When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hello all, I've been trying to find a reason to join this group for years and we finally acquired a 79. Waited a long time to find the right combo of features which include documented
ownership and little rust. Looking forward to what I'm sure will be really useful knowledge for us.
Welcome to the forums. Your car is actually an "SA". 1979 and 80 model VIN's begin with "SA22C" In 81, the Fed mandated a 17 digit VIN structure. Mazda changed the VIN's on North America cars to begin with "JM1 FB" So 81 thru 85 cars are FB's. All the model years (79-85) are considered 1st Gens, or Series 1's. Clear as mud now?
This looks to be the car recently sold on BaT? Congrats, the car looks very nice. Sonic Bronze is a neat color. Looks better in person than in pictures.
Welcome to the forums. Your car is actually an "SA". 1979 and 80 model VIN's begin with "SA22C" In 81, the Fed mandated a 17 digit VIN structure. Mazda changed the VIN's on North America cars to begin with "JM1 FB" So 81 thru 85 cars are FB's. All the model years (79-85) are considered 1st Gens, or Series 1's. Clear as mud now?
This looks to be the car recently sold on BaT? Congrats, the car looks very nice. Sonic Bronze is a neat color. Looks better in person than in pictures.
Thank you @Banzai for the model clarification. This is indeed off BaT.
Welcome!!! Thats a beautiful Sonic Bronze 79!!! Do you know any of the car's history?
I actually know most of the car's history, we are just trying to verify and document it by getting a hold of the first owner's family. I will publish that in the future with appropriate permissions. The second owner had it a short time to refresh and do the spectacular repaint. We are third. It spent its entire life in Bend, Oregon and - spoiler alert - was supposedly the second RX-7 ever sold in Bend.
That is a neat tidbit of info. The 4/78 build date certainly could support that early sale. See if the original owner has any old pictures they could provide you copies of. Maybe shortly after bringing the car home or on a trip somewhere. I'd start a notebook to organize a history of the car in and keep the documentation.
Being an early build, I'm thinking that it originally came with the orange - plaid seat inserts? Might want to verify that with the original owners too. FYI, last year, a shop in Japan called Jackpot made some repo plaid material for early SA22's, if you ever want to consider making the car more like it came from the factory. It's kind of a signature look for Sonic Bronze cars. More desirable than the black interior ones. The only shot of the orange version on the Jackpot site, looks a little too red to me however. https://jackpot.asj-hosting.net/kizamicloth.html
