Hello everybody. My name's Jozey and this is the place i'm going to put together the story of my Rx-2..
Over the next few months i'll update my progress while i'm doing heaps of work on it.
This is my first build thread i think, so go easy on me if i make speeling mistakes..
I moved to Portland, Oregon, from Adelaide, South Australia about a year ago. Rotaries are crazy expensive in Australia compared to the US so my dream came true when i found this cool coupe advertised for under a grand.
I purchased a camera today too, that finally takes half decent photo's so you can be sure there's going to be many of those pictures to come along the way.

I bought this rx2 in March this year, from two guys that had originally planned to build it up and continue racing it in amateur classes. Only a year or so passed and then they decided to sell it to buy a VW to race instead. So as soon as i saw it advertised on Craigslist for $800 i spoke with them and drove to their house to check it out! When i arrived, there were two other guys interested in the car too. As they both looked around the sitting shell inspecting it's condition and what-not, i was confident it was a good buy, so confidently i drove to get money from the ATM then promptly returned to the rx2 and to my astonishment the other two prospective buyers had gone home. I took advantage of that situation to talk the sellers down to $650. Then had it on a trailer destined for my place in no time..
It came with no title so i called DMV to try and get a title that i'm still waiting for. As you'll see in the photos, the roll cage is pretty beefy. The guys i bought the car from had said it was once owned by Bill Murray. Not the actor, but apparently this Bill owns his own racetrack here in Oregon though so i want to ask the guy about it's history one day. I would love an old photo of this car!

So i bought the car as a shell, with the differential, suspension, wheels and other parts sitting inside the car. Didn't get an engine with it but that's where the fun starts i spose. Fortunately for me, the rx2 had no bad rust in sight and most of the car was already in primer. The diff and suspension does look all stock standard but in almost new condition so i'm trying to use what i can, but will probably have some nice rx2 stuff up for sale when i'm done figuring out what i'm trying to achieve.
The car had hit something at slow-speed many years ago. So i went straight out and bought two front fenders, bumpers, grill and stuff the next day from a local friend.
I'm in the process of straightening out the right-side door, hood and trunk lid.

Now to cut to the chase with my current intentions with the car and then i'll post up photos of this mess as it sits.

I work for a helicopter operator and build od things for helicopters with them. The factory we usually build our helicopter stuff in is not being used for the next few months so i have taken advantage of that situation also and parked my rx2 in the middle of the workshop to finally start spending some real time working on it.

I'm putting the turbo 13b from my fc rx7 into this rx2 after i paint it. I got a gsl-se lsd diff and also want to get the suspension, maybe brakes and stud pattern from my fc. I need to order a haltech ecu too.
The rx2 has had a tunnel cut away for a side exhaust which i think is cool as, especially because i don't need to pass emissions i think!
I drive a nice stock gsl-se daily right now, i want to sell that then buy an f150 or similar pickup truck, then have this rx2 as my fun weekender and maybe occasional track car. I can't really see myself selling it any time soon ..
I'm getting pretty tired so i'll post these pictures up. The place i work in is such a mess- and i apologize, but it will be clean in a few days i promise!
I added a couple of extra photos of my rx7's and other random stuff into the pics below, and the turbo engine in the pics is the one i want to use for the rx2..
Feel free to ask questions and chat amongst yourselves until i return in the near future~

 

 

Welcome to the Northwest man,good to see you going old school,i am almost done with a RX-3 build,and old mazda parts are not that easy to come buy at a decent price.do you have any connections in australia ?

 

Thanks man,
Matter of fact i have a friend in portland that has an 808 and he wants to buy all of the rx3 stuff for it and stick a rotor innit. But he's having a hard time finding the nosecone, grill and such at reasonable prices.
Luckily I met a fellow thru craigslist that had been collecting old mazda parts for decades and had almost everything i needed.

I don't really know many rotor experts in Australia only because i never owned one when i lived there. But i know there's a south australian rotary forum and pretty easy to get in contact with them all since i go back to Australia every 3-4 months for a couple of months.

 

Have you picked a color yet? That original green color is a hell of a color, not that many left in that color too.

 

Great find, and good luck with the build!

 

Quick little update because it's been a while-

I drove to L.A and bought an Rx-3, it is also a project and will have an n/a 13b, build thread maybe coming soon..
I am thinking of going to buy an Rx-5 Cosmo tomorrow, it has 1 owner, 71k miles, 13b and is $550!
I've been very busy so i'll properly update this soon when there's more work done on the Rx-2.
I am thinking a dark navy-blue for the color. I still am considering the original green, honestly haven't fully decided so my idea's will change a lot probably
Thanks for reading.
here's a pic of the rx3 with the 13b sitting in there:
DSCN0322_zpsb283aa90.jpg Photo by Jozey2007 | Photobucket