Hey guys (and gals), I'm 17 and I'm looking at getting an FC. They've been my dream car (affordable dream car) for years and years. I know a bit more than the average person about cars, engines, etc, but I would really love to know how to upgrade, tune, rebuild, etc all parts of the car. Does anyone have any advice as to how I would go about doing that?

Also does anyone have any thoughts about what years, etc I should look into? Thanks alot in advance.

By the way, I'm in the atlanta, GA area if anyone's selling

Thanks!

 

Search, read the stickies and look through the archives. Before modding ANYTHING get a full tuneup. There's no sence in tuning a car with bad plugs, clogged filters or whatever.

 

Read all of the stuff in the 2nd gen faq and at www.aaroncake.net (go to "my car" for stuff on the rx-7.)

 

hey thanks guys

 

sounds a lot like me. Unfortunately I had to learn how to do stuff the hard way, start form a burnt engine and try and piece everything together. Have fun, and please do not contribute to the stereotype of (ignorant) teens driving sports cars.

 

I forgot to mention that almost everything has been asked so try searching first. Unfortunately the search function comes up with so much crap that it can be hard to find what you want, but at least try searching. Also, make the thread titles as descriptive as possible to get the help of more seasoned (and knowledgable) members.
I too picked the FC as my "realistic dream car" (my ultimate dream car is a 3-rotor FD and an elise.) If you get one, take good care if it and it should be a good car. They can be a huge blast if you keep them in good shape.

 

my advice is to get a bigger wallet cause you will need it.

i am not trying to be sarcastic, drive you away or be callous but just getting you ready.

stock they were built well but to either learn how to tune a rotary or pay a professional to do it right takes a lot of time and a bit of money.

piston engines are much more forgiving in tuning errors than rotaries but rotaries give an engine response like no other engine i have driven.

 

Just know what your getting into, money wise, and mechanical wise. I say just know what your getting into and just get your own cause if you have your own rx7 and then you can fix it and refer back to this site you will learn so much.

Before I had my rx7 I tried learning about it but it was so hard because I had nothing to solve and resort to fix so all i did was just read. Dont get me wrong it did help but until I had the car there and was able to go back between the car and this site it helped tramendously.

For car wise it depends on your budget. If you want a series 5 rx7 but it cost to much get a series 4 and convert the body to it. Probably save you alot more to convert then getting the whole series 5. But if you find a killer deal on a Series 5, get it if you want. As for the model I dunno my first rx7 was n/a and I shortly sold to get my Turbo II, so I dont know how hard it would be to convert to that if you did get a Turbo II. By the way im around your age im 16, so i finicial situations, school and **** like that. I dunno just my opinion.

 

Personally, I recommend buying an NA first. They are much easier to work on and more forgiving, plus there is less to go wrong. They are also much cheaper in the long run.
As for what year to get, just get the one with the cleanest body that is in the best shape. Pretty much anything available on one year can be swtiched to any other FC.
And the most important thing: DO NOT get it as a daily driver. Whie they can be used as a daily driver ( I did it for over 2 years) they have a habit of taking a crap when you need them the most. Make sure you have another reliable form of transportation bacause, as with any almost (or over) 20 year old car, things will go wrong and it will break down. You can eliminate most of these problems with proper preventatice maintanence, but stuff can still go wrong.

 

i agree, especially on the daily driver part. My car just went wrong at the worst possible times, i was always like why this day why not the next day.

 

In the entire time I have owned my 7, it has only not worked twice. Unfortunately, both of those were a dead engine that resulted in a rebuild. Luckily the first time it happened I just used my brother's car since he didn't need it at the time, and the second time I had just bought a second car for my daily driver.

 

advice?? SELL!!! SELL SELL SELL!!!! if you like money, sell it fast youll definently be left w/ an empty wallet after owning an fc for a while...

on a serious note (besides the $$ thing), these are great cars, and i wouldnt own anything else! check the oil and coolant regularly (weekly is a minimum!).. and just prporly maintain it!

 

thanks for all of your help guys. I've found an '88, not sure what series that is, anyways $3000 with 133k, manual, etc and I'm heading down to take a look at it this weekend hopefully. So maybe this time next week I'll be driving my dream car 8)