, magazines, the internet, and etc trying to at least fill the gap with others having fun with their cars when one day I search for RX-7 after reading an article in a magazine. I liked the way the 3rd gen looked and how heralded it was in regards to motorsports. I looked on craigslist thinking it would cost as much as a 240 and damn was I surprised "but wait" i thought "why does this one cost $2,200 and this one costs $18,000?"

I clicked on it thinking I would see a shell or a monstrous wreck, but lo and behold it was a 2nd gen. "There are other kinds of RX-7's?" I said to myself. So, I start reading up on them. GXL's, GTU's, Turbo II's, and SE's. The more I read up on them, the more I liked them. I started looking though craigslist more and more trying to find my perfect 2nd gen and BAM one day I found it.

1st - 87 Base. Got it off of craigslist for $1200. High mileage (180K), but had a new clutch, mufflers, tires, etc etc. Had a stack of service receipts an inch thick. Even had the original purchase receipt, dealership window sticker, and all that stuff (I still have it). I'd been driving a raised toyota pickup with a stroker motor for a few months and sitting in that car and just putting it in first and watching it fly up to 6k rpm's before I could blink sold me right there. The person that owned it before me just used it as a commuter car and had bought a BMW and had no place to park it. Sadly, I got into my first auto accident as a driver in that car as well.

2nd - 86 GXL. After my accident I still wanted another one. It was hard addiction to shrug off. I sat and played GT3 for months driving my TII into the ground wishing I had my own RX-7 again. I used to drive that Toyota pickup in the canyons near my house wishing it was a RX-7. I know i'm lame, but damn, I really loved driving that car.

I saved. Dear God, did I save. Girls? Nah. New cds? Nah. Top ramen? You bet. In about 3-4 months I saved up $1,800 and I bought a LEMON. Car looked ok, but the oil control seals were going out. I had no idea. There were a lot of other issues. Speedometer did not work. AC did not work. PS did not work. In fact, the pulleys were blown as well. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. Loose the address of the place you bought it so you don't go back and throw a brick through their front bay window. Don't worry, I didn't do that, but you know I wanted to.

Anyways, I drove the car till it died. Put about 30k on the motor with blown oil control seals that made it so when you revved over 4k it would blow smoke like you meant it. It would go through a quart of oil PER FILL UP. I commuted about 70 miles one way for about 6 months with it and had no issues till the day it would not stop blowing smoke. Bye bye oil seals. You were freaking troopers.

3rd - 87 GXL parts car. I thought about selling it, but i'd put so much work into keeping it running that I was not about to let it go. My mistake? Who knows? I'm sure we've all been there. I decided I was going to rebuild it myself. I bought some dvd's, read the haynes manual 4x, read the FSM just as many, and came to the conclusion that it was not within my budget at the time. I could afford the rebuild kit, but not the rest of the stuff. So, I started looking for other 7's.

But, at that point in time, there was not a nice one out there. Too many hacked up TII's and piecemeal n/a's to grab my attention, until one day I found it. A parts car with a rebuilt motor off of the forum. I called the guy the next day and that weekend I was driving down to pick it up.

It was gutted to all hell. Had the emissions removed. Cut springs. But all I cared about was the motor. We took it out when I got down there and it ran like a champ. So, I drive it home and about 30 mins out of there the hood flies up.

A few months down the line I swap the motors over and all is well. Car is still running great and is not giving me any issues. Now I just need to patch up the loose ends (paint, fender, bumper, etc..) and it'll be pretty sweet.

Thanks for reading!

cfsfc

I never understood why people people got so into cars and racing i always said "a/c and a cd player" is all i need i could care less what it was. but then i heard of something different something without pistons THE WANKEL! a friend of mine who drives a 71 240z showed me pictures of the fc and the fd, i instantly fell in love with both but seeing how im a broke college kid the fd was a little out of the question so i looked on craigslist for months trying to find one i liked eventually i met the love of my life my 91 brave blue turbo. its been over a year and i still just stare at it sometimes. it was kinda funny because when i went to test drive it i had never even driven a manual (and it had a brand new stage 2 clutch in it) needless to say i stalled it twice (i didnt know when you stopped you had to push it in ) besides for that he couldnt tell until i told him it was my first time. so thats my story. its my first car and i hope to be burried in it.

race_the_sun

About a year ago I sold a crappy van I used for my now-defunct band for $3K. My current daily driver was an automatic so I wanted a little sporty 5-speed. Looking through a variety of cars it came down to a 300Z or an RX7. Having seen a 2nd gen earlier in life and thinking it would be cool to drive for my weekend commute to NYC since it's small, I bought a GXL that was converted to a T2 for that same $3K. A '94 Chevy Conversion van that smashed up a deer turned into an '86 T2 with a few problems that I fixed up pretty easily to make it work right. I've had to change quite a bit since then to get it running more steadily, and that's still in the works until I'm completely satisfied, but I'm glad I chose this car because it's the only ride I've owned where I feel 100% comfortable tearing it apart and putting it back together. I also got a decently good deal because the kid I bought it from was being forced to sell it... his dad said it was "too fast" haha. 107K miles in April 2007. Now in June of '08 it has 112K. Very minimal rust from being a northeast car too, except the interior was pretty shot. Overall I think it was a pretty sweet deal for an '86!

francogt1

iTrader: (2)

last fall after selling my 92 honda civic hatchback for almost 7g's, i was in the market for a new Project i was looking into 240's alot but one day in Craigslist i saw this Nice looking RHD RX-7 T2 so i keep an eye on it , untill the owner went down a cuple of hundreds and then i called and low balled like i always do.

owner took it, day after on my way to PA with my freinds exprorer and trailer when i saw it parked there i almost nutted in my pants. took it for a drive first time driving a RHD car and fell in love with the experience so payd and left.

now as we speak im painting the cars interior. =]

kmferzola

5

kmferzola

My 88 GTU was in East L.A., in the slums i saw it and asked the guy and he gave it 2 me for 1 grand mint condition inside and out it was in his garage its hole life and it only had 90k miles on it.it was all stock..omg so mint...

My 88 SE has a bunch of work. my friend needed some money in a hurry, i offered 900 cash and he gave it up. 110k miles on body no dents perfect inside and out.

m33p0n3

iTrader: (1)

I've been looking for a new car for the better part of six months now, after my 1987 Honda Civic Wagovan decided to seize on me. (either way, two years on a car pulled out of the mud after seven years that was free isn't too bad) Since then I've been driving this enormous B250 conversion van that gets 8mpg and hating it every day. Working at Walmart, I can't really afford gas for that thing...

So after all this time of looking for a cheap beater car (I even considered getting a remanufactured engine for the civic) my mother shoots me an e-mail saying my aunt is looking to get rid of her car for probably around $1000. So I show up at my aunt's house and ask her. Turns out she wants $500 for a 1990 GXL that's been babied and garage kept its entire life. Only thing wrong with it is a bad battery and air filter, which some mice had decided to live in through the winter. Hadn't been started in at least a year or so. So I check the plugs and all, throw some gas in the tank (which had been empty thankfully), and after a lot of cranking and smoke out the tailpipe, I have a nice new RX7.

Can't wait to get to the DMV to get this thing registered, then you'll probably see me around here more often.