I haven't had my car out in weeks, due to I don't like taking it out when it is so hot. So from sitting in the garage it had about a 1/4" of dust on it, and I decided to wash it this morning at the car wash (my home water is so hard right now, for some reason, it leaves terrible spots). The car wash recently changed hands (remember, this is a small town and this is a three-bay carwash, the only one it town) and the new owner was working on the change machine. As I was washing my car, I noticed he came out and sort of looked at me a few times, at first I was kind of like, "Well..maybe I shouldn't be using the damned thing or something...", but as I started chamoising the car off, he came over and was like, "Okay, what IS that thing...it is BEAUTIFUL!" So I told him what it was and he replied, "I never knew Mazda made a car like that." It was pretty interesting all in all, not only our conversation but the fact that as these cars get older and older, fewer people seem to remember them or even recognize them. Kind of gives you that feeling of, "Heh...I've got something few do!", you know?

 

Did he at least offer you a free wash?

 

cool story.... i bet you told him rotating triangles and he was.....


why?

 

He knew Mazda for rotary engines, but said he thought the last RX7 was "the one that looked like that Porsche 924..."
It has been my experience that even people who have heard the term 'rotary engine' only have a quasi understanding of what it REALLY is, though. As in, "Don't some airplanes have rotary engines?"

No free wash, sadly.

 

A guy I used to work with heard that I had a Rx7, so one day he came up and wanted to talk to me about rotary engines. He sounded at first like he was going to know what he was talking about, but after a few things he said I was like wtf? He said something like "technically my car could drive upside down". It then became apparent he was talking about the radial engines for airplanes.. thats what he thought was in Rx7s haha.

 

On top of the rarity factor, nowadays people can be confused by the stock badging if you don't have the Mazda lettering, since most are used to the modern M, had someone start to argue with me cause of that

 

O ya more then once to and it is really funny b/c u think the owner (me) would know what car I drive but they think they know best o well

 

People think my Fd has a 4 cylinder when they look at the engine, and they are always like, dang whats that huge thing next to your engine?? (borg warner s366)

 

^ I always say, ohh that? That's my secondary alternator. Lol

 

^^^^^^^lol

 

Thanks Greg. Nice reminder about these cars. What first attracted all of us was probably the looks, but I admit there is something cool about having a car so few others have....especially here in fly-over country. Snob-appeal?

 

Same here a gentlemen in his 50's had no idea what kind of car or make my R1 was and he also thought I restored it to it's original.

 

This happens all to often to me, one guy was legit mad that i tried to convince him my RX7 was a mazda, he kept telling me "bullshit kid stop lying to me who makes that?" after almost 10 mins of telling him it was a mazda i gave up and drove off.

 

Its even better with the Efini emblem on the 3rd gen, blows peoples minds.

 

The other day i walk out a store and i saw an old man checking my car. When i told him this is my car, he ask me the model so i reply a mazda Rx7 and he said to me: I never heard that mazda has build an new rx7 in 2012..... lol. He was amazed when i told him my rx7 is an 1993

 

What a tool.

 

Had this happen to me once,

I was leaving a drug store and an old lady asked me what kind of car it was.
Told her it was a Mazda rx7 and she asked me if it was a new model.
Then I told her it was a 93 and she was awed, lol.

 

I had the 7 at a car show and very few people knew what kind of car it is. The car has infini badges so nobody could guess buy that, also has a racing beat rear wing with the words racing beat on it....a lot of people asked if the car is a racing beat ....lol

 

wow... is the fd getting that scarce that people dont even know what they are? i guess that fast and the furious wasnt enough to show the car...

 

deffs can be blamed on the lack of RX7 in the 5th movie.

 

Interesting. I find that all the 90's sports cars are starting to confuse people. Performance in general is getting more and more vague as the term is being implied in 180hp hyundais and less performance sports cars are being built fo public consumption.

The FRS, EVO, 370Z and STI are about all from the import side of things still being produced. GTR doesn't count being way too expensive for most normal households.

Sadly my MR2 is often mistaken for a 355 or older 911(don't really understand the 911 mistake). I guess it's nice when people think it's more expensive but annoying that people argue with you about what you own.

FD RX7's definitely looked ahead of their time and in most repsects the 90's sports coupes all are timeless.

 

I've been asked on multiple occasions if my FD is a Ferrari...

-Geoff

 

lol...yeah, 'The Fast and the Furious' brought a lot of focus on the FD for quite a while, and a bit so for the Supra and S2000...the cars that aren't made any longer. There for a while after that movie came out we saw a few threads where it seemed every ricer-wannabe was suddenly infatuated with the FD, it became the 'must-have' car for some of that crowd. Street racing was reborn in areas it had been dead in for decades and continues strong to this day in a lot of areas. All this because of that one movie. Crazy.
Personally I am glad that 'fad' has faded, because I was tired of telling every kid that didn't have a pot to **** in nor a window to throw it out of that I didn't want to sell my car.

 

i get every 35-60 year old man wanting to buy mine now days.

 

But you see, THOSE guys are the REAL threat as they often have the bucks to plunk down to convince you to sell...