go_jesse

iTrader: (1)

Hi there, this is my first post. My dad is the second owner of a 1986 red RX7 GXL, about 93000 miles. The question pending is should i take it?

He is willing to give it to me for free. I've really been enjoying driving schools (track days) out at the local raceway, and have been looking for something to drive the wheels off, because my late model german car is getting a little excessive in maintenance costs because of the track time.

So, I want a project track car, I unfortunately will have to find someplace to store it for the winter. Its an oregon car so it won't have rust, plus its been garaged since my dad bought it. The only problem that I know of with it (it just passed emissions testing) is that it has the common bit of rear end whine when the clutch is in (my guess is the throw out bearing)

So, is this a good car to get for what I want to do with it? How much money should I expect to put into it to do track time?

I searched the forum and read about compression checks. I could do this, and probably can next week.

Thanks for your time reading this, looking forward to further communication!

dorkman52000

A free RX-7? How can you pass something up that is free, especially if it has low miles and it still passes emissions? I say go for it. By the way, welcome to the forum. I'vw owned 2 RX-7s so far, and I'm still kind of new here too, but my experience with these cars has been great and I'm looking forward to doing more modifications with my current car than I did with my first RX-7. I really think that's cool that you're into those racing classes. That's something that I have never had the opportunity to take on as of yet, and my car is not ready for it anyway.

If you're planning on making this thing a true race car project, I'd check around the forum by going into the race car tech section and see what those guys are doing there. A lot of them seem to have been professional drivers for many years, and just by looking at their posts, you can tell that they know the RX models in and out. If anyone can answer questions on how to make the thing a track car, they can. If you want a sporty daily driver, stick around here and do some searches to figure out what's the best street setup.

I think you are lucky to have a dad that is willing to give you his car for free. Since you pretty much have it in your possession (it's not like the car is going to be sold tomorrow, right?) you should hang out here, look at some posts, look on the internet for information about the car as well as available parts; and then figure out what you want to do. Whatever you want to do, good luck! But I think that if you decide to take the car and make a sweet project out of it you won't be disappointed.

vrooom305

TAKE IT!

Tofuball

Uh, why are you even asking? Free car!!

RoTa7

if you dont want it ill take it

go_jesse

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the encouragement, partly because of the reading I did on this forum, I've told him I'll take it, but now its his decision. :-) I'll be sure to be back with lots of questions should I have a fresh start with an RX-7. Thanks again.

go_jesse

iTrader: (1)

Well, I have a new (to me) RX-7, and you have a new forum participant. I'm a 32 year old software engineer from Portland, ORegon, and this forum gets waaaaay too many posts. :-) which is a good and a bad thing.

anyway now to the car:
ugh, its not a gxl, its the base model, with AC, no power steering. (SE?)

First, the good: body is straight, engine has good oil pressure and doesn't seem to have starting problems, only 95000 original miles. no rust that I have seen, no leaks from around the engine bay, no interior leaks or wierd smells. Its from the northwest, so has never been exposed to salt on the roads. There seems to be no hesitation at 3800 RPM which is good, the heater works well.

The bad (or needs work): It has a consistent whine from the tranny that comes from up near the engine somewhere (yes I've searched the forums and read about the problem) when the clutch pedal is up, and in neutral. Its probably the pilot bearing or the transmission input shaft bearing. Its got a new clutch, clutch master cyl, and throwout bearing, but I don't think they resurfaced the flywheel, so the clutch sometimes shudders when engaging, esp on an uphill.
There is some wierd squeak when the driver side rear shock is compressed.
It is shod with 225/50 R15s on what looks like 15x7inch 4 lug rims, and requires a lot of steering force on the wheel at anything less than 20MPH. I think the tires are too large for the rims but they don't rub, they just stick out from the rim more than an inch!!

Its completely stock right now. I'm just wanting to do driving school and autocross events locally, my bmw is too expensive (parts) to run at those events.

I'm thinking first things that I might do to the car to get it ready, I'll put in maybe another thread. I'm struggling with how much to do to the car before getting a chance to run it at the track.

BlaCkPlaGUE

Get yourself a racing beat collected header, pre-silencer and cone intake for starters on performance. Im not a tranny person, so we'll wait for another to reply about your tranny issues.

nice to meet you.