my brother has owned a highly modded twin turbo veilside supra for quite a few years now and swears by them, he does the normal meets, box hill, bolney etc and seemed to have the veiw (along with a lot of other jap car owners i suspect) that most rx owners were a bit eccentric (i must add in a nice way) for owning the rotary powered cars, he admitted when he came down to visit the fd is one of the prettiest and nicest looking jap cars (i must agree to this) but couldnt understand why someone would pay the same money for an fd that you would pay for a decent (and ultra reliable compared to the fd) tt supra. I soon put a smile on his face though when i gave him a go in mine (on wet roads!) and think the size of the smile showed him how good the underated fd really is! are we eccentic for spending this kind of money on the fd and owning a rotary, or because we took more of a chance actually have a better car in reality than other jap performance owners really understand? personally i think we probably are eccentric for owning rx\'s but probably have more of a grin factor feeling than most other make drivers could ever understand! what do you think?
I would say alot of people bought rotaries for how pretty a car they are, plus they are a rare car on the road too. How many people still look at a stock evo, scoobie, GTO or supra in amazement?
I think bang for buck the rotary just can\'t be beat, especially with the fc. I know the supra is fantastically reliable, but it weighs way more than the fd. That must serious affect the way it brakes and goes round bends ?
I think its all about how well people look after the engine, any car can have engine problems and not all can be fully rebuilt for 1k in parts.
Eccentric - oh yes. Its nice to be different and i wouldn\'t have it any other way !
Plus i\'ve never been in a supra so i couldn\'t say if it was a massive difference. What bhp/tonne is it ?
Shaun
when he bought the supra years ago there were not many about, plus with the full veilside it was an awesome sight, nowadays they are seen as much as scoobys etc . not sure of the bhp/tonne but its running about 500ish bhp, although i must say he has spent a fortune getting to this! its absolutely awesome in a straight line, cornering is fun, it can be done quickly but does need a certain amount of skill and knoweledge of the car a bit like an fd4 on a damp road, sideways cornering! i remember going to goodwood for a track day and watching the bemused look on a ferrari drivers face when his £150,000 car was beaten on the straight by a cheap (in comparison) jap production car. he didnt stay in front after a few corners but the reaction and facial expression was priceless! im an ex scooby driver and was after a tt supra when i came across the fd by accident, bought it on a whim and havnt regretted it since! i like the exclusivity factor of the mazda and the fact that many people have to ask what it is! you dont get this question often with other perfomance jap cars. The car is superbly balanced has a high revving high output fantastic engine, but also comes with high care and maintenance factor. but then again what supercar doesnt!
When you say a fortune to get it to 500bhp ish how much do you mean?
Just had a quick look and the supra is about 1500kg curb weight so 500bhp is 333bhp per tonne, the rx7 with stock twins with a few grand spent on it (in the right places) can do 300bhp per tonne. Swap to a single turbo and the value just shoots up :p
I know what you mean about bemused looks when you have somebody sit next to you at the lights thinking they just do over this mx5 and you just say see you later :p
Shaun
I think rotaries definitely have a bit of a bad rep from Jap enthusiasts for reliability. Anytime you speak to someone and say you have an FD, they just start going on and on about how it needs a rebuild etc etc.
But as for looks they\'re still awesome to this day. It takes something special for a design that\'s around 14 years old to still turn heads!
they look superb but have to say they are fragile compared to the supra..have to say i love the supra as well and u are never really going to notice much difference unless on track/or 1/4 mile..both cars are superb but if i had money it wld be rx7 with ls1 v8..goods looks with reliability and 25mpg...there will be one running at rotorstock which is a 6.3litre i blve so should be interesting to see how it performs
I went out in the Rex on Friday to get some petrol. It was sunny as hell so loads of nice cars were out. I pulled into the petrol station and had two people come up to me and ask me about the Rex and said how nice it was. Made me laugh as a Ferrari was there as well and no-one went up to him.
These cars really are fantastic looking and because of how rare they are people notice them. I think they definitely have a bit of a bad rep but being underated is always fun.
I think the bad rep that the performance car community have given the Rex is largely unfounded - yes the 13B REW is weaker than the 3l block from the Supra, rebuilds every 60k or so (but in the US there are 3rd gens with well over 100k on their original engines) whereas the Supra would probably run for 150k, but over that time how many engine components would have been replaced. Big difference beween a boinger and a rotary IMHO is that you can replace parts of a piston engine without doing a full rebuild. How often is a head gasket going to be replaced for example, because there are so few parts in a rotary and they are all enclosed in the actual block, replacing anything requires the strip down and re-build of the block. It isn\'t expensive in comparison to a full rebuild for say an RB26 or Supra block
1500kg for the supra? I think most owners might be suprised how heavy they are, a friend of mine put his mildly modified tt on a weighbridge thingy and there was nothing extra in the car to give it extra weight, it weighed in at.... 1850kg! thats why the rx will give bang for buck in comparison, its all power to weight!
Supras are supposed to be 1589kg as standard
I purchased mine after a long debate, shall i shan\'t i? supra, RX or maybe a skybus. the REx won it due to the supra being to big to fit in my drive, skybus was just a bit bland looking but then the REx..............name me a sexier looking car (within finacial reason).
I do not count myself as eccentric, just a bit loopy on the weekends
you just cannot beat the rotary engine. for the power it produces with such a small capacity (ok that bits a bit debateble) and it is soooooo sooo simple. more simpler than a two stroke.
and we all know about manufactures \'standard\' figures!
if it weighs 1050kg they\'ll say its under a tonne
if it produces 275bhp they\'ll say \'just shy of 300\'
if it does a 5.3 0-60 they\'ll say 5 sec
Quote from: andyroseI purchased mine after a long debate, shall i shan\'t i? supra, RX or maybe a skybus. the REx won it due to the supra being to big to fit in my drive, skybus was just a bit bland looking but then the REx..............name me a sexier looking car (within finacial reason).
that is exactly what i went through before getting the fd. A mate has just bought an auto twinturbi M reg supra. Nice car, but after being in it and driving it about, it just is not as nimble, fun or glove like fitting as the rx7. I like how small and cockpit like the rx7 cabin is, The supra has more room inside, but that does not affect me because i am just Mr average size.Take a look here for a comparisson guide. http://www.geocities.com/ma71supraturbo/articles/mk4/9_93cdsupra.html
Blimey 1850kg you said, I\'ve had mine on a weigh bridge and it only weighed 1250kg :p
Shaun
Just some weight stats I found on the net on high performance Japanese cars to give an idea of where the RX7 sits... :)
supra - 1620 kg
200sx - 1265 kg
s2000 - 1270 kg
Impreza - 1470 kg
rx7 - 1270 kg
pulsar - 1220 kg
nsx - 1470 kg
r33 - 1601 kg
r34 - 1666 kg
Quotehttp://www.geocities.com/ma71suprat..._93cdsupra.html
Good link... can someone explain how the heck the Supra got a 10 in handling and the RX7 a 9 ...? I do agree with the styling... RX7 - 10 and the Supra - 8 :)
Did you check out that 50-70mph in top gear stat? ...RX7 wiped the floor with the others...This actually surprised me cos I\'ve never thought of top gear accelaration as being an RX7 strength...being such a revy comparatively untorquey engine.
Quote from: sadgothSupras are supposed to be 1589kg as standard
That what my mate thought too! lol! The weighbridge doesn\'t lie though.
Might be why he is putting a T70 in it, to help drag all that steel around... :)