mazdaverx7

Totally accurate. The FC convertible was really a pig. It went 0 to 60 in 10 seconds. Its was a well built car however and was meant more cruising than drag racing. I believe that here in the U.S., the RX-7 convertible should have been offered with the turbocharged 13B that was available in the TII. It was just too heavy and had too little power to be competitive.

Paulyy

Then it would need to be compared to the 951.. And still no match

mazdaverx7

^^ i have a road test article comparing the two. i remembered that the cars were somewhat evenly matched in performance, however the 951 Cabriolet came out on top. no surprise really. as much as i love the RX-7, there's a reason why in 1985 the top of the line RX-7 was only $15,395 and a top of the line 944 was nearly $30,000 or more if equipped with some serious options.

odurandina

nice.

odurandina

beating Jap crap in the 968 is the funnest **** ever.

dontnow

RX7 lovers on here talk about reliability and longevity of the engines, but when I was the service manager at a Mazda dealer I saw the complete opposite. I had 2 RX7 specialists and they would have work lined up for weeks in advance. The average life span for a first gen's engine was 20-25k miles in that region (San Francisco penninsula). But you could buy a reman engine for $1200.00 at that time. The 2nd generation cars seemed to do better, but were not as well taken care of. The 3rd gen cars were fast, but expensive to repair. (checkout time on a driveability issue started at 3 hrs.) One thing I can say for an average Mazda owner, they were full in on the kool-aid; a 60k service usually was more than the car's value, leaks, struts, shocks, tensioners, and they happily laid down and bought it all.

So many of us bag on 944's for various issues but they are very good cars that have lasted well. I see 944s almost everday when driving around. I have not seen an RX7 on the road in years. The last one I saw was a 3rd gen at the dragstrip.

mazdaverx7

i have had many 1st generation RX-7's with original engines and a lot were well over 100k miles. the average life span for a 12A rotary engine was around 150K miles. with proper maintenance 200k is not out of the realm of possibility. you may have seen some fail at 20k-25k miles, but i'm sure the ratio of good engines to bad was far greater. how many lemon 944's do you think were out there when new. not as many as the RX-7 of course, but i'm sure there were some that would fail and leave a sour taste in the owner's mouth. this could cause the owner to tell people that the car was junk. i would disagree as i love my 944 and think that it is an extremely well built and well engineered vehicle. i love my RX-7 in the same light. its a well built car that performes extremely well given its price.

the rotary engine is very sensitive to oil and coolant changes. the rotary owner must be made aware that the rotary engine consumes oil as part of its normal operation. it uses oil to lubricate the apex and side seals and the oil is supplied to the engine via an oil metering pump. the harder you drive, the more oil is consumed. this leads people to believe that there is somethig wrong with their engine. coolant changes should be made once every two years to prevent corrosion of the rotor housings. a common enemy of the rotary engine is old coolant that can corrode the housings. corrosion is accelerated because of the dissimilar metals that the engine is made of. like the 944, the RX-7 need to be serviced at the proper intervals.

i have heard stories of early rotary engines failing prematurely due to seal breakage. the seals were redesigned in 1981 and premature seal failure was not a common issue.

the 60k mile service interval for the 79-85 RX-7 included: oil and filter change, coolant change, differential and transmission oil change, new spark plugs, a tire rotation, new air filter, and a torque check of the body and chassis bolts. regular wear items such as belts and hoses, brakes, and tires would also be checked.

people who do not have a lot of experience with the RX-7 give the car a bad reputation. most people base their opinion not by experience but by word of mouth; and that usually comes from an owner who had a bad experience with their RX-7. i have owned a lot of them and i have had some good and some bad ones. in all fairness to both the 944 and the RX-7, look at the age of these cars now. they will all most likely need work of some sort. the 1st gen RX-7 was never really directly compared to the 944 in the first place. it was more favorably compared to the 924, of which price and performace were on par with one another.

dontnow

I worked at the Mazda dealer in the mid 90's. The info I had/have came from that experience with the 2 premier RX7 techs in northern CA at that time. As such it can be taken with a grain of salt. The 1st gen cars we saw were owned by people who loved them and would spend money on them, going through the history was the 20-25k. Maybe they were not warming them up properly? These were the owners who are like a lot of Porsche owners (I love it so will pay to fix it). The owners of the later ones were not so kind to their cars.

Mazdaverx7, I know you have more more first hand experience than I and it is good you have had good luck with them. (You have owned more RX7's than we serviced in a year) I was just putting my .02 in on the discussion based on my working there and what I see now.

mazdaverx7

i will agree that the late 80's through the 90's RX-7's were treated poorly. i see many that had been neglected. which leaves me to wonder why an owner would neglect their car in such a way that it is worthless. the later RX-7's were good cars. better suspension and brakes, nice interior, more creature comforts and more of an upscale GT car. the twin turbo RX-7's were full of demons and their sales suffered due to high maintenance and replacement parts cost. its true that the turbocharged rotaries become unreliable when modifed. the 93-95 RX-7's were beautiful cars. its a shame that they were not as reliable as the older 7's. Mazda makes a car that can finally compete with Porsche in terms of performance and they lose in the reliability department. my 85 944 is more reliable than an FD. saddens me to say that but its the truth. and from what i've read, the Mazda dealers had their hands full in the 90's with broken RX-7's. such is the nature. quality of the 7's went up as their performance did, but overall reliability suffered because many were abused. and most we can buy today are just plain worn out. the same can be said about some of the 944's, but overall i would like to think that the 944's were taken better care of.

ZR8ED

Fixed it for you, or else I'd have to bring out the car for when I want to go fast. See sig

BTW I love the look of old rx's

dontnow

Because we had the 2 top guys, Mazda would ship cars to us to figure out the problems. They techs basically had carte blanche to charge warranty whatever they wanted once they knew they would be felt they would be fixed. The bad part is when the techs found out they could charge 10-15 hrs diag to warranty, they wanted to charge cash paying customers the same. Biggest egos I have ever seen in 20 years of service management.

I am glad you have been collecting and fixing them, it is a shame to see a revolutionary car fade away.

dontnow

Z cars have their own cult following!

black944 turbo

As most of us know Od does not have a clue. I would love to see him stack his car against most of the early 90s jap sports cars. I have a feeling he would have a rude awakening.

BTW, the RX7 was a very fun car, however I would want an FD. The problem there is, as Dave said, they have a lot of problems and I can not deal with anything with more issues than my car. I have driven a lot of Fcs and been around a number of 1st gens. All of them are great cars, they just don't have the same feel or fit and finish that are cars have. But again, as Dave pointed out, you would have been dealing with a HUGE price difference.

J1NX3D

my friend runs a '77 924 with a 12A bridgeport (approx 200hp) in Classic Tarmac Rally (closed public roads). Its been completely reliable even though its built with secondhand parts including apex seals. most of the teething problems in early events was with the converion. In 4 yrs its done about 6 tarmac rallys (approx 3,000 to 5,000km of racing a piece, depending on the event) and many track days and sprints. I dont think hes had to open up the engine at all the whole time ( I crew for him sometimes).

Like mazdavex7, hes a complete RX7/rotary nut but loves porsche handling. now hes got the best of both worlds and hangs with, and sometimes overtakes, 944S2's, 944 turbos and slower 911's at these events.

Tom R.

holy thread resurrection batman. I owned 7 RX-7s, and 6 944s. I owned my first and second S2 at the same time I owned my 90 RX-7 convertible.

I enjoyed my RX-7s and I enjoyed my 944s. Very similar, yet very different. Not better, just different. My personal favorites, the ones i regret selling are my 85 GSL-SE and my 89 Gray S2. My dislikes about the convertible are the high beltline, and thick windshield header. I fixed most of the header issue with a set of Miata sun visors. I fixed the high beltline issue first with a Miata, and now with a M Roadster in the garage.