Mazda Rotary Club

Thought this would make an interesting thread...!...So I\'ll start off - So share, how did you get into RX-7\'s then?

At first, like most people - I was afraid of the rotary engine. I didn\'t understand how it worked and I believed the stories I\'d heard about unreliability, etc.

Living in Tokyo since 1998, I saw my fair share of RX-7\'s....One night I heard a big single one exit a corner and accelerate hard...
As a petrol head, I had already started to get hooked!

In 2002, I bought my RX-7, purely to drive as a daily use car - and learn a bit about these beautiful cars.
Mine started as a standard 1995 Type R Bathurst model. Very clean, standard condition - aside from a set of RE Amemiya alloys and a big exhaust rear section.

Remember my excitement as I drove it home. Awesome handling. Nice sound, super smooth engine....! :) :)

My R33 GT-R V-Spec at the time had been my dream car till then... I\'d enjoyed it for nearly 3 years....

But now I\'d always take the keys to the RX-7 every time I went out! The GT-R was abandoned for months at a time!

Fitted a Knight Sports ECU, downpipe, cat replacement pipe and a knight Sports EBS boost controller, together with an ARC air box. Amazed at the performance gain....Sold the GT-R!

Then it just carried on from there. Have spent 3 years building my definition of the perfect RX-7 for road and track use.... Pretty much there now, although I have learnt it\'s a labour of love that will never end! :D

Cant remember the 1st tiem I saw one but I\'ve always loved the look of them, I didn\'t and still don\'t know much about the rotary engine, I had heard the horror stories but wasn\'t put off. Once I turned 21 I set about to sell the MR2 turbo which I have had for 3 years and buy an RX7.

2 months ago I met Nigel Fright, a rotary engine builder local to me and he has kindly lent me his FD, it came 3rd in the 2004 Cannonballrun.


(http://carpron.com/albums/RX7/RX_heaven1.sized.jpg)
(me at rotorstock)

Hopefully before japshow I will have brought this lovely white RX7


(http://carpron.com/albums/RX7/fd3s103949_f_small.sized.jpg)

Spec is:

1992 RX-7 type R in Pearl
RMagic Front lip, skirts and rear spats. (I think)
Panspeed hood (I think)
Racing Beat wheels
HKS Megaflow filters and hardpipe kit,
HKS circle earth kit.
Mazdaspeed fully adjustable coilovers
Street ported engine.
Bride Fixed back bucket seat with harness.

Than I plan to change the ecu and exhaust and enjoy her for years to come.

Quite funny how i got into them as the first one i ever saw was Gary Goodings purple rx7 in of all things "max power" :rolleyes:  i\'d never seen one before and was interested to know just what it was ?
After a little bit of research found that they were actually quite affordable and straight away i started to devise a plan to get one, i had a toyota mr2 at the time and found a rx7 twin turbo on autotrader, i had to part with the mr2 and £2500 for the rx, although the car itself was great i found the noise too loud and the suspension was way too stiff, after only 3 months i\'d had enough, also because of my limited knowledge on the rotary engine i felt alittle out of tune with the car, so swapped it for a R33 GTS Skyline, and then also bought a Escort Cosworth. Both cars were great but lacked the raw drive of the rx7, i swore i would have another rx7 some day ;)

Anyway a year later and the search began, upon inputting "rx7\'s for sale" on the internet i came across "mazdarotaryclub.com" now never had been on forums before and could not believe all the answers i seeked were right there !!!! After nearly 8 months of searching the R33 was sold to a chap in Edinburgh and the Escort cosworth had gone to Dartford i had the money waiting but no rx to buy !!!! finally after much help from Ben Linney who worked tiredlessly to find me the right rx, he put me in touch with "evilrotors" which was run by a certain Ross Juniper, after a few phone calls there was no luck, but out of the blue a phone call from Ross had me excited as he had found a purple rx7 with serious power, the rest as they say is history and EVILROTORS became DRAGON.

Incidently spoke with Gary Gooding at R2 and told him of the way in which his car has inspired me to get an rx :)

My car you guys already know, heres my first rx7:

Hi

Well after owning my evo 4 rs for a massive 1 week...i decided to sell it this was a coupla years back...after that week i was offered a px for a scoob type r...must say at the time i fell in love iwth it...awesome peice of kit and so well setup for the b road blasts around us!!! Freddy knows what i mean!!!

Wel the time came i had to sell her!! And thats when i was offered an gen 3 rx..hadnt really had much to do with them before ..or read/heard much about them..but as soon as i saw it..i knew a deal had to be done!!! It was a mildly modded 95 Type RB!! And WOW what an experience.... amazing handling..braking and such a beautiful power delivery something i had not experienced before after mainly driving cossies..scoobs and evos..!!

Unfortunaly,had to make way for further plans for the business she had to be sold...and now owned by Chirs who i know enjoys it almost as much as it did!!

Well after being out of them for a coupla of months...a friend of mine informed me about a very very clean 92 montego blue rx. landed over to his and wow ..i knew i had to have her so off we drove!!!

Well im up to my 5th now in what is only a 1 1/2yr  max!!experiencing singles..uprated twins and stock twin ones they are all just as good! and am always on the look out in JP for some special ones!!


So there is my little Rx history!!

Hoping to get into hillclimbing/sprinting in a rx for the 2006 shud be fun!! not quite the usual rx route.

All The Best

Matt

Nice thread ;)  This is the sort of information that the commentator for Rotorstock 2 was after, but no-one could figure out how to present it :rolleyes:

My story
I had been saving hard for 3 years and it was time to replace my faithful Clio 1.4RT with something more fitting.  I scoured the domestic market and nothing lept out at me. Clio 172\', Civic Type-R\'s and Seat Leon\'s were affordable but common and not \'unique\'.  I wanted more but couldn\'t find anything.

So I thought if I was going to end up with one of these run of the mill sporty hatchbacks I would at least get it cheap, so I typed "import car" into Google and that\'s where my life changed and Japanese performance cars entered my life.  At first it was the Skyline and Supra which dominated my thoughts and by luck I stumbled across the RX-7 which was a far better looking car than the other two with performance to match.

£500 down after an unsuccessful encounter with what I would describe as a bedroom importer, I came across Newera Imports.  A professional outfit that impressed me with their timely responses and defined processes.  My £1000 deposit was laid down along with my wish list whch including what I thought were impossible requirements; nice aftermarket rims and having blue body colour being the most difficult to achieve.

1 month later, May 12th 2003 and I had bought my RX-7 which exceeded my so called impossible requirements.  Miguel recommended I check out a website called //www.mazdarotaryclub.com without which I would not have survived rotary ownership.

21 months down the line and I\'ve spent significantly more on the car than the purchase price and not even moving house shortly will make me give it up.  I have many plans outstanding and I look forward to seeing them through.

Chris.

My dad bringing home rx7 brochures from work got me intersted when I was quite young, then during my training I ended up writing a few thermodynamics projects around the rotary as it was far more interesting than a piston engine, and then once I could afford to insure a half decent car I bought an FB and havn\'t really looked back since.

after owning a 2.0litre 140bhp rover coupe for 4 years..i was looking for more ..erm..everything! i had a line up of cars to buy next with a £6000 budget..mr2 turbo..too common and cant tell difference between turbo and natrual aspiated, calibra turbo-squashed cavalier with crap handling and too common but i rate vauxhall ,  vw corrado vr6-too pricey for what they are, skyline r33-too big and not good looking enough, supra-too big and nasty dash,96 nissan 200sx-i liked the front,hated the back then a mate of a mate bought a silver 94fd rx7 for £10,000..he took me for a spin and i could not critisize..smooth delivery, great handling,quiet engine and fighter jet style cockpit and nice curvs..id only saw 2 others on the road in my life including a competition yellow come past my house. i could not believe he bought an rx7 and i was amazed at the price of rx7`s  on the autotrader..i never knew they were so cheap and i just had to have one. my mate later sold his fd rx7  because of the fuel consumption,after taking him for a spin in mine after he sold his..first thing he said
"i should`nt have sold my rx7!"

At the tender age of 19 i already had 3 project cars under my belt 2 x mk1 Golf Gti\'s and a beetle roof chop, i decided i fancied something a little more challenging.  A local Jap breakers were advertising a 300zx twin turbo with light burn damage to the wiring loom! (After inspecting the engine fire i decided it was a no go)
 
But also in the yard was a sleek black car that caught my eye, my first real glimpse of an FD.  Well i was hooked from there on, 1 year later and after a lot of saving i started ringing insurance companies.  After eventually finding a company that would insure a 20yr old lad on an imported twin turbo i set off shopping.

I found a 92 type x with an Apexi FR front bumper and spoiler.  Since then the car has benefited from new rims, carbon bonnet, re-ameniya console mounted boost gauge, DVD + screen, HKS backbox, HKS induction kit, turbo timer, Full rebuild and street port courtesy of carl hayward..... and loads i can\'t remember!

2 years down the line with a very empty wallet i still love it more than ever, even though my mates constantly like to remind me i could have bought any selection of new sports cars from the money i\'ve spent on mine!:D

mine aint as fancy as ome of the previous...

I have had mazdas all my driving life.... apart from a hilman imp!!! great car that was till it hit some black ice ended up in a ditch and got hit from the back by a mondeo... rear engined became mid engined!!!

anyway... ahd an e reg 323 1.5 glx... great car... my sister has it now 130k+ and still going strong

then I had an N reg 323 2L v6  again lovely car and the reliability was outstanding

loved mazdas for this even if the servicing was a bit high...

had wanted a rex for about the last year of ownership of that car... had seen afew around but though they were out of my price range so I kept on searching and as my wage grew asnd the price stayed the same I could afford one....

my mate were taking the P**s as they thjought the engind would blow after a week.... m ine didnt but both theirs did... thats 300ZX\'s for yer!!!!

and now am the proud owner of my silver type r special edition ( or thats what it says in the driver door sill!!!)

still make me smile getting into it even after having it for nearly9 months


yeeeehaaa

After going to Japfest in 2003 i fell in love with a silver one on the show stand. Loved the shape of the car and when got home tried to get all the info on this lovely car !

At the time i was thinking of changing cars from my AXGT (i know) to something more rare. At the time i looked at an FTO and the rx7. The FTO was about slightly cheaper to insure and petrol costs where alot less. So i went for the FTO......

After 18 months i was driving about 40 miles a day to work and back and was completely bored with the FTO. I disliked the auto box. It looked great and the boot was full of ICE ! So when i turned 25 I looked back into getting the Rx7 again...........

I found my rx7 in a garage that didn\'t even realise a rebuild was a big plus. I remember the first question i asked the guy was "how much will you give me for my FTO ?"

It is now my second car and im loving it. All my driving costs are cheaper, having a 60 mile/gallon deisel and i get a fantastic drive for the weekend ! I\'ve had it for almost 12 months and it still gives me a massive smile to drive and i don\'t think it will ever change !

Shaun

I was on holiday in Canada when i got an email from a mate to say that he\'d just bought an FTO. We\'d got into Japanese sports cars together after the release of \'The Fast and the Furious\' film. So when i got back i decided that it was time i joined in all the fun and get myself something special. I had heard of the Rx7 before but really know nothing about them apart form they had a weird engine.

So after spending many hours looking over the internet and though Japanese Performance magazines, and seeing as i always seem to want the best out there, rear wheel drive and lots of power, i\'d narrowed it down to either a Supra TT or an Rx7 Gen 3. I really loved the look of the mazda and seeing that the Supra was gonna be more expensive, it seemed an easy desision to go for the 7.

I then started to look though the auto trader every week to find the car i liked the look of. I been to a coupe of garages to see if i fitted in the car (i\'m 6\'4"ish), and as long as it had a smaller than standard steering wheel i was ok... Just. Its a bit of a squeeze but i can deal with that. :) I then found one i liked the look of. A really clean 92 efini with only 62k on the clock and some nice extra thrown in as well. It was a private sale, but the guy was part owner of a garage and had done a lot of work on it since he\'d got it imported. So i stumped up the cash and for a month or two things were great.

Then sadly after only doing 600 miles or so the engine went bye bye\'s and it was off the road for 6 months while i worked my arse off to get get the money together to get it rebuilt. A lot of phone calls and bigger bills than expected happened, and for a time i really thought that owning my dream car had turned into a total nightmare, but i stuck though it and now all is well again. It was only after all that i then really got to know the mazda rotary club, wish i found you guys earlier, but by then the car was back on the road, and now it fun, fun ,fun till the fuel tanks empty again :rollin

I\'ve now been loven every minute behind the wheel and have been to some great shows this summer and am looking forward to many more. :)

Hi this is my story.

Here we go....watched the Fast and the Furious and after that it HAD to be Japanese !!! tbh I liked the black honda civic coupes most. Anyway did some research into a VTI coupe but after weighing up the cost of getting some decent performance out of it I decided against it.

Then I did some research on Jap cars and it was whilst watching the F and F again (cmon guys you know you have ALL seen it more than once !!!!)  I liked the look of Doms RX7 and started getting into the Rx7. I have been lurking on this website for the best part of a year learning all about the cars/engines etc etc but it wasnt until I did some insurance quotes and got 2k that it put me off.

So I looked at other cars like a Honda Integra (never got to sit in and see one up close as being in Norfolk the back end of beyond nobody has them up for sale).  However I did see a few driving round the city and thought they looked nice and started doing some budgeting on running one of these..bullet proof engine...honda reliability...I thought i had found the car for me. Anyway running through Jap perf mags I found back issues with buying guides for both an Integ and also an Rx so I bought them both.
Reading through this mag showed me that the RX is light years ahead of the integra in terms of 0-60 performance....on a track with the handling of the Teg I\'m not sure. It happened that an RX came up for sale in a garage near me so I dragged the missus along and went to look at it.
Opening the hangar door where all the cars were kept (PJ Davey is the place...some great jap cars inc evos...supra..scoob etc) and my eyes caught sght of the RX7. I was gobsmacked...it looked like no other car I had ever seen and couldnt believe the curved panels. aggressive front...pop up headlights (everyone knows they are cool !!) Then going to sit in the car...well falling in I was amazed at how low it was. After this day..the missus and I both knew it would be an RX !! Even she who never really gets interested in cars was amazed.

So to cut a very long story short...after spending even more time on this site I found an insurance company who would quote me 700 squid fully comp. Job done.

Meeting Alexb and sdminus and seeing their cars and being taken out for a very fast spin by Alex deffo made my mind up.

So I found out about Jimmys in Hoveton up the road from me and went to see Andrew, he showed me a very dirty looking black tyre r rx with all the mods I wanted..dump valve...big exhaust..brand new retrimmed seats..rebuilt engine and guaranteed plus a whole heap of other bits and pieces on it I put the deposit down there and then. This was in june and then in Nov it was ready to be picked up. Taking the car home with mum and dad behind me I just had a big grin on my face like a kid in a sweet shop !! Driving for the first 1000 miles under 4000 rpm certainly gets you used to the performance of the car before being able to launch it up the rev range.

Havent done anymore mods to it apart from the power fc and commander and tbh I think its fast enough as it is but a mate has just bought an r32 skyline and thats fractionately quicker than mine so maybe more mods are needed. I wouldnt ever want to lose the twin turbo feel.

All in all a great car and thoroughly recommend Andrew at Jimmys for new cars plus work done on them.

I cannot believe the amount of attention you get from driving it...people just stop and stare....unbelievable...the missus said she doesnt like this attention.....but deep down we all know...women love attention !!!

Bad things...why is the fuel tank needle never showing full for very long ?!!!? Why is that another BMW driver deciding to sit on my ass ?!!!?  Why is the boot so tiny ?!!? Why are jap mods so expensive ?!!!!? And why do I panic about everywhere I leave it...car parks..peoples houses etc etc ?!!!!?

Gareth

Oh,1 last thing....people always seem to look at mine and mention 2 words.....Knight Rider....noooo !!!

RRRRRRRRR..it seems we are in a relationship with our cars here..

i think its funny when even old people turn their head at break neck speeds when you drive by:rollin :rollin

i must admit i hate leaving it anywhere and its 1 of those cars im gonna be keeping for a long time. ive only just got mineback on the road and it makes you appreciate it a lot more when youve been driving a shed around for 6months then go back to the rex..it seems exta fast, faster than before and ive been drivng it for 2weeks now with no mods since last time

:D  VERY BIG GRIN :D :D

ha ha some good reads there

i had been on holiday a few years back and can home and jon ) hotstepper ) had an EGI on the drive

didnt have a clue what it was and the word RX7 meant nothing to me

he offered time after time to take me for a spin - eventually i gave up and accpeted

after being in the car i feel in love ( the pop up lights really did if for me ) - so thats when my hunt began

managed to get an F reg EGI for £900

i got this - john got a turbo II - sheesh neighbours eh !

i ran the egi for about 10 months - what a superb car

then the girlfriend told me she was pregnant - that was it - the car went - cant have 3 cars and a baby

sold the car ( eventually ) but stayed around here as i knew so many people

i was on the hunt as soon as the guy drove the car away ( although the better hald didnt really know )

after a few weeks i was really on the hunt for another - the better half was getting sick of RX7\'s at this point ( and still is ! ! )

managed to get a TII from the yahoo groups - the car came on the wed - picked it up on Sat 03/10/2003

my daughter was born 3 days later - i was very lucky to get the car in time - i feel that if i hadnt - i wouldnt be an owner right now

and soon after that jon sold his TII and got an FD - although im in no rush to follow that route :D

there is just something about these cars that make them a love - hate relationship - still cant narrow it down though

i spent months rewelding mine back together - which is still a shock as any over car - i would have just thrown away !

Thats enough from me

Take Care

Stu / Grinder

QuoteOriginally posted by gmogle
Then I did some research on Jap cars and it was whilst watching the F and F again (cmon guys you know you have ALL seen it more than once !!!!)

Oh,1 last thing....people always seem to look at mine and mention 2 words.....Knight Rider....noooo !!!

Think i\'ve nearly seen that film far to many times now :rollin

Once at work, when i was out on a job, some of the other guys desided it would be funny to stick a red strip across the bonnet, a la KIT and change my number plates to KIT 1!! :rollin

I remember being at a national motor show (i think it was) when i was 13 or 14 with my dad!

2 cars struck me more than the others, one was on toyota\'s stand (the mr2), and thought what a gorgeous car.

The second one was on the mazda stand and of course it was a fd3 rx7!

Me and my dad stood there in a amazement......:eek: ........we were both, "what the hell is that.....its amazing"

I vowed from that day on that i will own one, one day.
10 years later, i have one!:D

After mucking about with a fair few honda crx\'s, i was in the middle of building a turbochrged, kitted, iced up blah blah honda crx.........then while ordering bits of ebay usa for the crx, i accidently put in rx in the search bar, and of course, rx7 parts came up......i thought god thats good, and good this is good at all the parts available at rx7\'s.
So i added up how much this crx project was going to cost....and realised.....my god, i could actually get an rx7 for that money :eek: .

The rest is history, sold everything to do with the crx, got all my cash together and set about finding an rx7 from japan.......i was lucky at the time becuase i knew a japanese guy who could sort me a car out from anywhere in japan, from auction houses, dealers, anywhere.....so he sorted it all out for me for a small fee!

I\'ll never forget the day i picked it up from southampton docks (after a 6 month wait !!!!!!!!!:reallymad ), i fell in love as soon as i see it, then the drive home........WOAHHHHHH!!!!!!!:eek:

How fast!?!?! i thought!....this is amazing.....and it did scare me.

Anyway, 12months later....and its .....errr......changed abit:rolleyes: :D

Will be a sad day when i have to sell!:(

Will deffinatly have another tho after this one!

Heres a pic what it was like when i got it, then one how it is now........its changed somewhat!:rollin

(http://board.hondacrx.co.uk/phpBB2/modules/gallery/albums/dannorton/DSC00518.sized.jpg)

(http://mattjg.com/gallery/albums/uploads/CL%20Members%20and%20there%20cars/normal_IMG_0275.JPG)

Quote
At first, like most people - I was afraid of the rotary engine. I didn\'t understand how it worked and I believed the stories I\'d heard about unreliability, etc.

How strange... just answered a "why did you buy a Z" thread over there...

Anyway, yes, exactly, I believed the myths too, and I thought Supras were right ugly, so in terms of cars around 5k, that left the Z, basically. So I bought one. And then another one. And then another engine for the second one. And so on. You see where this is going.

So after a year of such grief I knew a lot more about my performance driving style and a lot more about big Jap metal generally - and I was so hacked off with fixing things that I decided a brand spanker was the way forward. I also knew I didn\'t like torquey boosty cars because where\'s the challenge in that?

So I drove a 350 and I just didn\'t connect with it, although to be fair they are good cars - and I sat in an S2000 and I didn\'t feel like I could ruin it over a B-road at all. Dunno why, but somehow the cockpit felt wrong, so I didn\'t even test drive it. Then I drove an 8 and that was it, yes please, and five months later :o the Banana of Doom was parked on my drive. :D

The 350 might be NA but it drives like a turbo, so I just wasn\'t interested in the end...

And now I\'ve got the rotary bug and I\'m unlikely to own a boinger again, because how can you ever go back?

QuoteOriginally posted by MikeLMR
then during my training I ended up writing a few thermodynamics projects around the rotary as it was far more interesting than a piston engine

I\'ve noticed this - a lot of people that have dun sum fizzicks [tm] like rotaries - cos they\'re just elegant, and much clevererer than boingers. That\'s a lot of the reason I like em (and I dimly remember a 2am conversation along these lines the other weekend :D )

Just realised I didn\'t answer the second half of the question just now either... it\'s taken me a LOT further than I would have otherwise of gone in terms of advanced driving. (Because you have to drive mine on the gears, and because it\'s so stiff and well set-up)

ive got a high octane dvd where they compared the 350z and rx8..the rx8 got off the line quicker but the z caught up..when it came to the twistys the rx8 caught up and in the end out of the 2 drivers, 1 chose the 8 and the other was undecided..they both agreed that the 8 was more of a drivers car:cool

A friend of mine many years ago bought a 1st Gen 7, certainly different to the other cars around at the time. Started to take notice of the rotary and then out came the FD…..thought yes! I want one, but also thought I’d never actually have one.

Then back in ’99, a nice cheque landed on the floor from a savings policy that had just finished, and we thought that we’d spend it on updating one of our older cars. I jokingly suggested lets just spend it on something flash…..the missus said what would we have……I, of course, jokingly suggested an FD. I showed her a picture, and surprisingly she said…OK, lets go and have a look at one!

So with a big grin, we set out to have a look at these mythical beasts. This was back when importing was gaining ground, but was not big business, so not too many around. The first one we saw was in a large showroom, which was reserved for the expensive and fast cars. We walked in, and couldn’t see an FD. Bugger….must have been sold. But then, after walking around, we came across this black, sleek car, hiding at the far end of the room. Wow! The adrenalin of seeing one put a big grin on our faces! Is this it, asked my wife! Yep! So we get the salesman to fire it up…only he couldn’t, the battery was dead. So out comes the charger, and he gets it going…..along with a large cloud of smoke, that has nowhere to go, so lingers in the showroom! Being at the back of the showroom, means it takes 15mins to get it out, but finally, with other people watching, we clamber unceremoniously in and go for the drive. My wife is in a seat behind the salesman…..who had to have his seat right forward, that his knees we literally touching his chin!! Very funny! A short drive later, and no petrol….we actually run out as we turn into the garage, so we coast up the road, and stop. We pop the bonnet, only to see green coolant dribbling copiously from the AST. Luckily I had done quite a bit of reading on FDs, and knew this to be a rather bad sign! Salesman was very pushy .. “nothing wrong” and all that, but we eventually walked.

So with one bad experience under our belts, but certainly not deterred, we saw another 6 (yes 6!!) FDs, each with their own stories to tell (all bad), until we came across a high miler (102k) in Kent. Something just clicked with this one, and we bought it on the spot, and drove home with it! Never regretted it…….completely std, and utterly reliable for the next 5 years. 5 years!! We had only planned on buying one, keeping for a year, then selling it! 1 year ownership is better than none!
So to ’04 â€" and I decide that it is time to upgrade. I make the decision to go for a post 99 revision model, but then find you can’t import the later models anymore due to the change in the law. So would have to look for one already in the UK. Found one that was advertised as a 2002 model â€" went to look. Only problem was, the chassis number was FD3S5***** - er this isn’t a 2002 car! No paperwork either….quickly walked on that one! Then saw a few on autotrader, but were up in Scotland â€" a little too far, shall we say. Then finally came across the SpiritR for sale on MRC. I’d heard of these, but had to look up exactly what it was. Wow! There was actually a SpiritR in the UK? And it was a TypeA to! So went along, had a look, and, well a handshake later and the Spirit had a new owner!

So that’s the story to date, and the Spirit is certainly a tremendous car! OK, so it might not be as quick as even some of the mildly modded cars around, but there are only 3 known in the UK â€" a little bit of exclusivity and history sitting on the drive. Love it!:D

I studied the rotary engine at college many moons ago when i was training to be a mechanic, i remember getting the brochure for the FD when they were introduced in 92 as part of my course. Forgot all about them then two years ago i decided i was sick of company land rover discoverys, was going to buy myself a Lancia delta evo as i used to have the HF turbo version, my brother in law was getting a car at the same time, he said why dont you get an Rx7, i took a look at some on the net, feel in love and the rest is history and an empty bank account! My brother in law decided on an M5, he isnt happier that im faster than him now! :rollin

Well when I was about 12 or 13 my mates mum had a green first gen. rx7. She used to pick us up from school and i was always scrunched up in the back with the exhaust scraping on all the speed bumps going out of the school exit. I loved it and always liked the theory behind the rotary engine, there is something special about being different and I like it:D

I was considering buying a first gen. after selling my 5 gtt, then I realised that for me at the time the third gen. was the way to go, looks, power, handling, the fabulous rotary, it has them all. I\'m now on my 3rd rotary, need I say more..............


Paul:bandit

Nice thread, been really interesting reading.

I got my RX 3 years ago based on 2 things.  Gran Turismo 3 was my first proper experience of an RX7 and the banks new found confidence in my financial stability.  At the ripe age of 25 I met a guy who imported MX5s and said he reckoned he could get me an RX7 no problem.  After 3 months of waiting and endless phone calls nothing was delivered.  I decided to start looking myself and spotted a fairly stock 92 exmple in Auto Trader straight away.  I took the trip to Southampton to see the car which had been in the country 6 months and fell in love absolutely immediately.  Two weeks, one less than convincing RAC inspection and an £8.5k lighter wallet later and I took the keys and set off home.  To be fair she was a bit of a bag of crap to start with, but with all my money tied up in my house and mrs I had nothing left to fix the niggling issues with.

After 1.5 years of ownership I was under ever increasing financial strain from the car, my house and my mrs.  Something had to give.  I moved out, split up with the mrs and took the car, I haven\'t looked back since.  From being stock, she\'s now far from it.  Got most of the mechanicals sorted, engine\'s being rebuilt (2nd time now) and ported as we speak, single turbo, FMIC etc etc etc...

Next phase is the externals and get the old girl looking as pretty as some of you boys on here.  Watch this space, this time next year :D

Just a point to note, I went through all the receipts I\'ve had for the car since ownership, and in the past 2.5 years she\'s cost me just over £30,000 including purchase cost.  Not for one second do I ever think it\'s not been worth it, the right foot makes sure of that...

One very very happy rotary owner
H :)

Sure is becoming an interesting thread guys, keep posting your stories, I think we\'re all enjoying the read!

I haven\'t ever dared spend any time counting up what I\'ve spent on mine, but frankly it doesn\'t matter....I\'ll never sell it anyways.
Hope to grow old and pass it onto my kids, who will be car nuts for sure......someday :)

Would be great to hear from the likes of Clive, Glenn Butcher and such on this thread....Still so many people to hear from :):wave

QuoteOriginally posted by Miguel
Thought this would make an interesting thread...!...So I\'ll start off - So share, how did you get into RX-7\'s then?
 

hmmm. interested in non-rx7 stories?

hope so. ;)

i was happily oblivious to the existence of the rotary engine for most of my life. always an automobile fanatic, just never realised a top marque was doing anything so radically different under the bonnet to every other.

then i went to australia...

first time i think i was aware of rotaries was at summernats 2000 in canberra, the mother of all car meets, which i was lucky enough to work at :D

shortly afterwards i moved to adelaide to stay with my best aussie mate.
now it turned out one of his best friends had an rx3 coupe which his dad and he had built to a stunning standard. scooby blue with gold rims. i was instantly in love. head over heels. (then he wrote it off and bought a scooby and a wee cagiva racing bike :rolleyes: )

but it was too late. i was hooked. started picking up any mags i could find with rotary pics.
funny thing is, none of the mags i bought in aus have an fd in them. they\'re aaaaall about the old-skool over there.

i can remember the first fd i saw (well, the first i saw knowing it was a rotary) outside a pub in adelaide. boy did a big half-donut burnout off up the road and i had to pick my jaw up off the road.

so cut to ---> back home in the uk
and i\'m busy typing mazda rx3 into google uk and getting nowhere.

so where did my love take me? shopping on google.com.au and the ausrotary forum for a car on the other side of the world and all the associated logistics involved in checking/ purchasing/ shipping/ importing/ registering etc etc
trust me that took a lot of love. but, i got one. and it was worth every last bit of drama/ worry cause now i own my dream car
:D :D :D

o yeah.

I remember when the FD first came out over here. I\'d not long since passed my test when it cropped up in the various car magazines of the time. I fell in love pretty much immediately. The rotary engine was a bonus, I love to drive something "different". I even went down to the local Mazda dealer and saw the black one they had in the showroom. fvck me if it didn\'t look even better in the flesh! Only trouble was it was 36 grand or so!

Anyway, moving on 9 years, I\'d just got my first steady and guaranteed wage after being self employed for 9 years, and, as with all true petrol heads, I decided to get a big loan and buy a fast car!

My first thoughts were to get an Impreza (no spitting at the back there please!) but as every drug dealer in Manchester had one at the time I was going off them. I bought "Revs" magazine one month and there, on the cover was a head on shot of a red FD, completely sideways, whilst the passenger had a "I\'m scared ****less but still loving it" face on. A little bit of my memory sparked back into life, "mmm, an RX-7, I\'d love one of those. They must still be pretty expensive though."
Reading through the article, although it got a slating for being unable to start at times and "flimsy", I was hooked again, but, I found you could pick a decent one up for 10 grand! I had 13 grand burning a hole in my bank account! Game on!

And so began a search that went the length and breadth of the country. I looked up north as far as Newcastle, down south as far as Watford (below there doesn\'t count as England;) ). I even ventured into Wales. Could I find a nice example? Could I hell. They\'d either be dog rough or dodgily modified. I\'d all but given up when I was looking back through the few I\'d found on the AutoTrader site. There was one in Sheffield, not too far away and an entertaining drive over the Snake Pass. The picture was a bit crap, hence I\'d overlooked it before but it sounded ok. Black (I had been looking at red ones and had my heart set on that colour), but I could live with that, 27000 miles, jap import, 2 years in the country, £11,500. Worth a look at least.

One phone call later and we were off over the Snake, meeting the guy in the car park of the pub next to ladybower. We got there, pulled up outside the pub and I looked over to the car park. BANG! flashback to being 18 again and looking through the Mazda dealers window. Black RX-7, absolutely spotless and looking brand new. We drove over to it and I knew it was the one almost straight away. No strange noises under the bonnet, just a silky smooth purr. No modifications of any kind, the car was perfect in every way. After persuading the guy I was serious (I was driving an old XR4i at the time.) I told him I wanted the car. Only trouble was I hadn\'t brought any sort of deposit with me. I\'d seen that many dogs that I\'d pretty much given up on getting one and had basically just "gone for a look".
The guy was decent enough about it and I promised him I\'d put a cheque in the post that night.
Cue a weeks agonising wait while the cheque cleared. Eventually it did and we sorted out a day to pick it up.
Insurance time next, phoned a few places, no-one would touch it as it was an import (these weren\'t such enlightened times as we live in now!). The only place that would quote wanted 3 grand!

oh Jesus, what have I done! group 20, GROUP 20! Am I mad!

Eventually after 3 solid days on the phone to various companies I managed to get it down to £1600. Just about bearable.

Now it\'s the middle of the petrol pickets/crisis and there\'s a queue at every petrol station. and what am I doing? Well I\'m heading over to Sheffield to pick up the most spectacularly uneconomical car I could find.
The drive back made it all worthwhile though. Driving over a slightly damp Snake Pass on Jap rubber in my first turbo\'d car. It was all going strangely well until I came up behind a couple of pensioners in a mk1 Fiesta. 20mph was the order of the day as far as he was concerned but I\'ll bide my time here for now, there\'s a straight bit up ahead, I\'ll overtake there.
Straight bit comes up, I put my foot down, the rear tyres light up and suddenly Mr Pensioner is looking at the side of an RX-7 in his rear view mirror. He can also see a very shocked looking big bald guy staring at the back of his fiesta through the passenger side window. whoa! I managed to straighten it up thankfully and spent the next couple of weeks redefining my definition of "fast car". I managed to put 2000 miles on it in the space of 3 weeks. I just couldn\'t stop driving it. I\'d park up at night after a blast over the moors (surely I shouldn\'t be able to take corners at that sort of speed!)and go back in to the house. Five minutes later I\'d be back out on the moors, I just couldn\'t get enough of it.

That was 5 years ago in September, an early change to SO-2s transformed the handling, 9 points came and went on my licence, and I\'ve also had to rebuild the engine (obviously with a few tweaks). But, after nearly 5 years I\'m still in love with it. It\'s the only car that I\'ve never got bored of (my previous longest auto-relationship was 18 months) and I honestly can\'t see me ever tiring of it.

I love the fact that people still don\'t know what it is
I love the fact that, aside from shows and trips to WGT I\'ve only ever seen 1 other on the road whilst I\'ve been in mine
I love the fact that it can stay on the back bumper of a 360 Modena up to indecent speeds
I love the fact that a 15 year old design is still used in magazine adverts

To be honest, if circumstances permit, I don\'t think I\'ll ever get rid.


that went on a bit longer than I expected, thank you for listening!

Steve :D

Quite simple and my wife gave me the idea!!
It was 7years ago this July that i privately purchased my current FD from my homeland of Wales!
I suppose i was a very early example of the current MaxyP crowd..i was the first person to get the K&N induction kit for my Renault Clio!!-sad,..but true...1996??:p
A garage down the road from me had a silver FD for sale..my wife saw it and said "Isn\'t that the car you said you loved the look of", in a car mag i had.
I had a sat in it...this and the obvious looks and engine individuality won me over.

People always say "When are you going to stop spending on it?!"
There are lots of nice cars out there, but i cannot let my FD go..i will continue spending as getting a car with similar pedigree all round, will mean a chunky loan....which ain\'t much different to progressive spending on your loved one...the car that is!!.

I think the FD..as well as the earlier marks...will become icons :)
Pete

2 years I was left an inheritance, so decided to get myself a new car, something different to the norm which isnt that hard up here, impreza\'s & evo\'s were everywhere & didnt appeal. I\'d always fancied a delta intergrale, I started looking at prices etc but couldnt find just what i wanted. Every day at work i was asked well what you getting then. Then I saw i could pick up a early NSX for 18K but deemed it unpractical, I didnt know what i should treat myself to, until one day I was going to see a mate that restores classics, down the road from his house had been a metallic green gen 1 RX7, slowly returning to the earth, it had vanished it was like a landmark & now it had gone where too  I\'ll never know but the seed was sown. I didnt really want a classic one as I\'ve got hillman imps cluttering the drive for that. So I had a look round the net & came across newera. They didnt really have anything in stock that i fancied but you could specify what you wanted on the order form. So an order was placed, a few days later there\'s a email with this low wide black FD, miguel had done an excellent job but it was a buyers market & the buyer was to  be me!!!.

The drive from motormall all the way to north scotland, I\'ll never forget. Camera phones being pointed left right & centre on the motorway, a 911 driver asking me what it was in the traffic jam & then saying it looked better than anything he\'d seen. To this day I\'ve never seen another FD on the road apart from at meets & shows.  

People still stare, point & ask what it is even up here & I live in a tiny town. No-one ever believes it a 1300 but say its a rotary after and a few smile & nod as if to say you\'ve made the right choice.

Where will the FD take me who knows but I can bet it\'ll be fun getting there

Right. Looong post!
My brother had this friend who turned up in an RX-2 one day, a yellow coupe, and off we go for a drive, I was about 15 at the time. F*ck me, what a car!!!

Sometimes he would stop the car on a smooth piece of tar and do a burnout or 2. Then when I was 17, a friend of mine\'s mom was selling her RX-2, a green sedan, and they would let me pay it off. I bought it and drove it about 5 years, till I crashed it one night, some stupid bitch in an Alfa doing a u-turn in front of me. I still kept it, hoping to repair it one day. Got a mitsubishi colt company car, crashed RX-2 still on hold in the yard. Had been to some races and the RX-2\'s were just thrashing everything in the race for standard cars. (group N) and I thought "Id like to try that!"), so started looking for an RX2 to race.

Bought a red coupe, but on discovering the chassis cracked where the steering box mounts, I decided this was not a good car to go down Kyalami straight at 120mph plus in!  So I sold that, then I found another green 4 door for sale cheap, and this become my spare car/race car, with my other one for spares. Raced this car for about 8 years, and drove it on the road, till the engine got tired. Sold both cars together.

Meantime I had bought a Crimson Capella (74 and later RX-2), had just rebuilt the engine when my friend aprubtly stopped his bike in front of me, and I swerved to miss him and crashed over a few pavements, badly damaging chassis and cross-member.

Another friend was selling a race prepped RX-2 (white)with a bad engine, and I bought that, swapped the engines and raced that for about 15 years. (Drove Mitsubishis on the road, bit thats another long story!).

While I had the Racing RX-2, I bought a BMW road car, which the indegenous population of South Africa decied I didnt need anymore, so it disappeared one night ( another long story, 1 of 3 !).

The BeeEm was boring, I wanted a "hooligan\'s" car again, and with the insurance cash, I bought a 1st Gen with 13b, bridge port and IDA. Road car for about 3 years, while still racing the RX-2.

Emigrated to UK, sold 1st Gen for £2k, and gave RX-2 back to original owner - gone to good home, and is now being restored!

In Uk now, bought red EGI for £1k, then Turbo II, then sold Egi, then 3rd Gen.

Henning and I found an RX-2 MOT failure for £150, (with ford engine in). I am slowly restoring, fixed up a lot of chassis and body rust, its back on the road, and I have 12A 1st gen engine waiting to go in.

We also have 323 and MX-5, but I think I would sell the RX-2 last! Baby has arrived, so probably next step is sell the FD and get RX-8. (Unless Mazda make another Rotary powered RWD car).

To summarise, I am on my 6th RX-2, and my 4th RX-7!!

There, is that long enough??:D

I remember seeing a car show on TV and they were talking about how much of a great second hand buy the Supra was.  I remember going to the internet and looking them up and the first thing that cam up was a 700bhp Supra on suprastore.com.  I was blown away by how much power it had as I hadn\'t really had any contact with modified cars before this.

This got me really interested so I started looking around and came to the conclusion that I really wanted a Supra, or maybe an RX-7.  As seems to be normal I read all of the horror stories about how unreliable FD\'s are so it complately put me off.  I started looking for a Supra but found anything decent was out of my price range, plus most insurance companies wanted a small fortune to insure them.  I then started looking around and got interested in the Integra Type-R and ended up buying a mint UK model to use as a stop gap until I could get a Supra.  This stop gap turned into permanent ownership as I just fell in love with the Type-R.  This car was my daily driver and after 3 years of creaping along in rush hour and not using the car how it was meant to be used (apart from at weekends) I decided that I needed a runabout for the daily commute and something for weekends and tracks.  Also something that I could keep mint as it wouldn\'t be batted by the daily commute and salt filled winter roads.  My initial thought was about getting a JDM Type-R as I no longer wanted to get a Supra as something that heavy just didn\'t appeal after such a drivers car as the Type-R.

I contacted Miguel from Newera about getting me a JDM Type-R and I bet you can guess where this conversation went.  After much discussion about the pros and cons of various cars and Miguel dispelling some of those rotary myths I decided given the amount of money I was going to spend on the JDM Type-R I wanted that an RX-7 was the way to go instead.  Especially after seeing recent photo\'s of his FD I just couldn\'t resist.  I bought a red 1996 RS model from Miguel with very low mileage and a few mods.

The car arrived about 3 months ago so right now I\'m just planning what to mod and when.  First up is a new downpipe, mid-section and exhaust with a power FC.  It already has an RE-Amemiya filter on so that can stay.  In the future I\'m looking for a Knight Sports V-Mount and pretty much trying to follow a similar route as Miguel as he just has the BEST FD I\'ve ever seen  :D :D :D(http://www.neweraimports.com/Nebusis/pictures/cars/1095645954989//pic1095647493691.jpg)

QuoteOriginally posted by Miguel
So share, how did you get into RX-7\'s then?

RX7\'s only? or can anyone play?

fantastic thread!!!

heres my story,

when i was a 9 year old kid, my older bro bought a rear wheel drive 323 it was rusty as hell!

I wa talking to my dad about cars and we had just scrapped the mazda 323.  he told me that the body work was crap but mazdas make the best engines he had ever seen, he started telling me that mazda made one called the rotary it didnt have pistons at all instead it simply spins round! i was only about 10 and didnt quite understand what he meant, lol i thought the whole engine spun around in the engine bay!

A few years later we moved across town and the next door neigbour had an EGI with the plate C666 ... i just loved the shape of it and when he came out being one of the "cooler older kids" i was a bit weary of him, I told him that he had a nice car and then he said "it looks nice but watch this kiddo"

he got in and fired it up, then he booted it up our street, he fishtailed it a little and when he changed into second a huge flame popped out of the exhaust!!!  man the noise it made was incredible!

now ten years later i have bought my first rx! thanks for reading guys....

Nas

QuoteOriginally posted by Norton
RX7\'s only? or can anyone play?

Any rotary is OK!

Speaking for myself, but I guess for many others - I\'d love to know what a rotary engined bike must be like..so tell us! :) :)

My interest in Rotaries started in the summer of 1987, an acquaintance and I went out for a ride and decided to head over to Snetterton race circuit to watch the club level racing. As we wandered around the paddock we stumbled upon a modern looking race bike with a red, silver and blue paint job complete with the \'Norton\' logo on the fuel tank. I will never forget the moment they fired it up, in my humble opinion there is nothing to rival the sound of a race-prepped wankel engine. The rider, Malcolm Heath, took the bike to a win. A famous British marque beating modern Japanese bikes, cool!
The next time i saw the Norton Race bike was October 1988 at Brands Hatch but this was not merely club level racing, this was the big time. Steve Spray took the Norton to two fabulous wins in two very hard fought battles against Terry Rymer on the Loctite Yamaha. The famous British marque was now beating the best of the four stroke race bikes from Japan, very cool!!!
During 1989 i followed the Norton race team all over the UK, from Brands in the south to Knockhill in Scotland and from the Isle of Man to Cadwell Park in the east. Steve Spray won both the National Championships that year.
For 1990 i decided to try a season of club racing myself on a Honda CBR600. To start the season i booked a practice day at Snetterton. On arrival at the circuit i was surprised to find the Norton team there. My first \'dice\' with Spray came at Riches corner when Spray shot past me at the first apex. A few laps later i had just blasted past a little MZ racer half way down the Revett straight and was grinning to myself at how i must have frightened the life out of him when Spray did exactly the same thing to me, i nearly jumped off the bike!
At the 1990 Motorcycle Show i promised myself that one day i would buy myself a Norton F1, the \'race replica\'... (and one day i will).
The Norton Rotary company folded under the pressure of large debts in 1992. I continued to follow the fortunes of the race team but sadly it all came to an end at the close of the 1994 season. The National race series changed from F1 rules to the production based Superbike rules which ruled the Norton out.
I often dreamed of seeing the likes of Steve Spray and Trevor Nation back on the black and gold bikes. In 2002 my dreams came true, Spray and Nation made an appearance on the National Motorcycle Museum owned Nortons at Cadwell Park.
During the day at Cadwell, a couple of bikes caught my attention, an Interpol 2 ex-police bike with a 1970’s John Player Norton fairing and a white and pink Interpol 2 engined \'Streetfighter\' both fitted with race replica exhaust systems. I got chatting with the owner of the Streetfighter and learned that he could sell me a naked (full fairing removed) Interpol 2 that he had in his garage. Towards the end of 2002 i took delivery of the Norton Interpol 2 fitted with a Stainless and Titanium race rep exhaust.
I love riding the Rotary mainly because it brings back to me the sights and sounds of the ‘Glory years’ of the Norton race bikes. I often find myself playing sweet music with the exhaust note just for the sake of it, revving on down changes and rolling on and off the throttle through villages etc. At my old age the bike is quite quick enough for me (12.35 sec ¼ mile) but hopefully not so quick that I am likely to lose my driving license. There is much talk of how different they are to ride compared to a piston engined bike but in my opinion there is very little difference. Compared to my last bike, the Rotary has as much low down torque, a lot less vibration and a bit less engine braking, but then my last bike was a Harley Davidson!! At the end of the day its still a petrol fuelled internal combustion engine, it just sounds so much nicer than a piston engine.

I remember watching Alan Moffat in a Peripheral Port SA Rx7 at Bathurst way back when touring cars were group A in Australia. I loved watching the Rx7s winning. I was about 8-10years old. My parents had a RC hobby store so I got a 1/12 scale SA Rx7 body shell with the big flares and raced it until it descintegrated.

Thats probably how it started.

Then After actually learning to drive I went through a number of cars including my first rotary, An NA FC that I had rebuilt to go fast. I tried to buy an FD, I just love the shape. I went to a yard and the the guy gave a friend and I the keys to this 400hp FD. it was a true circuit spec road car. After a few sideways experiences I was hooked. But the car was $60000AUD and I couldnt come up with the cash at the time.

So i went through WRX, MR2 Turbo, FC turbo but I still wanted that FD bad.
When my GF and I decided to move to Japan. I knew I was going to get an FD. And what a place to get it. Driving japan in that car has been great. But something went wrong. The car didnt end up how i thought. some quick decisions (based around money) led the car to be less than I dreamed when It should have been so much more. That 400hp beast I drove is still haunting me. But I was satisfied with the Car. I recently sold my beloved FD but 110000Klms is a good reason to sell an FD I think.

So now I am saving hard for the next one, and i am planning to return to Japan. so when I am ready, Miguel, you\'ll will get an order.

The holy thread revival :D any more stories??

i have just re-read most of them .. quite a good thread to be honest !

Funny reading and looking back at what i and others had back then. How things have moved on now. :D

Adam

I will go with the revival :)

My first experience of a Rx7 was a long long time ago and funnily enough, i was never that interested. I guess it was 98 ish, maybe earlier, a guy i played Saturday league football with bought one, a UK car, god knows how much it cost, i think i remember talks of £22k in the changing room, it was red, maybe why i wasnt that interested as i hate red cars!

A few years past and Fast and Furious came out, another red one, still lacked appeal.

Another year went by and i jumped on the Jap Import bandwagon maybe 03, as the docks were just down the road in Southampton and on my second visit, there it was, a standard black Rx7. I was so tempted to bid on it, but i already had a car and needed the cash as i had to buy stock, it went through the auction and no one won it! I came home and couldnt get it out of my head, the next auction was 2 weeks time, how could i get the money within two weeks?? i had a friend who used to work at Mazda (salesmen), so i quizzed him on them, did some research where i found Mrc, looked on ebay etc The funny thing was, if you typed Rx7 into ebay then, there was maybe 1 car for sale and only 2 or 3 pages of search results!

I cant even remember what i was driving at that point, i think it was a Wrx Wagon or Prelude 2.2 Vtec, whatever it was it was sold in a week and at the next auction it was bought and not really looked back and i am on my fourth. The first black Rx7 was slightly modded during my ownership with a original 99 spec bumper, exhaust, filter and Apexi and is still going strong and on its 3rd member now :)

One was broken for parts, yes i know, the sell a single cheap or as parts debate and the shell was crushed with £2k worth of month or so old paint! The magazine featured Fc went to Jersey or Guernsey and a rebuild 96 i have never heard of to this day. The fourth will be a keeper for sure as i am making sure it is done exactly how i want it to be, any changes i make over time will hopefully be or can be just cosmetic to keep my interest or if i ever come into some money, i will have a short block triple built for it!

I am hopeful that as these difficult times end and the less well kept ones end up as a tin of beans, good examples will become increasingly difficult to find and their values rise! Its encouraging to think of things like Sierra and Escort Cossies, Rs Mexicos and Rs2000 that were a bargain once have now gained that cult status, very hopeful the Rx7 reaches those heights as in my eyes, in truly is a gorgeous car, in every way i might add!

I still have the car I talked about, man holy thread revival. All be it has changed to a full single turbo, fully caged car with some serious mods. But its still the same car !

Shaun

well i will tell my wee story!
 
i am a vehicle mechanic to trade and was on the hunt for a sports car preferebly a 2 seater, i looked at a lot of things mr2, audi tt (yes i know), caterham 7 (no roof in scotland always put me off) lotus, old porsche, skyline,350z, supra etc anyway none really took my fancy to be honest i had driven most and to be honest wasnt entirely impressed. anyway my best mate is a self employed joiner/builder and come accross an rx7 in a garage at a house he was working on and asked the owner about it and found out it was her sons which had sat there for 6 years and hadnt turned a wheel and didnt start anymore which he was selling but he was abroad in australia, so i waited my time and the son eventually come home and i went round and met him and we got talking and he was thinking on breaking it for parts but he would rather sell it to me knowing that it was going to get looked after, sorted and put back on the road and not stripped. so i went home and told the girlfriend and she was skeptical didnt know what it looked like so thanks to google some pics came up and she seen a black 1 with gold wheels and she asked does it have gold wheels, so we went out to look at it and she loved the look of it in person so we bought it! it is an import 94 fd with about 27000 on the clock which was completely standard all bar gold enkei rpf1 wheels, an re amimeya front spoiler, sideskirts and ohlins coilovers. so got it home got it running and wow i love the thing now cant see me ever selling it, i have done so much to it now have modded just about every aspect of it now