I've had my 1989 rx7 gxl for about a year or two already, Its been a great car and starts up perfectly everytime, I take care of her, I baby the bitch. Honestly I can never say i have redlined the car, car has 54,000 miles more or less, so I dunno should I do it one day just for fun, is it meant to be redlined, most I got it is up to 6000/6500 rpm, but I rarely do it.

 

There are people who say redlining rotaries assists with cleaning the engine of carbon, actual fact is the rotors are only going 1/3 the speed of the eccentric shaft, so at 9000 rpm, they're only moving at 3000 rpm, one of the great advantages to the rotary. I redline my car daily, high rpms are what these engines are made for, but in the end its your car, if you like it babied than by all means baby it. I love RX-7s because they love to be driven fast, these engines can take a tonne of abuse minus what piston heads think, I've had my RX-7 for more than 25,000 kms, and I drive it hard on a regular basis, and it drives just as good as ever, I'm a believer in if your going to own a fun, fast car, enjoy it, it's what it's there for. If you want to drive slow, get a slow car, but thats just me.

 

I dont drive it "slow", just not to redline, I'll give it a shot tomorrow, at what RPM does the NA rx7's have the most horsepower anyways?

 

between 5000-6500 rpm, power drops off after 7000 rpm.

 

You'll know when your at redline if you have never done it before.

The car will speak to you!

But yeah, babying any car is not necessarily a good thing. Carbon buldup, clogged cats etc can result.

It's always good to "giver" once in a while to clean the bugs out. Another good way to do this is to put your car in a lower gear and travel down the highway for half an hr or so.

 

Not on an S5 so much - stock exhaust, it should run hard to 7800, which is about where the redline buzzer will talk to you (it's supposed to kick in before you hit redline at 8000). Supposedly fuel will cut at 9000, haven't done it myself.

With exhaust and light intake work, I find mine easily pulls to 8500, runs out of breath ~8700.

I do run mine to redline regularly - certainly when tracking/autocrossing it, and on the street. 11 years I've been doing it, and the car's still strong - doesn't prove it wouldn't have been if I had babied it more, but does lend credence to the idea that revving them out is good for them.

 

you are killing the engine. go to an empty parking lot... and do some doughnuts while keeping it at redline.

 

You have a whole tach there, where the manufacturer has provided you a wide range of RPMs at which the engine is designed to operate. Use them.

 

lol I followed your advice people, rode it on the highway and got it at 8000 rpm in 3rd gear, nice...anyways first observation...cool, second when I put it in neutral and let off the throttle it made a popping noise in the exhaust, i have headers, no cats and 2 mufflers back there(New york laws are tough), and third even though the temperature gauge was normal, i popped open the hood and the car was really hot, I can smell like burnt plastic too, but other then that all is good.

 

K first off, the popping would likely be some form of fireball or smoke coming out of the exhaust when you let off due to the excess unburnt fuel now being scooped around into the exhaust port, and since it auto-ignites (obviously the header temperature is going to be very high at this time), it creates fire, and it only goes one way.

The burnt plastic smell is likely some sort of wiring insulation or header paint curing even further. Just check for heated wiring, signs of burning on the harnesses, if nothing, I wouldn't pay TOO much attention to it yet. If problem persists, repeat earlier steps.