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Used to be a RX7 Club member many years ago (printed magazine before there was internet). Good to see all the active conversations here. Hope to learn something new about my '79. A recent July 4 parade.
Always good to see original owners find there way here. I guarantee that if you poke around enough you will learn a ton about these cars. I know I have and I took delivery in Aug of 79. As Dave said, nice Daytona Blue car you have there. A rare color. Whats the build date? (door jam tag) Is it an early, mid or late production 1st year?
Always enjoy when original owners make their way here! I was gifted my 1980 Leather Sport from the original owner and always enjoyed listening to his stories about the car.
Did you order your 79 or were you able to find it on the lot of a Mazda dealer? Have you serviced the car yourself over the years? How many miles are on the car?
Always good to see original owners find there way here. I guarantee that if you poke around enough you will learn a ton about these cars. I know I have and I took delivery in Aug of 79. As Dave said, nice Daytona Blue car you have there. A rare color. Whats the build date? (door jam tag) Is it an early, mid or late production 1st year?
Didn't have a lot of choices when I bought the car. I think there was black with black interior, yellow with black interior and blue with black interior. Living in Texas eliminated black/black and didn't really like the yellow (I think it was yellow) but really liked the Daytona Blue...still do!
Build date is 05/79.
Always enjoy when original owners make their way here! I was gifted my 1980 Leather Sport from the original owner and always enjoyed listening to his stories about the car.
Did you order your 79 or were you able to find it on the lot of a Mazda dealer? Have you serviced the car yourself over the years? How many miles are on the car?
Bought it on the lot at Marty R's Mazda in Garland Texas. I've done some of the work myself but have some good mechanics that do the heavy lifting. Hard to find them these days. It's got about 170k miles. Had to rebuild the engine at about 150k...seals finally gave up.
I agree that Daytona Blue is a beautiful color! I love the early cars in Brilliant Black but I also understand that the Texas heat would be killer with a black car with black interior. Pretty crazy that it was on the lot as I understand most 79's were pre sold and very hard to come by. But being a late production 79, the initial rush was likely calmed down. The gentleman that bought my 1980 LS new said he bought it off of the showroom floor and said it was the only one that dealer had gotten in. Also glad to hear that you maintain the car yourself. There's so much joy in maintaining a car that has given you so many years of enjoyment!
Brilliant Black wasn't available on an Rx-7 until 1980. Beat black was the only 79 black, but it is more of a grey that appears black in certain lighting and used only on the Limiteds that year. Limiteds had black interiors with a bluish grey velour seat fronts and door panels. The US got Aurora White, Sunbeam Silver, Sonic Bronze, Sunrise Red, Spark Yellow and Daytona Blue in 79. The plaid interiors were more prevalent in the early cars and usually found on the Bronze and Silver ones although I've saw the white plaid seats on one Daytona car and I believe a white one too. Black interiors were plentiful that first year with the red dot seat covers used over all the exterior colors, especially in the basic S models. Burgundy interiors were also used in some white and silver cars. Some Spark cars got a tan (and sometimes a 2-tone tan/brown) interior and of course a lot of Bronze cars got the 2 tone purplish/reddish interiors.
Being built in 79, yours is a late production 79. The late cars were available with velour seat inserts as they became the "upgraded" alternative to the red dots, for the 1980 model year. Plaid went away. Mine came with the grey velour seat inserts and was also built in 5/79. Thats about the time I put my deposit down. I just told them I wanted a Red 5 speed with a sun roof. There was a waiting list as most were pre-sold like mine. We had two dealers in my area and you could normally see anywhere from a couple to 5 or 6 on their lots. I usually made the rounds every weekend that summer in anticipation of waiting for mine to arrive. I only ever saw one or two Daytona cars around here during that time. Might have even been the same car. To me, Daytona Blue was the rarest color, at least for where I live.
Hi Gang
