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So, when I was younger and dumber I owned a 94’ ɛ̃fini. I didn’t take care of her the way I should have and also didn’t have the respect for the Wankel engine. I did the typical stupid young driver thing and bolted on shitty mods to make the car faster and “cooler”. Sadly I ended up wrapping the car around a tree. Again, myself to blame for not taking care of the car and the tires. The car meant a lot to me after the fact unfortunately.
Now, here I am at 30 and just purchased a Spirit R Type B. My dream car. It is in the process of being imported from Japan to Germany since the laws here allow them under my unique circumstances at an inexpensive price. So I am super stoked. Also after years of being a mechanic for BMW and Mazda, at different times, as well as service in the military as a 91B (wheeled vehicle mechanic) I truly appreciate Felix Wankel's engineering feats and what Mazda did to bring the FDs to their glory.
I do plan on keeping the Spirit R in stock condition. I will be in search of a few parts since the previous owner has already slightly modified her. With 82136 kilometers on her she is in good shape. So not much will be needed. The front was resprayed horribly to make the front wing match the body paint, I will be getting that repainted black and the cover resprayed to match original paint.
Last edited by DucatiDaRottie; Sep 2, 2019 at 12:04 PM.
Reason: Misspelled word.
Thank you! It took a bit of search and patiently waiting to find one in my price range but I was finally able to. I am excited to get her and restore some minor defects to get he like new again.
That's great that you are able to pickup a spirit R already in that region. haha I am glad you called out the respray on that front end, it's crazy how different that color is.
Still an amazing car! I am always of the opinion that the only thing that matters on a car is that the body/frame is straight and true. The rest is a menial task to change in the end.
This is very true. I had her checked to make sure there was no collision damage. So a new respray and some new mounting hardware along with rust prevention and she will be good to go.
The process is pretty simple for me, but I have special circumstances. Like I don’t pay the import taxes or sales taxes here in Germany. The Spirit R will also be registered in the USAEUR system so it also gets streamlined a bit there for me. On top of this once the few aftermarket mods have been replaced with the originals I will be getting a historical plate for her. So overall there is a bit of a process and it takes some time. I have an import company helping get her to me, but first she will be inspected thoroughly and serviced before getting on a boat to head for Germany. Then I will have all my supporting documents (3 in total) in hand when picking her up from customs at the port here in Germany.
Real nice find! How much did it sell for in Japan (without shipping, import etc) if you don't mind me asking? I'm in the market for a similar model and like to compare price points.
Very late to the party with this post, but I feel obligated to point out that they had a colour mismatch in the front bumper fascia from the factory. It has something to do with plastic parts being painted in a separate assembly line and then assembled on the car later. ALL Spirit Rs in Titanium Grey came like this brand new. In fact, if you have perfect colour matching, then this is more likely to be a sign that it has been resprayed, rather than the opposite situation.
In Australia, we often call these Titanium Grey cars "two tone" RX-7s for that reason.
Other colours do it to differing degrees. Silver is quite bad as well, but you can see a bit of it with Innocent Blue Mica and even the pearl white on the RZ as well.
Of course, this car may still have had the plastic bar resprayed. This is suggested by the mismatch being a bit more stark than usual and by the fact the lower lip has been painted in body colour rather than left the factory matte black. But don't feel this detracts from an original car, because they are all like this to some extent (except the fully resprayed ones!)
