dcamcoTII

I am thinking about selling my backup driver and buying a rex for backup, I cant think of anything sweeter for the money than an all black s5 vert. Anything I need to watch out for on these??

No7Yet

Just the usual stuff.

Well, plus all the usual convertable stuff. Too much noise when driving with the top up, rips/tears/etc, look for water damage from a leaky top, etc, etc.

You'll love the car! It'll be DOG SLOW compared to what you're used to, but they're GREAT on the highway on a warm summer day!

Brandon

defylogik

mosty look for typical things i would say.. check out the top. for rips you can easily talk the person down money. little duct tape or silicon fixed those till u can afford a new one..

i agreewith no7yet.. top down on the highway goin 80mph is ******* ballin.. so are th looks you get when you are driving around town.. most people have never seen an rx7 like that, and they tend to look very expensive and fast.. hehe.. (stereotypes)

scott

go_speed_go

Which makes it real embarrassing when it takes all of 1st, 2nd and part of third to pull more than 1 length on a Ford F350 Turbo Diesel work truck. .

No7Yet

You'd be REAL surprised just how incredibly cheap and easy it is to make those trucks UNGODLY fast off the line. Like smoke-all-four-tires-at-a-30-mph-roll fast. 5.0 mustangs ain't got NOTHING on these guys... Remember, you don't have to worry about detonation You just add more fuel and air and let physics do the work...

Brandon

go_speed_go

No more surpring than listening to your wife laugh her *** off afterwards saying "ooooooooh, Mr. Dragracer almost lost to a rattling truck!".

No7Yet

Gotta love it. You shoulda just told her it was all the extra weight of a passenger that slowed you down so much - that next time you'd just drop her off before you raced

Brandon

dcamcoTII

Thanks guys, im not lookin for speed on this one, just style. Thats what i have the t2 for . How about just n/a's in general, any different than a t2 in the buyer aspect?

No7Yet

Nothing special about N/As. Have it compression tested. Engine miles don't matter as much, as long as the car was cared for. The VDI or 6PI being stuck is something to look out for, but you won't be able to bargain the price down based on those points - they're too esoteric.

N/As are dead simple. Hard to screw 'em up.

Brandon

NZConvertible

I've got the best of both worlds, straight from the factory!

Check the operation of the roof, run it up and down a couple of times. It should be smooth and quiet, unlike mine...

Check for damp carpet behind the seats, lift up the rear deck and check for any moisture. They all leak a little bit, but those are the critical areas.

Thingol

Another thing to keep in mind is the tranny. Remember that since the verts are the heaviest of the rexes, they will screw up a tranny fastest. Not much that you can check here though. And they are really easy to swap if it does go bad (The input bearing in my 88 vert went out 1 month after I bought it ).

TheTwinTurboRX-7

I have a vert, and if it takes you that long to put that much on a truck then something is seriously wrong with your car, or you can't drive for ****. The car is not that slow, and if you learn how to drive it well it is great to you. I am a master of my car and know just what it can do. THe vert is fgreat, and it wears it's extra weight well. Hell you can put it on a diet and get rid of a bunch of the weight anyway. I am about to do that. If I can looses about a hundred or so pounds then I can probably hit the high 14's. Nothing doggy about that. Just not easy to find that much weight to loose that isn't mandatory to keep on. He, he. Anyway, I love my vert, and I don't want to hear any more trash talking about em!

go_speed_go

Yes, they are slow, and yes I can drive. They're fun to drive, but you don't see any hardtop owners sticking and extra 350 lbs in their floorpan for added performance.

The tubro diesel was torque braking at the light. I launched easy because I didn't think he'd try. By the time I was starting to make power he was well into full boost. We sat side by side thru first & second. Towards the end of second, aerodynamics came into play and I started pulling away.

My vert could (and did) beat a stock '90 NA. It had an intake, hi-flow cat, cat-back, & ECU.

No7Yet

First off, we (both go_speed_go and I) live in Tallahassee, FL. In the deep south. Where the good 'ol boys just luuuuuuve their trucks. And they mod them. Even the F350 Diesels. And they're EASY to make fast (see my prev. post).

Next, the vert in question is modded. Cat-back, high-flow cat, intake, MD race chip.

Third, the driver in question is one of the best drivers in our Dixie SCCA region. There's no doubt about his driving ability (even in a straight line).

Last - well, let me say that I love sevens. Even (or should I say especially?) the convertables. But I love them (the verts) for what they are. Boulevard cruisers, and not a bit more. Heavy N/A Blvd cruisers, at that. Now I've driven Chris' old car, and it's no dog. But my dead-bone-stock 89 TII will take it from a stop, from a roll, and in a top speed test. About the only way the vert will take my car is around a turn (it's fully CSP prepped). So, I love verts, but they're no drag racers. And yeah, a modded Ford F350 will probably beat one in a straight line.

Just my $0.02

Brandon

No7Yet

Actually, you may not know this, but due to the nature of automatic turbos, he was making full boost BEFORE the left the light. Ask any auto 3rd-gen owner Full boost launches are one of the perks of auto trannies (that and boost-loss-less shifts, since the throttle plates never close).

Brandon

fc3s.org

Check the rubber pieces where the window closes to the top. They were replaced by the dealer when it was 6 years old, and it is due for them to be changed again. When you either wash the car, or it rains etc, water can leak down your window and it gets your window switches wet! Ask me how I know!

Don't forget to check the tops of the seat headrests. Those can get really bad if the owner has had the top down alot and parked it that way.

V8RX7com

The non-turbo RX-7 convertible is a definitely a cruiser and not a bruiser. The problem with the convertible RX-7 is, you have a cool car without any *********. So love tha vert in all it's slowness or add some *********, as I did.

dcamcoTII

hah, my ********* will be securely parked under cover in my garage for the time being. Besides, its gotta have more ********* than my truck in all aspects.

fc3s.org

Personally I don't think the vert has enought chassis to really need alot of "*********" more than it has stock. I enjoy mine, and I enjoy driving it with the power it has on the local mountain roads. I like being asked "When did they start making these again?" as if it were new If I want to go fast, I'll get in the Project 86. My car came with a rotary engine. I enjoy the car the way it came. I trash the other one hehe.

BTW I am getting pretty close to installing a 13B-RE Cosmo motor in the 86 now. I need to finish the E6K install, then I'll look more into it.

HOZZMANRX7

iTrader: (43)

Maybe a brain fart on my part, but is that the 3rd Gen set up??

go_speed_go

Would that make it a neutered cruiser?

MIKE-P-28

iTrader: (1)

Wanna talk in all honesty, my 88 vert is faster than my 85 12A with headers/full exhaust and cold air intake... Or it just feels that way???... Well I bought it for looks, and girls seem to like it. But they not really that slow... If I wanna go fast I'll just go home and get my other one I dumping TONS of money in, IF I EVER GET IT FINISHED

DroptopRX7

iTrader: (12)

Well said Dave.
The convertible is a great car, slow but it does have the extra weight. Why remove the stuff Mazda engineered into it in the first place. You make the car more apt to have cowl shake among other things. Mazda engineered it to be heavier. Its a convertible. If you want to go fast and halve the reliability, get a TII! That's what you'll need, or go all out and get a Hemi Cuda!

MisterMatt

well, I really Love my vert. I don't get much noise with the top up...well, I didn't until I lost the things that hold the "headliner" of the targa. So now, it rattles and falls on my head when it's not fully latched. Oh well, it's still really pretty fast. Before I did many mods on it, I paced an eclipse spyder from a roll. Now, I have straight exhaust... Anyway, cruising with the top down is TOTALLY GREAT!! There's no feeling like it. The only problem that I have with it is that the seals around the door leak, and I get water on my lap when it rains. Good luck!!

God Bless!!
<>< <>< Matt ><> ><>