ZE power Mx6 you know I am still kinda upset about this one LOL
you were faster than me on this one, at least I know it's in good hands!!!

 

How is the engine number matched to the chassis?

 

the engine number shows up in a couple of places, the warranty history, and i think the window sticker. the engines are built in the rotary engine factory, and were numbered in the order they were built. then they went across the street and were put into cars in semi random order. that is pretty common, but Mazda wrote it down.

or i guess you could say the engine number doesn't match the chassis, but we can verify the original engine

 

j9fd3s is the man with the skill set--- the omniscient narrator of mazda facts if you will!!!

 

This what I know to be true so take it for what its worth, but I have tried it with 3 fd rx7s with original engines and the numbers I was given matched what was in the car.

1. the number is STAMPED into the front iron, on top, it'll be to the left of the alternator.

2. the engine number will NOT match the vin, or any other number on the car. even if it is the original one.

3. in theory mazda japan has the engine number in their file, but depending on the build date it may not be available, as they didn't go computer until sometime in the early 90's.

4. if the front iron was replaced with a NEW one, it will not have a stamp

So i guess you can tell if the front Iron is original to the car by having mazda verify what engine number went into the car by the VIN# of the car.
So for me one of my cars was :
1994 Montego Blue with Tan PEP, it was built 1/28/1994 and sold new in Charleston South Carolina 10/25/1994 with an engine number 13BE 121520 and it matched what was in my car.

 

I promise to call you first if I ever let it go

 

If a car is modded with a wide body and V Mount, is it worth more with the stock twins or a single? Where are the values on a modified car, assuming similar condition. Will a car tuned on twins be more desirable in the future?

 

There is no answer to that question other than opinions. Except for the fact that a low mileage and stock car will be the most collectible. There will always be a few outliers though

 

^^ IMO of course

A completely stock car is more valuable as it has a greater audience that it appeals to. Now modifications whether they are performance or aesthetic are a very personal thing, so it really shrinks the audience for those cars. With that said, mods as a whole don't really not add value if done correctly they just don't really the devalue the car (unless we are talking extremely low mileage examples). For instance, shitty mods that leave the car in questionable condition definitely cuts the price. Mods that come to mind are going non-sequential, cheap turbos/intercoolers/hot air intakes/ect, bad fitting/no name body kits. The list goes on and on but you get the idea.

We are not there yet but I believe 90's JDM cars will eventually mirror the old school current muscle car market. Meaning there is a market for both stock and performance modified examples (no body kits and such)

 

There's definitely room for both. Look at the Euro scene, nicely tuned and swapped cars go for strong money, of course concourse showroom is always at the top.

But the Japanese car scene has always been about the mods, it's what made the cars great. A stock JDM sports car from the 90s was OK, but the ability to tune it up made them great. I think properly modified Japanese cars will hold much higher relative value to all OEM examples, compared to Euro and American cars of the same period.

I think you are right about the twins. Keeping them in proper order and upping the boost will probably bring out more dollars than a modern single conversion. It's the uniqueness of the sequential system.

 

In the current US market, you can sell a clean, stock FD in days (or even hours) if the car is priced fairly. Heavily modified cars are always going to be a challenge to sell. The recent sale of an extremely well done Feed widebody car (see here) gives a good sense of the difficulty involved. It took months to sell and I suspect the seller got far less than they were hoping for (and far less than they put into the car). Worth noting that Bring a Trailer did not want to list the car, preferring more stock examples.

Thankfully the trend has now mostly stopped, but the FD was also a focus for a lot of really questionable modifications in its earlier years: vacuum hose 'simplification', wiring harness 'simplification', double throttle delete, throttle body coolant bypass, AC, ABS, OMP deletion, deletion of random emission components etc. The performance and reliability advantages of all of these modifications were marginal at best for a street car. If you look at the cars that have sold well recently, they are unhacked stock cars or have mild bolt-ons. Hell, some even have original plastic ASTs.

 

Not to mention how much rarer stock--or even near-stock--examples are. I can understand adding a few reliability mods/bolt-ons, but it seems most FD owners go crazy with body kits, widebody conversions, racing seats, and all sorts of other stuff.

 

It is enthusiasts that are the ones that take things too far. Personally, I don't think that stock cars are not that rare. Sure they are rare here and in the reality we live in with the forum's influence, but most folks aren't really that keen on modifying cars.

 

I see that 1973 RX7s in excellent condition have recently sold for $65K so I do not see your reasoning.

 

The Feed Afflux car sold for C$72,000, which certainly is the upper range of all North American FD sales and maybe the highest ever RHD sales price on our shores.

The same car without the kit might have gone for as low as C$30,000.

So the kit brought a significant premium regardless,

The car is certainly a hit at local Lower Mainland Car meets.

Due, in part, to the new owner being the principal organizer of these 400~500 car events.

The money spent by the previous owner was as much a work of love as a speculative exercise.

 

Value is subjective.

 

It seems the market might be softening a bit with the change in season. With the usual caveat that it's difficult to compare different examples, I'm seeing a decline in prices from the mania in the middle of the summer.

 

Yea I think prices will soften a tad with the season. But I think the 2 that went today on Cars n Bids and BaT were right on par. They both had there issues. The BaT one had damage reported, failed emissions and I don't think most like the color change on the front seats. The CaB rx7 was nearly 70k miles, modified, missing a radio and other minor flaws. I think they were both sub 40k cars but i guess the one on BaT is essentially 40 when u add the fees.

 

Very impressed with the 38k for the 94 VR base but not surprised. I believe the rust is surface only and it's a 94 base model that has some nice mods or it's a car I would have considered if I didn't have one. Bottomline: congrats to the both the seller and buyer.

It appears the FD market is up 65 percent over the last 3 years if using this car alone as a barometer.

Again I can't wait until we see a really clean low mileage (under 10k) 94/95 R2, it could easily sell for 100k plus.

3 years ago who would of thought that an FD with 50k miles, accident history, paint work, rust etc.... would sell for 40k. I suspect if this car was clean it may have sold for 50k plus.

 

Random thought I had the other day -

Imagine being smart enough to buy the left over last model years of some of the now-super-collectible cars. The outgoing models always end up sitting on dealer lots, I remember '95s still at Mazda dealers in '96 or so, new and untitled, with a dealer ready to make a screaming deal on it to get it out of their hair. These are also typically the most desireable - imagine having a super low mileage white '95, for example, that's some serious money there.

The last model year as time goes on is typically the most desireable - they have all the bugs worked out, they added in new features or options, etc.

Big time the same situation with the original NSX.

You REALLY don't want to think too hard about the 05-06 Ford GT40. I remember that dealers were having a hell of a time getting rid of them back in the day and were discounting. That's a $500k car now all day long.

 

People do that, that's why super super low milage examples exist.

Problem is, by the time you pay yearly insurance, taxes, storage (you paid more for a house with a larger garage), maintenance, not to mention the loss of that capital that could have been otherwise invested, you hardly ever come out on top.

Investing in the S&P500 for 25 years at 10% growth is just over 1000% return... Your new $100K sports car needs to be worth $1,000,000 to get even with those numbers, and we haven't even deducted expenses..

 

Local T2 FC here listed for C$7000, sold for C$12,000. Original well aged exterior. Some go fast mods on a rebuilt engine.

 

Check out this FB that just went for north of $25K - it is an amazing time....

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-mazda-rx-7-42/

 

so with the FD that is sort of a trick question. once Mazda found out that there was not going to be a 1996 model year (and maybe that Ford was taking over Jan 1, 1996), they built a second run of 1995 FD's, in December of 1995.
These cars didn't even arrive in the USA until the end of February of 1996.

of course it LOOKS like they were sitting there forever (and i'm sure the dealers hated it, they have some period of time between when they get the car, and when they need to start paying for it)

1995 was also at the end of the Savings and Load Crisis (and the busting of the bubble economy in Japan), and also the collector car market had tanked. its partly why there were FD's that me and my friends could buy

so fun trivia the last FD to be sold new in the USA was 2004... which means there was an FD under warranty until 2011!

 

Would be interested to see where that FD is right now.