Hey guys. I've been looking for a RWD track car. The other day, I found a 1979 RX7... orange... with 64k miles... 5 speed... can't tell which motor she has. I did some research and I know they are super slow from the factory and I was wondering what you guys did to the 12A engine or if you guys swap it out or what kind of potential the car has in general. I'm not looking for a speedster super drag car or anything but 100hp seems like its a little low to really have fun at the track.

Thanks for any input!

 

100 horses is a little low, but give it a test drive. it feels insanely quick for only 100 horsepower. and 0-60 in less than 10 seconds was pretty quick back in the 80's. you have to remember the car weights less than 2500 lbs with the driver in the car. (usually)

But as for power gains grab a racing beat exhaust kit and the holley intake kit for an easy 30 horse power gain from past experience. also there are quite a few weight reduction things i have seen. You can find them easily on the forums. if you are looking at drag racing there is a quarter mile sticky in the 1st gen section.

As for handling, mine handles fairly well with the original suspension and bushings especially considering all of the bushings are completely shot. it is still quicker in the corners than my friends new civic si, but grab the racing beat sway bar and spring kit with some tokico blues and the handling great. that should net you with almost all of the bushings needed for suspension. And they are polyurethane at that.

all in all with those 3 modifications, you would be looking at under 3k in parts. It is an old car so expect to need to put money in for parts anyways.

If anybody sees my information as incorrect or has different experiences feel free to correct me. >.<

 

They can be made to produce significant power, once you add a free flowing exhaust (like Racing Beat) and remove everything that doesn't need to be on the car (emissions, A/C, etc.). Weight reduction frees up horsepower.

For suspension, if you are looking to track it, don't go halfway. Check out SHQE Manufacturing / RE-Speed for coilovers, camber plates, swaybars, etc.

There are a lot of carb options, but you'll probably be happy with the stock carb once you finish the above mods. Stripping the extras off the carb can help a bit too. I run a Sterling carb, which is a stripped and modified stock carb. A lot of people are unhappy with the Holley carbs on rotaries, so do some research.







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