Just sold my FD - ownership experience write-up

[declasm]

X-posted from a thread I created on Pistonheads but probably more appropriate here!

Hello all, I have decided to create a Reader\'s Cars thread to tell the story of my time with my Mazda RX-7 twin turbo.

This was my second RX-7, the first was a black \'93 twin turbo import bought in May \'07. Sadly this car was written off in August when my wife (then girlfriend) hit standing water and spun coming onto the A3 on the daily commute she was using the car for. Luckily she was unhurt but we learnt a couple of things about RX-7s that day - don\'t use it as a daily driver and don\'t drive it in the rain!

With the insurance payout burning a hole in my pocket I had unfinished RX-7 business so I set about scouring all sources for another one. I had a budget of £4500 so I couldn\'t believe my luck when I found this one, badly advertised on PH. The price was right - £4K and the car had some very serious bonus points:

At that time it only had just under 44K miles, a number of mods - exhaust, suspension, wheels and (questionable but it grew on me) bodykit but the biggy was that it was one of only 124 UK Spec models so not only did it come with all the options (cruise, leather, sunroof etc) it was also easy to insure cheaply as a classic. It would seem that buying sports cars it\'s easier to get a much better deal in the winter too.

Driving the car back from Gosport was an interesting experience - the previous owner seemed to think that winding the coilovers to their lowest setting and having the dampers on full hardness was appropriate for the road!!?

Advert pictures:
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Back home:
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Driving a rotary-engined car gives all owners paranoia - I had it bad, I would convince myself the car was leaning out (with the big exhaust and unmapped ecu) and throw a tip, burst a water seal and explode the turbos on every outing so I thought I would give myself some peace of mind by installing a boost gauge so I could make sure it wasn\'t over boosting and that the turbo switching arrangement was healthy. This was back in January 2008

boost gauge install:
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Luckily the car was perfectly healthy so it was onwards and upwards! I took the car along to a PH Sunday service in February \'08 and met amongst others Papercup and checked out his very serious track beast:

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Also around the same time out with my friend Dr. D and his old Supra (it came with that plate!)

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I thought I\'d join in on the rotary scene so I went along to the Mazda Rotary club meet a Brooklands April \'08 and saw some very rare Mazdas:

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A couple more pics from May \'08:

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Eager to test out the car\'s straight-line performance I went along the \'Performance, Tuning and Modified\' show at Santa Pod May \'08. My best 1/4 mile time was a 14.14 @ 99.82 with a 2.1s 60\'. Supposedly the time for a stock Japanese car (255bhp) was 13.9 @ 100 so I wasn\'t far off considering that the UK cars were 237bhp but obviously then the desire for more power bit me!

RX-7 vs celica ptm show May 08 14.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILRSipyKjdg

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June \'08, took the car along to a local (well it was in Dorking) Jap car meet - note the AE86!

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Another cheesy posed pic with Dr. D and his Supra

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Also a not very sunny day trip to the beach at Calshot

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I went along to the London Motorshow in July \'08 and not only did I get to drive a couple of Mazda\'s in the Zoom Zoom challenge I also saw 2 RX-7 on show and the Furai concept car

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Before getting around to any upgrades I took the car out to a taster track session at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. This was a cold but clear December morning, I spun the car on my second lap - in that 25 mins or so on track I learnt alot about my car! fortunately I took it a bit easier after that, warmed my tyres and went home no worse for wear - incredible good fun

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On to Feb \'09 and this was no time to be taking out the Rex:

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By March the snow was gone so I set about spending my collected pennies on some bits and pieces for the car.
I built a budget removable speaker box from some mdf and a bargain set of maplins speakers and an amp - all-in it was less than £50 worth but looked ok and filled in some depth in music that wasn\'t there with the original speakers

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By far my favourite upgrade however was my new ECU - an A\'pexi Power FC and hand controller, I installed it and ran it on the base map for a few weeks but already high rpm acceleration was much improved with it there.

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For my birthday in April \'09 I took at trip to the tuner\'s - RE:Worx in Portsmouth where I had a map put together for my car on the rolling road:

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The car made 323bhp @ 0.9bar of boost on the RE:Worx rolling road after the tune. I was very, very happy!

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I was keen then to test out the new power on the drag strip at Santa Pod so I took my \'crew\' along for support and broke into the 13s!

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Here\'s my highlights video of the tuning and subsequent Pod trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXYDZIKBmU

April was also the month for another Mazda Rotary Club show at Brooklands - this time we got to go on the track and take some photos

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I hadn\'t been happy with my 1/4 mile times in April so I went back to Santa Pod in May \'09 and did a bit better - running a 13.5 @ 103.92 with a 2.1s 60\' - 0.6s better than my previous best the year before

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Here\'s a video of the run against a 380bhp Evo VII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pmuhvzu1Ao

As it was local I went to another Pistonheads Sunday Service in August \'09. I met a great bunch of local PH\'ers (great convoy!)

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A few random detail shots from around the same time

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In September \'09 I had an issue with the engine (rotary paranoia kicked in) huge (comedy) loss of power and a very loud hissing sound - it turned out that one of my old rubber boost hoses had perished so I bought some silicone ones for ~£50 - problem solved!

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Thinking I might fancy doing some more track stuff I got a bargain set of lightweight black Speedline wheels already wearing some Eagle F1s for £200

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Another problem in Dec \'09 - I really thought I\'d killed it this time, engine water seals I thought, it had to be? I had a brief overheat and got scared to start the car again, I had my neighbour check it out with me (he builds AM engines) and we found that it was just my waterpump that had failed, a new pump and gasket was in order. Well the car was in pieces for weeks as it was just too cold to work on, on the drive

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By mid-January 2010 tho, all was good again and running happily

Messing around with a wide-angle lens in March:

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Finally got to the track again in March - this time an airfield day at North Weald - epic, awesome fun. I do have to say tho I wasn\'t really taking it too seriously. The Rex was just so much fun keeping it sliding on the ragged edge that my times and lines were not my first priority!

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Another highlights video - check us out 5-up in a mate\'s 330D taking one of the short sprint courses at the end!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5gszXVrR0

With a new (little!) lady in my life, a two-seater sports car just couldn\'t cut it so I finally sold the car yesterday (June 12th) with just over 50K miles on to a girl who travelled all the way from Barcelona to buy it! here are a couple of the last few pics:

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And the last place I drove it to - the space in the Gatwick car park its new owner drove it away from

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[Ed_RX7]

Ah..nice car...i assume you bought it off a guy i know..NICK....those are my old wheels also...glad to see you had fun in your time of RX ownership!!!

[Ed_RX7]

P.s..this is a really good thread and should be made a sticky as it helps future owners realise all is not bad with a ....EL!!!

[declasm]

Ah..nice car...i assume you bought it off a guy i know..NICK....those are my old wheels also...glad to see you had fun in your time of RX ownership!!!

I bought it from a guy called John in Nov 2007 - don\'t know if he\'d had it long tho but I\'ve got a feeling the wheels were bought new for the car?!

[DrDan]

Declan,

Excellent write-up. Makes me miss *my* old silver FD even more now...
 
:3gears-rh

Dan.