Weazel

Three words, UN BEE LIEVABLE! Here's an excerpt from a VERY long email that I sent my friend. Sound like your first time in a 3rd Gen? I had a blast, a LOT of parallels to the first test drive of a certain 400 horsepower beast that currently resides in my garage.

"Anyway I also test drove the RX-7 yesterday. It's an awesome car, white with tan leather, the stock spoiler, foglamps, moonroof, and a NICE stock Bose soundsystem with CD. It's got VERY sharp aftermarket wheels and new Bridgestone Potenza tires. There are only 74k miles on it (so 6k 'til blow-up time), and it looks great. There are some minor things wrong right now, but the guy claims that they'll be fixed. It needs a dent pulled, a new driver side headlight cover, a new gas door, and the moonroof is out of it's track (small broken piece). Mechanically it has a small oil leak by one of the turbos, and it kinda 'hunts' at idle, like 1500 rpms for 3 seconds, then 2k rpms for a second, then back. They're gonna replace the leaking turbo-oil line and get that idle diagnosed, as well as do a compression test on it. If that stuff comes back good, I almost think I'd be stupid not to buy after that test-drive...
The test-drive...was insane. It was a twisty road heading toward Popham Beach. We start off with him driving. We're close to full throttle after leaving his driveway. The turbos come on line right when they're needed. You can hear the second one come in around 4500-5000 RPMS. There's very little lag. So we're screaming along at like 60+ going through 35 mph corners no problem. That was fun. But he's still accelerating hard. He shifts into 4th at like 85 mph...still 'in it' More '35mph' corners. That was scary. The car had no perceptible roll, and I don't even think he chirped the tires, but I was white-knuckling the dash hard. The car stuck like nothing I'd ever experienced. By the end of the road I was more relaxed, seeing that this car just devoured every corner at borderline insane speeds. We took a close to 90 degree corner at 45 mph, with a car in the other lane, and coasted to a stop.
My turn to drive. I get in the car and slam my knees into the steering wheel. "Can I move this thing?" I ask. "Nope, sorry, it's non-adjustable" the kid says. Oh well, I slide the seat way back and get somewhat comfortable. I spun the tires leaving the side street. The clutch is like an 'on-off' switch. It's a new Centerforce (I think) clutch that maybe has 4k miles on it. I punched it pretty good once I got it to second. Decent acceleration 'til the 2nd turbo kicked in, then it really started to rip. I was shooting toward the first corner and started to ease off. I turned the wheel and almost ditched it into the inside of the corner. The thing turns insanely sharp. But it had no problem going 2x the recommended speed thru corners. Once I got the tight steering down it was a total video game. The car was ridiculous...plenty of power and surreal handling. The brakes felt spongy to me, but he said there was just a bit of air in them and I needed to kinda double pump them. I did that, jammed on them, and we stopped like a parachute had been thrown out. All around an AWESOME sports car."

Just thought I'd share I'll post a couple questions in another thread once I do some searches. Congrats to all of you that own one of these, I am now insanely jealous.

93BlackFD

that car has more issues than a molested step daughter

i wouldn't buy it for more than $10k

Import Convert

I agree. Sounds like it was poorly taken care of.

Weazel

The issues will supposedly be taken care of before he sells it to anybody, but it definitely didn't bode well with me. The asking price was in fact $10k, and I don't think I'd really offer much over $9k to start. Like I said, I gotta do some searching to see what could cause the idle problem and the oil leak, but all the other stuff was pretty much cosmetic I thought. Anyway, thanks.

LOSTinWANKELS

pretty cool...but look into the probs b4 u buy...remember when u pay 10k for a 7 your getting that...10k worth of rx7....its like russian roulette...theres a chance u might win and get a lucky draw..but the odds are against u

meddle

How was 5th gear synchro?

NukeGenius

Nice warm up period he gives his car, mashing the throttle right off his driveway. That has got to be good for the engine. Should let it have time to get to right temperatures before you drive like that.

Weazel

Hey,

The car was out not long before, so it's not like we went from cold to WOT. It idled in the yard for a bit before we went out, so while not completely warm, it definitely wasn't cold when we started driving.
5th gear synchro was fine. There was no hesitation at 3k at any throttle level. They had re-grounded the battery with a heavier gauge cable, which I've read is a suggested "mod" to dodge the 3k hesitation.
LOSTinWANKELs, I hear ya on the car roulette front. I won with the Grand National, another car that I had done a bit of research on but probably wasn't ready to buy right then and there. After a 30 minute test-drive I was asking how he wanted the $$$$. You make a good point. At first I thought $10k would be a walk-off steal for this car, but after seeing the glitches I figured the kid did his homework before coming to a price. BTW you have the best Avatar.
Anyway, thanks for the info. I'm wondering about the stumbling idle, I'll do more searching this PM after a few margaritas. Happy Cinco de Mayo, and thanks.

Street King

Did you say this car had 400hp or was it stock? The air in the brakes, I think everyone get's that or at least every FD I have ever driven and if I'am not mistaken there was a thread about this a couple days back, search function would cure that. Anyways put all the fun aside and think about the money it is going to cost to get this car to the running good stage. I know how you feel when I first drove the FD, Shifting was so tight I had went accidently to 5th gear(didnt know) and I STILL was like damn this car is fast. The owner laughed and said wait till you put it in the right gear, DOH!

Weazel

Sorry for the iffy wording. My Grand National is 400+ horsepower (approx with the alky injection). That was the first car that I bought based on an insane test drive. The FD I checked out was stock except for a K&N. It wouldn't come out of the hole like my GN, but it handled SLIGHTLY better Glad I'm not the only one to be completely blown away by the car after the first test drive.
What you guys say definitely makes sense. I'm trying to get as much info as I can on the potential problems and get a $$$$ figure. Then while at home, away from that foul temptress of a car, I can figure out if it's a good buy. Thanks!

maxcooper

Watch out for high idle. An engine with a broken seal can sometimes idle fine at 1500 RPM but would idle like a "paint-shaker" at 750 RPMs. A high idle might be a sign of the owner trying to hide a blown engine. It would probably be hard to start if it was blown, though, which would be harder to hide. Even that might be hard to tell if you aren't used to rotaries.

-Max

paw140

Yeah, I would be really careful about that high idle. Your experience sounds really close to mine when I test drove and bought my FD. I few little mechanical problems, like the driver's side door handle didn't work, and the passenger window switch. But overall it was in really good shape... but the idle was really messed up, it idled at about 2200 and jumped around a lot. But when I took it for a test drive it had so much power I figured the engine *must* be ok.

So I bought it, found out the high idle was due to a blown gasket, changed that out, and drove it for a year until I blew an apex seal. Upon tearing down the engine, I discovered that I had a bad apex seal the whole time I owned the car and never knew it, since I'd never driven a properly running rotary. The new engine is amazing, by the way! If I'd done a compression test to begin with, I would have discovered this from the beginning.

artguy

its a waste...dont do it....just be patient and get a really nice one for another five grand...youll be spending five grand on that clunker regardless so you might as well not get in the money pit.

TRUST ME.

put on some koni yellows..on a decent rx and not a clunker...and some H&R springs and those 35 mph corners become right hand turns at 55mph if you are crazy. woo hoo!


j

BATMAN

hey unlike anyone here.. i say get it..

mine was a mess when i got it.. Turbo's dint spool, Leaking coolant, oil and Etc... and i bought it for 10k..

well 2k Later.. when i got intake downpipe, Exaust, and Squentials Done.. Took it to DMS Racing in miami, FL... the Car was RUNNING SOOOO GOOD. and i personally Belive it was a Steal... so i technically paid 12k for a 310hp Car.. Sounds Good to me..

any GOOD shop can fix that ASAP.

BATMAN

btw lost in Wankles...

Who are those chicks in the Avatar.
Seems like their Really Friendly

djantlive

before getting it, make sure you have some reserve money ($2-5k) for repairs that's unexpected.

The high idle could be a leak in lower intake manifold gasket which is paper in stock form. If that's never been changed, it's very probable. The new gasket is made of metal. This is a very expensive job as the turbos have to come off. Plan on spending $500-800.

apneablue

Dude, that's freaking great

"We're close to full throttle after leaving his driveway"

If the car was cold before he did this then I wouldn't buy it...Going WOT on a cold FD just says he's mistreated it.

If you do plan on buying it, factor the price of a rebuild into the cost of the car.