Rotary = Money pit.

Nothing wrong with that, you just have to be willing to accept it and know that any money put into it will probably never be recovered.

 

i disagree with the modding of the 10AE. a true RX-7 collector and enthusiest would not do this. i have restored my 10AE to oem specs and get a lot of compliments on it from RX-7 enthusiests and non enthusiests alike.. more than i feel i would as if it were a commonly modded 7. people that don't know 7's appreciate clean stock RX's. even people that know 7's appreciate unmodified 7's, especially the 10AE. its a very unique and rare car. someone suggested that its not as rare as the numbers suggest. i think that 1500 is a pretty low number considering that 27,814 RX-7's were sold in the U.S. in 1988. either way, in the long run the 10AE will be more collectible than a standard 90 TII due to the fact that it was designed as a collectors car. the 10AE is more unique and more desireable to a collector. itsup to the original poster as to what he keeps. i would personally find a way to keep both. only so i could leave the 10AE unmolested (as can be in its current state) and if the mod bug hit, then the 90 TII would be a car he could sink a few mod bucks into. but if not, i would keep the 10AE.

 

Thats a fairly inflammatory statement. Just because my 10th is highly modded does not make me less of an RX-7 enthusiast.

 

it may be a little on the tough side, most enthusiests would value the 10AE for what it is and choose another TII to mod. you J-Rat, are a respected member of the forum and are without a doubt an RX enthusiest. i'm just stating that most enthusiests would not go to the extreme with modding of the 10AE.

 

I'd sure like to know who these mythical "collectors" are and where they've been hiding.

Two observations about collectors and their nature...

-For the 25th anniversary of the 240Z, Nissan repurchased a group of 1970 Z's, totally restored them- in the factory, to factory spec- then offered them for sale through dealerships.
Couldn't give them away, even at much reduced prices.
Where were the rabid "collectors" of iconic Japanese iron when this happened?
Of note: This happened during a boom economy, when money was flowing freely on all sorts of toys, not like today's- or the foreseeable future's- much depressed landscape.

-"Collectors" tend to fixate on icons from their personal past.
They desire the objects they lusted after when then were young- or had sentimental value attached to for various reasons- but couldn't afford.
As they age and gain financial means these items become attainablee... BUT the pool of potential buyers shrinks as age increases...i.e., they die off.
My experience in the clock/watch industry directly reflects this phenomenon.
Fifteen years ago mechanical timepieces were selling briskly but as the people who had direct contact with them aged and either died off or were faced with more pressing financial needs (medical), they stopped buying.
Meanwhile, their kids, who were hitting middle age and financial security, had no interest...they'd never had a watch that wasn't digital and Grandpa's pocket watch held no interest for them.

So let's see...take a kid who was 16 in 1988- he's now nearing forty and in ten years (the presumed opening of the window for 10th AE collectability) he'll be 50.
Assuming that we're not all living in poverty by then, how many of these potential buyers are going to be fixated on a RX-7 opposed to say, a Ferrari or even an Audi from the same era?

Meanwhile, you've been babying and properly storing your 10th AE- a not inconsiderable expense- betting on recouping your "investment".

Seems like a long shot to me.

 

i consider myself a collector and i think now, at nearly 22 years of age, the 10AE is a collecors car. i restore RX-7's to oem spec and if i desire i sell them once completed. these collectors have a sense of appreciation for collectible or restored RX-7's. i can name a handfull on this forum. i'm sure there are many more all over the world that share the same sense of passion for these cars. its not the monetary value thats a primary point in a collector's mind and heart, its the rarity of the car, the ownership pride in having something a little more rare and different, and the satisfaction of driving and owning a piece of automobile history.

 

Could you share with us how exactly this works?
How much do you pay for the subject cars, how much time and money goes into the OEM restoration and how much profit do you make on the sale?

 

how it works is simple. i buy a car and i restore it. making money is not always the key point. i enjoy the restoration but i'm not going to lose money on the sale. often breaking even is very difficult. most people want a 7 that is road worthy that they can pick up cheap and make their own and put the work into themselves. this is why i am getting away from restorations or even partial restos. i have an 85 GS that i restored for myself that including purchase price, and mazda parts, that i'm just over $5000 in on the project. its a wonderful car and worth every penny. https://www.rx7club.com/build-threads-293/85-l6-gs-se-project-restoration-822222/ the 10AE that i restored is the same way, a wonderful car but being too deep in to sell...which is ok because i plan on keeping the car. often times, i know that its not going to be in my best interest to fully restore a 7. i will make it very road worthy and reliable and sell it. having a full time job witha wife and kids has taken away a lot of the time needed for the work involved in a restoration.

 

Well yeah, the whole "collector car" thing becomes a lot more doable if profit isn't a consideration.
There's a truly gorgeous E-type Jag in the area and I sure wish it's owner had your perspective on it.