So Im still fairly new to driving, totally new to driving fast rwd cars, never properly worked on a car before and like most 19 year olds without the bank of mum and dad don't have much cash. And yet I want to buy an rx7. Stupid right?
Yes I know this kinda thing has been covered many times before and yes I've used the search function enough to know that this is a bad idea (because common sense wasn't telling me this in big neon letters already...)

But I still want to make rotary noises. I've had my license for two years and I'm a competent driver but know where the limits are and don't have a death wish. Plenty of perfect back roads around here to have a play around on in my boring fwd Kia. It's a lot of fun, car sucks but the feel of just being on the road and going round the bends doesn't. My only rwd experiences is in a kart now and again and whilst I'm half decent at showing up the wannabes with the fancy custom helmets I'm no racer so I'm planning on getting some performance driving lessons and as much track time as money allows. Getting this kinda car isn't about posing and trying to impress people, it's about wanting to grow and develop as a driver. And yes also about the shiteating grin inducing rotary noises.

As for the mechanical side of things I really don't come from a car crazy background and have very little real word experience working on cars. That much is definitely true but I do come from an engineering background so do have pretty solid mechanical skills and I'm also starting a 3 year university course in motorsports engineering in September so a car that I can learn with in both mechanical skills and driving skills sounds like a great idea. And yes I know getting a little Miata/mx5 as my first car and learning from that is a pretty good idea but I want a car that I can keep for a long time and form a bond with. I just don't want to see a car as a disposable object that I'll just replace.

And as for price, at a push I can make an fd3s work, car markets crazy here at the moment, there's several pretty clean early model ones for sale for the same amount as a similar or worse condition 240sx. I know they can be expensive to maintain and fuel up so what kind of maintenance costs and gas mileage can I get out of an early model fd? I'm planning on doing as much work as possible myself, because of cost and as I mentioned earlier I need the experience and I also enjoy mechanical work. So how much are standard maintenance items and any specific tools I need going to set me back? Specifically for the parts availability in the uk if any of the uk guys can help me out.

So that was a pretty long post but hopefully you got an idea about why I want a rex and want I want to do with it, if you fine people can give me any help and advice that would be much appreciated.
Happy revving,

Angus

 

No idea about the cost of anything in UK, but I can guarantee you that saving enough money to buy a crappy little beater car for when the FD is down would be a contender for best decision of your life so far.

 

As for fuel a stock 93 should be 29-40 KMPL (18-25 MPG). Now with that said age, maintenance, and mods all play a part on whether you will see the stock MPL or not. If I did my math right with 97 RON(think thats super/premium in UK) avg being 1.2 GBP you would be at 91 GBP(132 usd) to fill a empty tank being 76 liters or 68.4 GBP to fill up from 1/4 tank. So next time you get gas just look at the price and do that ×57 liters to get 1/4 tank fill up price. As far as working on the car download the FSM in the FAQ under the F section and then start reading it, search the forum and ask questions that you still dont understand. A basic car maintenance tool kit should do about 70-80% of the work you might run into with out pulling the motor or transmission. Last bit of advice keep the Kia for a parts hauler, city driving car, and ride to school when the 7 is down for repair.