I have a 1980 Mazda RX7 LS Leather Sport Edition that is a work in progress for me and I only have one question that I would like to ask about this rare car. When these 1980's were manufactured by Mazda the Speedometer that were installed were factory 130 MPH Speedometer Dials and because of Federal Regulations, Insurance and all else of exporting them to Northern America were all changed to read 85 MPH. My 80 RX7 has a Speedometer that reads to 130 MPH. I am thinking that maybe Mazda let one slip through the cracks, Highly Unlikely, but Probabable and Possible. How would one confirm that this is a replacement by the orginal owner, the orginal one, or am I just blowing around hot air. Car has 180,000 miles on it and was last registered in 2001. It is a SAA22C Vin. Thanks

 

As we have said before, and seeing your pictures, you have a 1980 that has a 79 speedometer installed. People often installed the 130 mph unit from 79 in their 80 to have a speedometer that read higher. The speedometer will not accurately measure speed as the gear in the transmission is not tailored to that particular speedometer. The speed will be off by 5 mph or so. Mazda would not let that car slip through the cracks so to speak. U.S. regulations mandated that the speedometer be calibrated no higher than 85 mph. If you look at the font on your speedometer you will clearly see that its different from the font on the rest of the cluster.