I had a friend who worked for Mazda North America for about 30 years before he retired. He came to visit me one day back in the mid 90s, driving a new FD. He said "This is a fantastic car, but you don't want to own one after the warranty runs out."

For years I was constantly amazed at how many of these relatively rare cars were torn apart in every Mazda shop in town. This was when they were still fairly new. Sure, someone may have driven one for over 100k miles with little maintenance cost, but that is certainly not typical. Life is a game of statistics - play the odds.

As for drifting, I never tried it on a race track, but every time I use full throttle with my Ford V8 powered FB I seem to end up doing some drifting momentarily. Keeps me alert.

 

Hey... my FC really should be yours!!!

 

I'm in the same spot as this guy. What about automatic FD RX7's though? They're not as fast as the manuals, but they are cheaper... right? or am I missing a key piece of information about the automatics that makes them so undesired? And I rotaryressurection rebuilds engines for 1500 with the down payment on parts.

 

the s14's arent a bad car to go with, if u dont mind being like everyone else. if u wanna drift in a s14 ( which has a dohc ka) then ud either turbo the ka (lot of work, plan on rebuilding the whole engine top to bottom for high boost) or do a sr20 det or a ca18det. u got a lot of choices with the 240 but they're all more expensive than goin rotary n the rotary has more (a lot more) power stock n much more potential than those engines. if ur not diggin what we have to say then blow it off, cause ultimatly its ur decision and u get what u want. if u want an fd, save some more money. if u want an fc get one n u got the cash to make it go fast. s14's u've got some cash but not enough to make it into an amazing drift car.

 

You already mentioned the key reason why they are so undesired... AUTOMATIC

 

THe other problem your looking at buying an FD now, is the blue book value of FC's and FDs have gone up quite a bit in the last year. You can thank F&F tokyo drift and initial D for that.

 

You know what, on second thought, I WILL sell you my FD for 9k. Chassis has 72k miles, never been in an accident, blah blah.











































































One condition though: The engine, the PFC, the gauges, the stereo, the exhaust, and the tires are 5k extra.

 

Forsaken, that's mean!

 

i guess if you want to assume that everyone who enjoys drifting and has a great deal of interest in it, BEFORE the gay movies and video games, but didnt have the money to be part of the scene untill now, is just "jumping on a bandwagon" then thats your problem.

sorry, i just kinda take offense to that. in fact, thats why I stated that in my first post because people flame all the time about it. bandwagoners tend to jump from this to that, to another thing, whichever is more popular. trust me, thats not me.

anyways, ive given up on the FD idea. but even the FC has its fair share of problems that can be pricey. the only reason im not jumping on s14's is just that: theyre way too common, i like to be original.

 

So get a 5.0 Mustang Fox Body to drift. Cheap car and parts for V8's are almost always cheaper. MR2 turbo's are hard to find otherwise I'd say get one, but when you find a turbo model you might pay more like $12k...? Get a NA 300zx for around $6k-$7k and drift that... Hard to work on and not easy to mod, but it's more original...

I say get an FC (Turbo II to be exact) and be original with that!

 

ewwww i hate domestics, especially mustangs, and foxbody is the trashiest of all the mustangs.

mr2 turbos go, CLEAN, for around 6-7k. so im thinkin about that.
300zx's are pretty damn heavy and unless you invest a lot of money, kinda underpowered.
FC's are sex, but AHHH!!!

what to get?!?! oh well. pretty sure this thread is useless to everyone. sorry guys i suck.

 

Wow show me a MR2 turbo for that much! Never seen one. All the NA's I see are that much. Not sayin I don't believe you, I'd just like to see a CLEAN MR2 turbo for $6k. Even so a TurboII would be a better investment than a MR2 turbo IMO. Or you could get a Miata and get a turbo kit for it =)

Actually, this thread is not useless. It gives us postwhores a chance to get our count up

 

if u plan on driftin the mr2, get a hold of the drift bible n watch it about 100 times n then go to a parking lot. u could be really cool, like me , get a first gen n swap the engine n be really really cool. theyre awesome cars, handle amazing can be light if u know what to do and are under the radar.

 

really Tim? theres usually a few on auto trader and criagslist for about 6-8k range every once in a while, fairly clean with not many miles, but i havent checked lately so they may be gettin scarce now.

yeah, ive wanted to watch the drift bible but dont really wanna pay for it haha. but then again its not the mean-all end-all to everything ya know?

ive seen a couple people drift their mr2s pretty successfully so i dont think it would be too bad of an investment, it would definately be a much harder learning curve though. but im always willing to learn.

you know what one of the main reasons im kinda straying from the FC lately is?? i mean aside from the obvious maintenance and upkeep of the rotary and its many diverse problems :P, I havent seen many FCs that have made me drop my jaw as far as appearance goes. i need some motivation and inspiration!! this forum definately lacks in the pic ***** section eh?? hahah.

 

go onto google video n type in drift bible, download it. u'll be impressed at how hard drifting mid engine rwd is. and for the cash u got u can get an amazing TII, im not shitting. the most expensive one i've ever seen was 6 n it was low miles n clean as hell. theyre awesome cars, i wish i had one. n go there to look at fc's too. if u search around on here u'll find some awesome fc's

 

If you do the rebuild yourself, you can get all the gaskets/seals/springs bearings from malloy mazda for about that much. 2 years ago I rebuilt my FD engine for around 1000 and my fc vert engine for around 900, and I didn't cut any corners. They were complete rebuilds.

 

What about rotor housings? CJ

 

Not always necessary, esp for n/a applications. All depends on mileage/wear/apex seal damage

 

Rich what are you doing here?

 

I've rarely seen rotor housings with 50k+ miles and up, in good enough shape to put an engine back together. Unless carbon apex seals where used. CJ

 

FC's are the ****, especially for the price they are getting. FD probably too much headache for someone only able to spend 9K for one. Only ones humble opinion. I have owned 3 third gens though and one 2nd gen. 2nd gen gave me the least amount of problems.

R

 

I'm not shure about this....but I found it on Craigs list. Something is'nt right about this....maybe a scam, or the motor is dead.....but still if I had $7,600 laying around, i'd probably pick it up and convert it to a manual.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/car/222520837.html

CJ

 

That has to be a scam..that car is worth easily twice that, even if it IS an auto.

 

This morning, I tried finding it through the Portland Craigs list again, by typing in "Rx-7"....and I could'nt find it. However, the link still worked. The add for some reason realy sets me off, and makes me think its a scam. (Maybe the grammer/spelling?)...but someone prove me wrong and buy it. CJ

Ok....something else that realy brings flags up....the guy says its a auto, but has a street strip clutch????