I am on my 6th FD now and this one is pretty much stock and I'm really enjoying it so far. Only mods are Koyo radiator, JDM downpipe and Racing Beat dual tip exhaust.

I flew up to Detroit to pick it up and drove it 550 miles back to Nashville. A few days later, I drove it to Jacksonville for a family vacation, then to Orlando for their 7’s day event, then up to Chatsworth, GA for a 7’s day event there. In total I put around 2000 miles on the car in the past 10 days.

The weather has been super-hot and I was stuck in traffic a few times. AC kept me cool, stero kept me entertained and I wasn’t too worried about the car overheating, although I was nervous a few times.

I wasn’t too worried about scrapping the car as I was going through interstate construction or pulling in and out of gas stations.

Does anyone else appreciate a stock car as much as I do?

At Carter Lake Damn in Chatsworth, GA



7’s day event in Chatsworth



7’s day event in Orlando

 

I absolutely LOVE the look of a stock FD. Unfortunately i've never had the chance to fully experience one in person other than just looking, mine came pretty modified.

 

^ just noticed you are from Jacksonville. Wished I knew and tried to sync up with you over the 4th of July week.

 

That would have been awesome! I was out and about yesterday with some of my old friends from the S2000 group. Without a/c I wasn't gonna make the trip to orlando or especially miami for 7's day. If you're in the area again, feel free to hit me up.

 

I think you were about the only car more stock than mine. I had the black FD. I only have Racing beats intake, downpipe, catback with the dual tips also and ohlins coils. rest was cosmetic items. I do enjoy a more stock car as well, at least, at the moment.

 

I moved to New Jersey, but I kept my FD down in jax at my parent's place. When I come down again we should cruise and if you want to drive you can take mine around. Pretty stock, the only non stock items apexi intakes, downpipe, and apexi exhuast. Mine is the faded montego blue, so still in the ugly stage haha.

 

I do ... so much so that I have a few stockers or stock cars with some reliability mods. My wife likes them too ... AC/Radio/No stink ...

Went to 7s day events here in the NYC/NJ area. Weather was nice but got up to 90. I was glad to have the AC (super cold r12 nonetheless).

 

^ nice.

Thoughts on bridge ported cars? They sound cool but after 5 mins of brapping, I'm like man that's annoying.

 

The vast majority of rx-7 owners still bone up their cars, and that's why stock and OEM++ examples bring such a premium. The rx-7 was perfectly aesthetic from the factory, and it turns out the vast majority of us are not smarter than Mazda Engineers.

Stock FDs are beautiful and reliable when well driven and well maintained. Can't say that about most modified examples.

 

Mine being about as far from stock as possible is what made me appreciate the stock FD.

Skeese

 

Yep

Stock FDs have been my daily drivers for 20 years

Great cars!!!!

 

Agree 100%! I've been saying for years that if you haven't experienced a stock FD you've missed how special they were straight from the factory. Not perfect, but damned good! And certainly agree that few of us were/are smarter than the Mazda engineers :o)

 

I agree, but I want to upgrade my car to stock Series 8 spec (1999-2002) in some places.

 

me! most fun one i've driven was 100% stock except the downpipe. you could actually drive it fairly hard without the felony speeding ticket.... plus its quiet, ac works, etc.

loud and slow is easy...

 

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...-mods-1089761/

 

I went on a 500 miles road trip to break in the new motor and go to car shows when I bought mine stock 8 years ago, I think I miss the quiet exhaust the most because I can actually have a conversation Definitely like the current power level over stock tho.

 

I was also there at Ace Cafe in Orlando. My car is the red one. In 1998 when I purchased my car it was bone stock and a daily driver. Bone stock is was a joy to drive and well engineered but I wanted more performance. When the twins died the a single pte 6262 divided turbo was added with a re vmount, full exhaust and ohlins suspension. Although I do miss the no smell and quieter car but I do enjoy the performance of my upgrades. With that said I would not change anything I have done and I am happy but would love to have an additional rx7 with upgraded twins and reliability mods only.

 

damn Johnny. Looks like the car is doing well. Drive it and enjoy it.

 

I've said forever that 90% of FD owners in the last 10 years have never experienced a properly functioning factory sequential FD and have no clue how much they are sacrificing by going single. I love big power like most, but hated nearly every single turbo FD I drove until the EFRs came out. The only downside is the stock sequential setup is hard on the entire engine bay and requires a lot of love and dedication once the car gets some miles on it.

 

best part about that car Johnny is driving... normal battery. Let it sit for a month in the dead of winter and it will start right up, no tender required. Let the fan aftercooling control module run on shutdown, no battery draining issues.

 

I definitely agree. Keep the sequentials, keep the rats nest working properly and keep the car looking stock. Reliability mods are one thing, but there's no need to do anything to the outside of the car that's universally known as the most beautiful Japanese car ever built.
PFC, down pipe, radiator, AST, **** yes. Flares, wings, carbon fiber door panels, frog eye headlights, no thanks.

Not to mention we've all seen enough Christy's and Mecum auctions to know which cars hold their value best.

 

Nice, I have a Greddy titanium exhaust, SMIC and PFC and agree that a little more power is fun.

Nice, did you have to drive in the rain? If so, any issue with your windows fogging up?

Thanks man. Been driving it to work also.

I just got 99 front, wing and have 99 sides coming. Can't decide it if want to put it on the MB or CYM.

 

The more that I own my modified FD, the more I long for a stock example.

I bough my car three years ago and have had to replaced almost every janky ebay modification that the previous owners did. I don't think that there is one aftermarket part left on my car that I haven't had to replace. In that time I have maybe driven the car 2500km with many break downs all attributed to the previous owner's cheap mods. The most recent one left me stranded 1.5 hours from home at 3:30am, which was caused by the hack job of a wiring harness that the previous owner had converted to a single turbo harness. I love my FD when it's running well but all the issues have made me a little apprehensive of driving it. Looking back on it, I should have paid 2x the price and should have gotten a nice stock example but I wanted "racecar," which was dumb.

I'm older now, have kids, and don't have that much time to tinker on broken cars anymore. It makes me appreciate a well kept stock example that just works.


Mine's half bridge with a quiet exhaust. Just a little loud at idle and quite reasonable a cruising. I've been working a lot on tuning driveability so it's not some unruly monster when I'm sitting at a red light or cruising around.

However, even with the quiet exhaust, it get's crazy amounts of attention because everyone wants to know what that noise is. Before the bridgeport, a few people would look at the car. Now everyone turns their heads, people stop in the middle of crosswalks, and I get approached a lot at gas stations.

Fuel economy is alright. I'm still tuning the cruising cells but my fuel economy is just a tad worse than when the car was street ported (50km less a tank).

 

I think we all think we can get a car that needs a little TLC and make it nice but at the end of the day, it would have been better to just save a get a better car at the beginning.

You still happy with the bridgeport or would you put in a new engine with stock ports if it was given to you?

 

Good to see you again bro! That MB FD is mint! I'd keep it that way.
Wish the rain didnt hinder the meet... its was gonna be a great one!
See you @DGRR 2020
Steve