1983 RX7 on $100 a week

In the grand tradition of starting build threads before actually getting the car, I will now start writing about the 1983 Mazda RX7 that I don't yet own.
I'll begin by saying that this is sort of a continuation of the Mazda2 on $100 a week thread that I had earlier. When I bought the 2, I wanted a a car that I could drive every day. A car that I could haul my kids around in and grocery shop in and take trips in and slowly get back into autorcrossing. I put 24K miles on the 2 in the year and a half that I owned it and it did exactly what I set out to do. My mild smoldering interest in motorsports was rekindled in the 20 autocrosses and 12 or so rallycrosses that I attended with the car. When it came time to replace it a quick re-evaluation of priorities revealed that I no longer wanted a sane logical car to haul the kids around in, I want a berkeleying race car.
So far I've located a 1983 Mazda RX7 in current IT7 trim. Current log book and spares and the whole 9 yards. Where is it? Atlanta, of course. It's paid for and I'm headed out to pick in up in 8 days. Could things go bad? Sure, but every long distance car purchase has gone fantastic. So far. I still need to buy a trailer to haul it back, but that somehow seems quite minor in the whole scheme of things. What I did buy already is a set of tires for the car. It comes with a couple of sets of wheels with road race tires on them. That's all well and good, but I have a rallycross that I'd like to attend with the car very soon after I get home. Some cursory searching showed that tires for a 13x7 inch wheel are pretty non-existent outside of road race compounds and those aren't ideal for rallycross. I ended up with these beauties. 460 treadwear should be interesting.

I still need to figure out exactly when my budget starts, but those tires take $263 off the top before I ever set eyes on the car. Perfect.

I know the car you are speaking about! Thank you for buying it before I did! It was very tempting!

Good Luck!

Let "US" know if you have any questions or issues. RX7's are a pretty well known beast in these here parts.

Rob R.

congratulations and good luck with the build. I will be looking forward to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4IqwE8EkcA

Dooo iiiiit....

Hey, i showed up on time in a Mazdeuce thread!

I'll be asking for help, you can be sure of that. No matter how many videos or animations I watch, I can't quite believe that rotary engines actually work. I always feel like I'm watching some "brilliant new technology that will change cars as we know them" but it turns our only works in computer simulations and they can't get a real one to work outside the lab. It should be a fun ride.

Very nice!

I would suggest that you don't have to get 'hung up' on the rotary aspect of the car. Fb RX-7s with stock engines covered millions of miles in the hands of Joe Schmoe that knew nothing about the eccentricities (hah!) of the powerplant.

Read up on the quirks (warm up, lugging, etc), keep ALL the air going into the engine filtered, and drive it like you stole it :) I smile every time I think about hitting the buzzer in my '85 GS.

Just to piggy back on what Mr. Stang was saying there....

You should rev the piss out of that engine at least once every time you drive it.

A redline a day keeps the mechanic away!

Rob R.

Redline. Roger. That has always been part of the plan. A friend with an RX8 explained that the motor would last him about 120K miles. Didn't matter if he drove it slow or fast, 120K miles. He figured he might as well drive the ever living hell out of it for those 120K miles. The last I knew the plan was still working. I'm not too worried about the motor once I learn about warm up and mixing gas and all of that.
I did pick up this today. Now I have tires and a trailer, but still no car. A shade under $3K for the whole thing on the hitch. This isn't part of the budget. It's free!

Well, you needed a trailer anyway to bring home supplies for your garage refurb, right?

Is the Callaway a dead issue then?

mndsm wrote: Is the Callaway a dead issue then?

No, but getting it ordered is a huge headache. It's not a GM issue or a Callaway issue, it's that I wanted to use a local dealer. The Callaway decision was actually made before the incident that led to the death of the 2 and it's upcoming replacement with the RX7. The trickiest part in all of this is sleeping lightly enough that my wife can't smother me in my sleep.

Gotcha. If she hasn't killed you yet, she's probably not going to. Count your blessings, and sleep with a loaded gun, just in case.

Love your threads, no matter the build. I may copy your $100 a week thing, seems like a very reasonable budget to build a car on.

I read the entire thread on the 2 and really enjoyed it! It was probably what got me hooked on here and I've since joined and started a thread on my Miata. The 100 bucks a week is a great idea and I will probably copy it too haha

Good luck with the rx7. Any thread filled with rallyx and autox is going to be a good read in my book!

The last piece of the car retrieving puzzle was the brake controller that was delivered today. Of course I'm on the very end of the UPS line so it didn't get here until after I took the kids to soccer which meant installing it in the dark. No problem, it's just four wires, right? Well, if the unit wasn't a brick it would be. Long story short, the brake controller never turned on. I could have tried to wire a potato and gotten the same reaction. My wife had to come outside to remind me that if she could hear me cursing inside then the neighbors could too. The tech support guy was super nice and completely useless. On Monday it's going back and I'll make this journey armed with only my truck brakes which should be just fine. I'm hoping this is the only hitch in my carefully crafted plan.

You'll be ok with just truck brakes. The biggest danger is simply forgetting that you're towing and defaulting to a less defensive/cautious way of driving. Stay aware and 99.99999% likely you will have no incidents.

Avoid rush hours if possible. My most harrowing towing moments were driving through morning rush hour through the curves of i-10 in downtown Houston. I certainly wouldnt do that again on purpose..

In reply to Vigo:

You were probably towing a Caravan on a tow dolly with a T2 Lancer or something though. Of course it was scary.. The good thing is my route has about 1 mile on surface streets and then 800 miles of freeway and then 4 more miles of two lane. If all goes well I should need to apply the brakes about two times on the way home.

These cars are really light. I am pretty sure you will be okay without the trailer brakes.

My controller died on me on teh way to VIR in August. I only had the truck brakes the last 100 miles or so.

Nothing scary happened.

Rob R.

You'll be fine. I went through NYC with our 28' gooseneck and a misbehaving trailer brake that wouldn't increase from the lowest possible setting.

It was OK. You just have to keep your head on a swivel.

mazdeuce wrote: the incident that led to the death of the 2

Wait... what? I missed soemthing... what happened to the 2? I enjoyed your thread about that car.

In reply to Ian F:

There was a thing. Send me a PM and I'll tell you about it.

Currently stuck in traffic in rural Louisiana. Traffic just......stopped. I need to pee. The trailer is pulling great when I'm moving though, so there's always that.

Pickup successful. Don't worry, it's not too nice to rallycross. Drove it around the neighborhood and probably woke everyone up. Glad it's not my neighborhood.
Pictures when I get home.

Let the fun begin :D