Is the rx7 for me!? See within

[Jake202]

First of all I will say hello as this is my first post. :WaveBye

Now I have a problem maby you guys can help I\'m currently driving this :



It\'s a 1996 Nissan 180sx

2.0litre single turbo sr20det hsd Coilovers all suspension arms etc.

I estimate around 260-300hp however don\'t make boost until 4.5-5k rpm



I have been given a vehicle from work which I can run daily so I am now in the market for something a little bit more ridiculous for a weekend toy. I am considering the following:

Rx7fd3s
Jzx100 chaser
R34 gtt
R32 (bit old not overly keen)
S15 spec r (over budget I think)

I really want a car that I can get in and will make me smile every time I turn the key as you can see I want something a little bit different from the norm hence my reasoning for the rx7.

I have done mega amounts of research on the rx7 and I would be straight on with getting on top of the rats near and various cooling enhancements. I mainly want a car that I can drive to a track day and drive home. And have a run out at weekends will probably do max of 5000 miles a year.

Is the rx7 for me?

Thanks jake.

[grinder]

this statement alone

I really want a car that I can get in and will make me smile every time I turn the key

means you need/want a RX7

[Jake202]

I did think someone would say that I\'ve never been in one in all honesty I think if I went in one I would be sold completely. Will be used for occasional drift use aswell so would go for lock mods if available

[grinder]

there must be someone near you who will take you for a spin ??

[samoht]

Hi!

Nice RPS13 there, love the wheels, arches and spoiler.  Pretty much my perfect S13!

I owned a very similar car for five years, didn\'t look as good but as yours but similar mechanically, although was stock turbo so ~240hp but kicked hard low down.  I sold it to get my FD 18 months ago.

I\'ve had two S13s, between them I\'ve tried standard suspension, KYBs, and two different coilover setups.  The FD on factory \'hard\' suspension is way, way better to drive than any S13 suspension I\'ve had.  The turn-in and steering response is so immediate, and when you lose the tail under power it\'s *so* much easier to catch - the S13 used to let go and then go quite a long way before I could get it back, the FD is much more stable and poised, so it makes it quick and easy to get back under control.  There\'s less \'momentum\' when it slides, so it\'s very intuitive to control.

Then on turn-in, if you go in too fast in an S13 it understeers on entry; in an FD you can trail-brake to the apex, getting the whole car into a slight braking drift to bring it into the corner.

I think these differences are caused by the 50/50 weight distribution (vs 55/45 or so for an S13), lower centre of gravity due to the rotary engine and the car being a bit lower overall, and possibly the double wishbone suspension keeps more favourable camber under body roll.  Anyway, it just feels so much more of a precision instrument than the S13, both on road and trackdays.

The other difference is that the T25G on the 180 gave a non-linear kick low-down, which was fun but tended to lead to wheelspin in a straight line and oversteer in corners; the FD has a finicky twin-turbo setup that, when its working, gives a lovely linear response through the rev-range, which makes it easier to work the chassis up to the limit.

So as a drivers\' car and trackday toy, the FD is a league beyond the S13 in my experience.  It\'s also nice to have the smoothness of a rotary engine, compared to the SR20 which can feel a tad harsh at high revs.


However, it\'s not all roses in the rotary garden.

You *need* an FMIC or V-mount intercooler for trackdays, which then means a lot of work rearranging everything under the bonnet to make space.

The twin-turbo setup is unreliable, most owners have experienced one or two failures and it isn\'t always straightforward to diagnose the issue, which can get frustrating.  SR20s suffer from turbo gasket failures causing boost leaks, but these are fairly straightforward compared to the variety of interesting and intermittent ways an FD\'s twin sequential turbos can malfunction.

Generally the FD isn\'t quite as robust as the S13, fixing stuff seems to take longer and cost more.  Only good thing is that 90% of FDs are rust-free, whereas 90% of S-bodies are rusty.

Only a limited number of garages are even vaguely able to service rotaries, and it\'s hard to find a good specialist.

The FD is much less practical than an S13; the S13 has a relatively huge boot, with the seats down; and uses about a third less fuel.  I got 30-35mpg with my 180, 20-25 with the FD.

Of the cars on your list, I\'d only regard the FD and S15 as sports cars; the others are quite a bit heavier.  The FD may be a bit cheaper to buy, but I guess it will cost more to run than an S15.  Personally I decided I didn\'t want another S-body after a year in one and five years in another, so went rotary.


Honestly, nearly everything in your post points to recommending you buy an FD.  5k miles a year with a focus on trackdays is pretty much ideal usage pattern, and the FD is generally, intercooler apart, much better suited to trackdays as stock than the S13.  Only thing is that it does cost me very roughly, 50% more to fuel and maintain.

I really want a car that I can get in and will make me smile every time I turn the key

My FD makes me smile every time I look at it, every time I put my foot down, every time I turn a corner.  It\'s such an exciting car, I never regret swapping from my S13 to it, despite the higher maintenance costs.

[Jake202]

Haha nice post thanks for the response and taking the time to write it! I live in Swindon so Hayward rotary are only down the road which is handy it\'s nice to get a idea from someone that was previously in S-bodies just a wonder if I can insure a rx7 really I don\'t see it being a problem when the 180 has a spec list as long as my arm and is all declared!

Thanks again,

Jake

[samoht]

Cool, being close to Hayward is handy.  It wouldn\'t hurt to give them a call and/or go along there sometime, tell them you\'re considering swapping to an FD and ask for buying advice, get a feel for things.  Also they may have, or know of, a car coming up for sale.

Insurance is one thing that you shouldn\'t have any trouble with, mine went down slightly when I moved from the S13 to the FD.  Insurance rates are generally coming down slightly overall, and FDs seem to be considered equal or slightly lower risk than S-bodies, so you should be able to find cover without any significant hike.  As you probably know, if you\'re only doing 5,000 miles a year you can insure it on limited mileage, which may well cut the premium a bit.

[Jake202]

Yeah just checked hayward is 30minutes away which is cool :-) I presume single turbo is the way to go to get rid of all this rats nest :censored::censored::censored::censored:? I know cooling is very very important with rotary engines also so would get straight on top of any cooling issues

[samoht]

I posted some general advice here for another guy recently, might be useful if you haven\'t seen it: http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81893

As far as cooling goes, I\'m running ~300hp on twins, Koyo rad with ducting, and FMIC.  On the APEXI PFC controller screen I can see water and air temps, both have been absolutely fine even on track.  It is important to upgrade these, but lots of people have done it and there are standard solutions (front- or v-mount intercooler with upgraded rad), so either buy a car with the upgrades already done or I\'m sure Hayward will be able to quote you a price to upgrade otherwise.  It\'s just a pain you have to change/move the battery, a/c condenser and air intake to fit it all in.

I do find the twin turbos frustrating, however at the same time I like the way you get linear power rather than a bump in the midrange, in my 180 with the T25G, the power would arrive in halfway round a corner and I\'d end up very sideways.  I also like the way you can pull out to overtake a 40mph dawdler in 3rd gear at under 3,000rpm, and it just hauls hard all the way round to 7,500 and 85mph without a gearchange.  The progressiveness and linearity of the power is nice, although I haven\'t tried an FD with a single turbo.

It\'s a trade-off, so far I\'m sticking with the twins, however it\'s possible my patience will run out and I\'ll go single later on.  If keeping the rats\' nest, the best thing is to replace ALL the rubber vacuum lines with new plastic ones, this takes away some, but not all, of the issues.

[Jake202]

Nice I will check that thread out! I bring more good news spoke to sky insurance earlier and the quote was £600 a year cheaper than what I am currently paying hahaha

[Jake202]

Also currently looking at importing this one from japan thoughts on this?

http://jpcenter.ru/on-T2S2c6RXPmdYl.htm

[samoht]

Haha, great news on the insurance.

As for the white car:

I wouldn\'t trust any website ending in .ru, personally; have you had any feedback from other customers?

If you\'re buying a car from auction, it should have a \'grade\'; grade 4 is vgc, grade 3 or 3.5 is probably ok.  Anything lower is probably best avoided.  Grade \'R\' means ungradable, it could be an awesome highly modified car, could be a poorly repaired wreck with frame damage - would need checking by an expert who\'s familiar with FDs.

As for the car itself;

1996 is good, as it has a few reliability mods over earlier cars.

Front bumper, skirts, bonnet and wing are aftermarket.  Looks to have coilovers, from the underbonnet shot.

It\'s got an FMIC fitted, which is good as you need one for trackdays and it\'s a lot of labour to fit.

Still running twin turbos.

I\'d be concerned about it for a couple of reasons;
- it looks like it\'s running some kind of aftermarket ECU that is not an Apexi PFC.  It could be running a fairly crude \'extra fuel\' device that might not be great for the engine, because it would be unlikely to be getting the right amount of fuel in.  If you bought it, you\'d probably not find anyone to map it in the UK so would need to fit an Apexi or something else straight away.
- the engine bay looks a bit of a mess.  Garden hose, loose components slung all over the place

Basically it\'s been \'messed with\' quite a lot, and it\'s hard to have confidence that all the mods have been done properly.  The biggest risk is a bad map and/or a wiring loom that\'s been chopped around, leading to a car blowing its engine within a week of arrival and being more work to re-build and re-wire than its worth.  (Not unknown for this to happen).  Since you can\'t inspect the cars when importing, I\'d really think in terms of getting a near-standard car, as it\'s a much safer bet.  If you saw something that had obviously been modified with no expense spared, then that would be worth the risk.  Otherwise if you can import with someone who can inspect the cars in person, then you have a better basis to take a risk on a modified car.

If the price is USD$9k, that\'s £5,300, which is £7650 after shipping, import duty and VAT, I guess a bit over £8k OTR, plus anything you need to change/fix on the car itself.

If you\'re thinking of importing, I suggest you have a look at this old thread I did when I imported my 180, to get an idea of costs and timelines:
http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?342007-Guide-to-importing-a-car-from-Japan

[Jake202]

Hi thanks for your reply I am very clued up on the importing process and I have a person in japan that can inspect the cars and test drive for me I wouldn\'t purchase from auction this car is currently at a dealer, but yeah I have pulled the plug on this as it does look like it\'s had a little bit to much messing under the bonnet! Looks lovely on the outside though. The .ru website is just a domain for a route to the auctions it\'s a great site!

Thanks jake

[samoht]

Ok awesome, you\'re familiar with the process.  That\'s great if you have someone you can ask to look at the cars.