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Hello all. A long time since I posted on here.

I recently sold my Mazda 13B engined Ro80 for very reasonable price, and it is now in Japan, where unusual cars are in demand.

I'm looking at a rather nice 2007 RX7 here in France, but unfortunately it is right hand drive.

Can anyone here give me any advice on experiences or possibility of converting it to left hand drive?

Thanks for the welcome. Pics of my current Ro80 are on my ads in both For Sale sections. Poor thing now just sits in the back of the garage, I’m scared to use it or park it here in France, where they regard scrapes and swipes as part of normal driving, and the Alfa uses about half the petrol. I thought I’d better find a good home for it. I seem to have finally grown out of driving fast, and it doesn’t like being driven slowly.
 
Here are a couple of pics of my first Ro80, the granddaddy of all your cars, only a couple of days old, in 1988, and checking out its cornering in Spain, sorry the scanned slides are not such good quality.
 
I bought the car through the agent in Teheran, to collect at the factory. I paid £100 to the agent and £1,080 when I collected it from Neckarsulm. It sold in UK for around £2,400. Those were the days!
 
When I asked how fast I should drive with the new engine, the factory sales guy thought for a bit, then said “Maybe 100 mph for the first thousand kilometers”.

The car was fantastic compared with anything else I had driven. So quiet at speed. Later models had a 7000 rpm rev limiter, but this one would reach nearly 8000 in top on a good stretch, nearly 150 mph.
 
I was working in Algeria then, and drove several times between Burnley and Oran, about 2,000 miles plus 2 ferries, in 4 ½ days, wife sharing the driving, poor kids stuck in the back. There were no motorways on the route in those days, but much less traffic, especially at night, apart from huge queues at borders. We eventually knew the route by heart, and stayed in the same hotels nearly every trip.
 
The car never missed a beat in nearly 2 years, it was made for fast driving.
In my opinion all the problems the car had were caused by crawling around towns fouling up the plugs and seals.

[Name]

Name Dick Flower
Born Malta â€" Father was in the RN, stationed there. Lived in England until 1962.
Wife Yes. Same one for 44 years
Kids Yes, Dawn & Peter
Job Retired after 15 years in my own marine engineering business in Spain.
Previously oil rig electrician, all over the world.
Likes Older cars, rotary engines, sailing, touring by car â€" I stopped flying
Dislikes Cowboys. Most car dealers. People who buy old cars they can’t fix, don’t want to find out how, and complain when they break down.

I’ve owned 60 or more bikes & cars, including 3 Ro80’s â€" bought in ’68 (new), ’75, and ’84 â€" I still have the last one. Now down to 4 cars, a VW camper and a Dodge 50 truck.


I always wanted a Mazda rotary â€" nearly bought a new RX7 after a test drive in Texas a few years ago, but finally settled for a Mazda engine in the Ro80. The only Mazda I used was a 929, for a year in Saudi after I refused to drive the Chevy Impala they gave me when it blew a front tyre. (I don’t know how fast I was going, as the speedo only went to 70). The Mazda was incomparably better.


After retiring I finally completed the Mazda into Ro80 project I’d planned for years. Now pottering about keeping the everyday cars going, fixing the boat and the house. I really don’t know how I ever found time to do a full time job!

No. But I didn\'t read the instructions properly - I\'m a bit old and slow:)

I have a RHD UK reg Ro80 with Mazda engine which might interest you. I will post details in For Sale section as soon as this is approved.