How Many 1st Gens Still Running?

[Ian65]

Not sure who is keeping the tally, but my S3 is officially MOTd with 12 months tax and even insurance (£350 with 6 points and a recent ban sounded good to me!)

Yay for me! Regarding the illusive brackets for the sway bar, a trip to Bnq for some flat bar, an angle grinder a drill and all sorted.

Nice one! Enjoy it

[Marcrs]

Good work RamoNZ

[Ian65]

OYY 66Y back on ebay again...
 

 
different description..... same seller or has it moved on?

Back on ebay again today £750.... with a glass roof if anyone wants to try to do a deal!

[Ian65]

I see you\'ve found a connection then Dave!

[tuanage]

Hi i\'m new here, though i\'ve been well and truly diagnosed with rotary syndrome  :cool

i saw on page 13 of this thread there was some discussion about the first batch of cars brought to the UK. My father owns an rx7 rally car with the reg FKJ 419V, and we\'ve been doing much detective work over the years to try find the history of the car.

We believe it was one of the press cars along with the sequences FKJ 417, 418 etc. It was owned by Mazda Motor company for the first two years, during which time TWR prepped it for group 2 rallying. It competed on the 1980 RAC, jointly entered by Mazda and National Breakdown. It competed on several other events over the early 1980s, and upgraded to for Group B competition at some stage. Later on it was taken off the stages and began a very successful career as a racing car, wining its class in the European Championship. It then competed in the UK on the circuit scene before my father spotted it at an NEC show one year, recognised it was a rally car (strengthened + raised turrets and a few more tell tales) and brought it back to Ireland and put it back into rallying guise. It was only then we began to find out the history of the car and that it was one of the VERY early UK Rxs and rallied by Mazda.  


Here on the Rally Ireland WRC event 2009 running with the Slowly Sideways group



And at the Killarney Rally of the Lakes International 2009


Anyone have anything interesting to say? Ever seen it before? What about the other press cars?
Any information greatly appreciated :D

Tuan

[Ian65]

Hi Tuan,
welcome to the forum.
The set of Mazda press cars are, according to the DVLA database, no longer on UK roads...

FKJ 407V      Gold      01.08.1979   unlicensed since 01.02.1992      
FKJ 414V      Red      02.08.1979   unlicensed since 01.02.1995      
FKJ 417V      Red      02.08.1979   unlicensed since 01.01.1993      
FKJ 418V      Red      02.08.1979   unlicensed since 01.07 1995      
FKJ 419V      White      02.08.1979   unlicensed since 01.01.1991      
FKJ 420V      Grey      02.08.1979   unlicensed since 01.11.1990      

That isn\'t to say they don\'t exist any more, just that they haven\'t been taxed for road use.

FKJ 417V was, as you say, one of the early press cars and was handed over to Car magazine at the European RX7 launch in Versailles for a long term test.
This was in August 1979 and the car had done 831 miles at that point.
Over the next 6 months, Car magazine put 12000 miles on it and reported their views in the magazine..... I have these reviews if you don\'t already have them.













It seems that CAR magazine had the car until February / March 1980 and then it went to TWR.

[tuanage]

Thanks Ian for hte info, but its FKJ 419V that concerns us most.

Here it is on the 1980 Tour of Cumbia when Mazda still owned it


And in its current form 2009


It was never owned by TWR, just prepared by them for Mazda Motor Company and then National Breakdown had it in their possession at some stage. Interesting that it shows as 1991 being the last year it was on the UK roads, maybe thats when it started racing...
Its currently in Group B spec with a 13B and much wider suspension etc. quite a rasp off it :Laugh

[Ian65]

sorry my mistake

[A7RXY]

Ian what happend to the photos from your earlier post ?

[Ian65]

Ian what happend to the photos from your earlier post ?

it wasn\'t the right car so I took them off

[syebba]

 
On ebay,can u guess whose it is?:rolleyes:

[Ian65]

looks like a bargain to me!

[syebba]

 
Scrappy on ebay/inverness.

[syebba]

 
scrappy in staffordshire,1984 no reg,ebay

[RamoNZ]

The guy in inverness tried to mug me, he wants £45 for a master cylinder, whole car cant have cost much more than that..