Rick_Rallye

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying an RX-7. I've always loved the look of them and for the price and exclusivity I don't think you can do much better. Just seen a gorgeous black one on autrader for £5800 with 40k miles on the clock. Fantastic.

I've got a 306 Rallye at the moment and I'm very happy with it, but as soon as I turn 25 I reckon I'm gonna need another change.

So my questions are:

1. I've heard so many horror stories about the engines blowing up. How reliable are they and how much does it cost to rebuild the engine should the worst happen?

2. How easy are they to tune?

3. What's the handling like? Is it a death trap on wheels or is the slide quite progressive and easy to handle?

4. How fast are they stock - to 60, 100 and 1/4 mile? Top speed?

5. Does anyone have any stock/lightly modded dyno graphs? I've written a program to compare the graphs of different cars but I don't have a standard rx-7 graph.

6. Anything else I should know?

Thanks a lot

Rick

moehler

iTrader: (12)

There is a newbe link at the top of this page. All of your answers can be found there...

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/faq-3rd-gen-other-useful-links-68640/

Rick_Rallye

Thanks, I spotted that after I posted this!

Its done nothing to ease my worries though... all I've read are of problems and warnings

I'm not very mechanically minded though and the general advice seems to be "do the repairs yourself"

I just don't want to spend 6k on a car then get another bill for 3k for fixing it

moehler

iTrader: (12)

Not trying to be rude... but you should look into another car then. Good luck .

Rick_Rallye

Wow, well thanks for your overwhelming help

pugg57

i'm not sure how to read that... are you being a daft ***** or what?

either way, he's right though. there's alot of luck involved in owning one of these. i've had no issues with mine since i bought it other than minor preventative maintenance etc. put about $6K into it since i bought it though for the basic power/reliability mods.

keep in mind that on a forum like this, people generally don't post about how well their car is running... only about the bad things that they need help fixing

moehler

iTrader: (12)

There's no help to offer, man. The first thing I did when I got my MINT rx7 was put 3 grand into it (small things add up quickly). There is no way to cheaply own these cars, if maintenance costs are a big concern for you then this car just isn't for you.

zmarko

I agree with you about not being sure if he's being sarcastic or not.


And Moehler IS right. If you're not really mechanically inclined, and don't want to spend $3K on the car, then I wouldn't suggest you picking one up. There have been numerous threads in the past 2 months or so asking if they should buy an RX7. People on this board know how the 3rd gen RX7 is, and gives the same advice just about every time someone asks this same question.


We're not trying to change your mind at all or sound like an ***, we're just being blunt about the POSSIBLE reliability issues and maintenence you could require.


Threads that you can read of people asking about purchasing an RX7 (FD).

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=347400

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=347157

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346819

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=343757

SlingShotRX7

Get the RX7..

Think about it. OK you spend 6k on the car and another 3K for what ever.
SO you spent 9K..

What other car in this world can you buy for 9 K that even remotely
get close to the performance/potential or Looks of the FD..
.
.
.
NONE...

Stop being a girlie man and just DO IT..

I even contemplated selling my FD, then I woke up and realized.
WTF. NO way I can go from a FD, to anything else, that doesn't
cost 50K Plus.

Rick_Rallye

Thanks guys, that's what I was after. Rather than a simple "this car isn't for you" comment

I'm in the UK so when I said 3k I meant £. That's about $5k US. I think that's a fair comment, I don't want to buy a car which I'll have to spend $5k on just for it not to blow up.

I adore my cars and take very good care of them. I can just about change an exhaust but if I knew how to do the rest of it then I'd be happy to. Unfortunately I'm no mechanic and I'd have to rely on finding a specialist near me who could carry out the work.

I fully understand this is a very high performance car and it demands a lot of TLC. I just need to know how much.

So in your experience you would suggest that, if I bought a '92 RX-7 with 44k miles on the clock, I would need to be looking at spending $3k (£2k) to get it fixed up reliably? What would that involve? Presumably quite a lot! Would it then require just regular 10k servicing and the occasional repair?

zmarko

Well, the car you're looking at is a 12 year old car (I wasn't aware they actually made a '92 RX7, I thought they went from the '91 FC to the '93 FD....but I digress). That 12 year old car may(may not) require an engine rebuild in the near future. These cars require a LOT of maintenence and TLC.


But you seem to be only wanting to hear "Go for it!" and not what people warning you have to say. So that being said..................go for it! Post up some pics when you get it.

Rick_Rallye

It sounds like a very expensive car now I've read up on it

Its still one of my favourite looking cars, but I certainly can't afford it right now

Lets see maybe in a year or two...

Thanks

Rick