Yes, sorry, you've all heard this before. But did find anything on a search. Anyone know or have an approximate idea of how many FDs are still up and running and registered in the US?

My girlfriend just bought a '99 3000GT VR4, and is rubbing it in my face that her car might be rarer than mine. I guess hers is 1 out of 287... which I find hard to believe... but don't feel like arguing that with her. I'm sure there are more than 287 FDs out there...

Besides... my car's faster, weighs less and is better looking (as far as I'm concerned), I don't really give a **** :o)

Anybody got some info? Thanks!

 

I think i read somewhere that there are about 3000 fd registered in the us,i dont know if its correct.

 

If I could force everyone to use my site and enter their car into the registry we would have a good estimate, this of course will take years to accomplish, but its a start...

 

Hers maybe 1 out of 287 but that is for 99 only. vr4 were made for 8 years. the FD overall is more rare.
Here are the numbers of RX-7s sold in the United States through 1995.

Model 1992 1993 1994 1995
----------------------------------------------
Base 763 1245 392 153
R-model 1107 1015 275 182
Touring 2991 2734 1010 648
P.E.G. 0 53 533 416

These were the total numbers. FD's are more rare.
Hope this helps

 

There were 13879 sent to the U.S. over the 3 model years. I think that most people would estimate there are probably 3-3500 usable/registered FD's left. At least that would be my guess and I think many would agree.

There were more than 287 VR4's made........

 

I don't want this to go far off track, but I rarely see VR4s around here. You can tell a VR4 from a regular gt3000 because of the VR4 logo on the rear bumper, right? Becase I see lots of NA gt3000s but almost never a VR4. I see FDs every now and then, but they are much easier to recognize.

Dave

 

If 13,879 rx7's were sent to the U.S., then there are alot more than 3,500 running around. I doubt 10,379 are deemed "unusable." There's really no way to know for sure, because probably not even half the owners are on this rx7club, or nopitsons.

I'm not saying your wrong, or that i'm right, i'm just stating my opinion.

-Alex

 

There has got to be considerably more that are usable.....how many are running at any given time is a different statistic though.

 

What would be interesting is to take a series of VINs and checking if they are registered. If you ran about 100 VINs from 93, 94, etc from a national database, it would give a good idea what fraction are still running.

I'll bet someone in law enforcement or auto insurance could do that - but it doesn't sound like a fun task. You'd need to be able to run them without knowing the check digit.

Dave

 

here is a thread from last year.. and no one knew then..

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/10-yrs-how-rare-would-fds-become-314949/

I was told back in 2002 that there were only 3-4k left.. but last year someone said that state of TX had over 1000 registered 3rd gens?? I could be wrong.. but lets just say they are rare.. Probably one of the rarest Japanese cars after 1980s.

 

I certainly don't disagree with you either but there has been a pretty high destruction rate to these cars. who knows what the real answer is - sure would be nice to know but you could probably never do better than getting a number registered with the DMV which would probably be less than the real number of usable cars. Oh well - I guess this is just the age old FD question......

 

Then you didn't look hard enough. There's a big *** sticky on the top of this forum.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...istered+pettit

"In March of 2002 I was talking with Cameron Worth (Pettit Racing) and he told me that a US wide check of vehicle registrations indicated 3300 FD's were still registered. This means that 3300 cars were still being used for the road. Additional unregistered cars would also exist (track/race cars etc.). Not sure how you would count every one."

 

I spoke to him earlier in the year. There was no info that they had (anymore) or could remember. Oh well.

 

if u had a 99 i bet u`d have her beat! but nah, out here all of a sudden i see 3000gt`s left and right. its really nuts. i seen quite a few vr4s...isnt the gto the rare one? i seen like one, in a showroom.

and hell yeah, your (all our) cars a freakin billion times cooler and better! and im sure if ya dont just count the 99 we are more rare...and for example, if u had a 95 r2 u would would be more rare huh?

 

If only ~3,500 are usable, then the "destruction rate" would be ~865 rx7's a year. Or 2-3 rx7's a day. I doubt that's the case. If it was/is the case, there won't be any rx7's here in the next few years!

BTW, this is based off the statement that there were 13,879 rx7's brought to the U.S. 13,879 - 3,500 = 10,379 Then take 10,379 / 12 (1993-2005, 12 years) = 865 a year.

-Alex

 

If that statement from Pettit is even true, it's not even close to accurate. There are so many unregistered rx7's driving around, it's crazy. (yearly registration requires passing emissions ) Not only are there people that can't pass emissions, there are very many people that rarely drive their cars. They usually have them garaged, and don't bother taking them to get registered again, since they rarely drive them anyways. Oh, there's also people like Jimlab, that are always a "work in progress" and havn't seen the road in years. Then, as you already stated, there are quite a few that are now race/track cars.

-Alex

Edit: Before someone bashes me for calling Pettit Racing liars, i'm not. I'm just saying it'd be pretty hard to find all the registered rx7's in the U.S. Do they even offer that information to the public?

 

I would bet that we have a lot of these cars on jack stands as mine has been since December of 2004. It has been a long haul, but my single dream is coming close (GT35).

I have to beleive that this one should be a little faster than my old TII : )

 

I doubt there are that many unregistered cars being driven around. At least in my state, very few people will keep their cars unregistered. Maybe an expired registration, but registered. I'll bet it's less than 1 in 5 nationally that are being driven but unregistered.

Dave

 

I should have been more clear, I was referring to an expired registration. Since it's expired, it's technically no longer registered with your state.

-Alex

 

Fercyringoutloud, 865 is the average number disappearing each year over ten years - it is not the number disappearing in any particular year, which is obviously dependent on the number remaining in that year and will decrease each year.

And the theory that there are lots of unregistered FDs being driven around is hard to believe. In California at least you will be pulled over very quickly if you have expired tags. The same is true in several other states that I am familiar with.

Recent national Autotrader FD searches show that there are only about 200 FDs on sale nationally at any one time, a number that does not suggest that there are very many of these cars left (particularly since most FDs tend to spend months sitting on Autotrader before they sell).

 

I just gave an easy-to-understand rate. Either way I doubt 10,000 rx7's have been taken off the road.

That all depends where you live in that state. There are many garaged kept rx7's that see the road about a whole 10-20 times a year, and not for very long. That could mean just around the block a few times.

That doesn't mean anything. Autotrader is just one of many ways to sell your car.

-Alex

 

At the risk of being flamed here, I wouldn't write off the 3000gt as slower than the rx7. Especially the 99 model.

My friend's stock 94 ran a 13.2 1/4 mile...... that's not really a slow car standard if you ask me. He also backed that up with two 13.4 ET's

just my .02 worth

 

Thanks for finding that thread.. I knew I read it somewhere..

 

Thanks guys... good stuff here. I know for a fact that if I hadn't bought my 93, it was going to be bought from another guy, plannining on stripping it down and drag racing it... so, I think our cars are going to be more and more rare each year.

Hey evilg... I was doing some quick specs on the Rx7 vs 99vr4, stock vs stock. The rx7 has a slightly lower horsepower/weight ratio, ~10.7 / 11.6, respectively... so right off the start, the rixer is ahead... then based on my current config... we're looking at a hp/w of ~7.2. Sorry, a little off topic... but hey, it's good to have ammo when I'm "discussing" things with the woman... hehe. Still, her car is "rarer"... but none yells across a parking lot to ask if that's a 3000gt! People yell at me and say "what the hell is that!"... I get a kick out of that