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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Opinions on Mazda RX7's


jake supra

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They're lighter and nicer to drive quickly than the Supra, but are shockingly unreliable in the most extreme way imaginable.

 

Shockingly un-economical aswell, one of my freinds had one, I think he managed to average 15mpg

 

Oh and he stalled it pulling off his drive once, big mistake, engine flooded and had to get towed to a garage.

 

I think he had it for 3 months before he sold it for an M3, his summary was - ''Love the car, but not as much as I hate the engine'

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Buy one with a blown engine and have a new engine built. Unless you KNOW what parts have been used in a rebuild, who did it, when, and how it's been treated since, it's a gamble. Rebuilds done on used housings and plates rarely last long, a proper rebuild is costly, but should be as reliable as a rotary can be :) I have a totally rust free, and unmessed with FD in factory red here, with the engine out and stripped. It would need a total engine refresh, but would make a lovely car. I am toying with putting a small economical piston engine in it as a pretty and economical daily driver, but would sell anything for the right offer :)

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They are on my list to buy, one of those cars that i know will be a nightmare to own but just has to be done. People rave about the rotary engines and Im interested to see what all the fuss is about.

 

gorgeous looking cars tho!

 

http://www.todoroki-trading.com/stock/mazda/407-FD3S/image3-rx7.jpg

http://ll.speedhunters.com/u/f/eagames/NFS/speedhunters.com/Images/AntonioAlvendia/Feature%20Cars/Bruce%20Purple%20FD/IMG_1298%20copy.jpg

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If you're after a nice looking drive ornament, the RX7 is an excellent choice :D

 

Whilst the turbo rotary has to be said to be as unreliable any modern engine I can think of the rest of the car is lovely, and they REALLY do handle like a peach if set up right. People quote cheap engine rebuild costs, but in my experience a cheap engine rebuild doesn't last. Some expensive ones don't last, either ;) As an N/A engine the rotary is great if you can find anywhere to run it, as the are just hellish noisy, and silencing them to meet noise regs without killing the power with back pressure, which they abhor, is not at all easy.

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A bit of an issue going on with the geometry though in the bottom photo :) I wouldn't want to keep that thing in legal tyres. Here's a couple of shots of a customers car, he used to own the most immacualte late VVTi manual MKIV's I have seen, but now has this rather splendid machine.

 

That looks nice. They really suit the higher wings

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What is needed to turn these into fast road/track cars Chris. I've heard the fuel tank is not baffled so well and the ARB mounts are weak etc. I'm looking at building one with an LSx V8 and trying to add up what brakes, suspension, extra stiffening etc is required to make it a worthwhile venture over the Supra. It's going to cost double the Supra and in many ways is an inferior quality car, but as a drivers tool it seems to have everything ticked.

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always liked the look of the rx7 but engine issues put me off you could always do a 1JZ-GTEswap quite popular in the states http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=49.0

 

Japanese performance did a feature from a workshop who did this conversion back issue can be found here

http://www.japaneseperformancemagazine.co.uk/shop.aspx?dept_id=105&item_id=2275

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I had a ride in a totally stripped out heavily modified RX7 about 500 bhp, it handled beautify, was as noisy as hell and pretty uncomfortable for me, being 6 foot. I think the engine blew a few weeks later, due to slight det, taking the tips of the rotors smashing the turbo to bits, a very costly mistake.

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