RX7 1990, to buy or not?

[Paul TVR]

Hi new to the forum, I\'ve been looking for a cheap runabout and have seen a RX7 for sale for £500, it\'s a non turbo and owner says needs a tune up but has a years MOT and looks tidy, had a rebuild 20k ago. Is that price good or bad? What would I expect to pay for a turbo as I ran in through my insurance and only £30 extra.

[Brett]

As with all cars you get what you pay for.  Make sure you check the sills etc for rust, and the front cross member. (round bar, near radiator)
 If its a standard car then check the exhaust, they are very expensive to replace.  Make sure that it has oil in the sump and that it IS USING oil, if the owner says its never used a drop they are either lying or the engine wont be long for this world.
 What makes him say it requires a tune up?  A good engine should start quickly and settle into a nice smooth idle, dropping to 750(+/-) rpm once warm.  Once the car is warmed up, stop the engine and leave it for 10mins.  Come back and restart it, if it starts on the button from warm then thats a very good sign.  If it doesnt then it usually points to poor compression.  It should pull smoothly throughout the rev range and a shift buzzer should sound at around 7000rpm.  
 Check it pulls up evenly under braking, the front brakes are 4 pot calipers and are prone to sticking if not properly serviced, the rears are single piston and the same applies.

 But, assuming its taxed, tested and runs/stops ok then you are looking at a good price.

 :wave

[Paul TVR]

I though I sounded reasonable, it\'s just passed a mot so shouldn\'t be too rusty but I will check just to be sure, out of interest how much do the turbo models fetch? I\'ve search autotrader and the like but they don\'t have many for sale.

[vixpy1]

Hmm, another PH\'er i wonder ...

[Paul TVR]

Yep Paul V from over there.

[vixpy1]

Hm... I wonder if one were to have a spin, would it be fun?

[Paul TVR]

Spinning is great fun

[Brett]

A good turbo II is going to be around £2000 mark, and they have thinner floorpans and all the fun that that entails! (Just ask Grinder ... or me for that matter!)

[grinder]

did someone call

thin floor pan means lots of welding

[Jit]

I think 2 grand is a bit pessimistic for a good one...my TII eventually sold for 1300 and gave me months (er....6 of them) of trouble free motoring....I reckon youd need to spend atleast a grand though

[lanciachris]

Note that the MOT is no guarantee about the front crossmember. Mine had a brand new mot and when I checked out that area it was all a bit crunchy.

[vixpy1]

We had to weld a couple of large bits of metal onto the car to make it roadworthy..

mind you.. it was a free car..:Santa

[Paul TVR]

Vipxy if you have any other free ones you don\'t want let me know

[1990_fc3s_t2]

I would say £2000 is a good price for a t2 but im intrested in the floorpan, Do you know its definatly thinner?? Cant be to save weight surely plus arent all fc\'s shell the same?

[grinder]

you seem to be 3 yrs out of date with this thread matey