A clean, relatively stock FD-chassis RX-7 is certainly worth celebrating, but this one deserves a little extra fanfare. Why? Because it’s an R1 model.
Sold exclusively in North America, this R1 is one of only 350 to be painted Competition Yellow Mica from the factory.
This RX-7 is also billed as having had its engine professionally rebuilt using Mazda parts and its …
Dang.
And wondering what it would take to put it back to stock....
Sorry for being a hater, but the last time I bought Kenda tires I was at Tractor Supply. :)
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Being a former RX7 owner, I was thinking more on the lines of an LS swap.
The body and interior are relatively stock, big plus.
The engine looks very modified, the block may be all Mazda parts, but everything past the manifolds aren't. Still twin turbo but they're a lot bigger than stock. The intake manifold is from the Eunos Cosmo.
Could be good if it drives nicely, have no idea what modified FDs go for.
Bill Cardell, founder of Flyin' Miata, had a yellow R1. He sold it a bit before I joined the company, but we have pics of it in front of the old shop in NJ. I'll see if I can drag some out.
What does a kidney fetch these days?
j_tso said:The body and interior are relatively stock, big plus.
I’d second that emotion.
Oh well hello, there.
Tyler H said:Sorry for being a hater, but the last time I bought Kenda tires I was at Tractor Supply. :)
Patrick has them on his skyline and I have them on my v6 swapped rx8. They are actually pretty dang good.
David S. Wallens said:j_tso said:The body and interior are relatively stock, big plus.
I’d second that emotion.
It's interesting that there is no mention of miles on the auction listing. I'm guessing it's probably pretty high, and that's why the mods -- a stock CYM R1 is probably a $60K car these days.
It looks like they managed to find clean interior pieces, which is hard. The NB Miata steering wheel is a step up from the US FD one (which is really a little too big), although I wonder if the airbag works. Personally I'm not a fan of the 99 JDM nose with the license plate bubble.
As for going back to stock, you can still get most of the engine bits from Mazda but might have to scrounge around to get the plastic parts necessary to restore the original radiator/intercooler/battery/airbox setup that was taken out to make room for that monster aftermarket intercooler.
Keith Tanner said:Bill Cardell, founder of Flyin' Miata, had a yellow R1. He sold it a bit before I joined the company, but we have pics of it in front of the old shop in NJ. I'll see if I can drag some out.
At our original shop in NJ. I'm 99% sure the Miata on the left is Whoosh, the car that is responsible for Flyin' Miata today. I don't know whose car the other one is. Probably just a handy customer car for symmetry.
I love the old track battles, amazing just how good the RX-7 was.
Wooooooeeee, that is really doing it for me!
Edit: yeah the RX-7 was a beast in those videos.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
I love how much more sliding around there was in old Best Motoring track battles.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
Later FDs came with that steering wheel, so the owner was probably going for the JDM look.
j_tso said:Later FDs came with that steering wheel, so the owner was probably going for the JDM look.
The JDM wheel is similar to the NB Miata one, but not quite the same. IIRC it had a Mazda logo on it instead of the NB's Nardi one, and there were some reports that the diameter was slightly different.
You lose the cruise control with the swap, although R1s didn't come with it so that's not really a factor here.
Those pictures don't do justice to the color. If you haven't seen it in person, in the sun, it an amazing metallic with tiny hints of orange and silver. I think it's one of the greatest automotive colors ever.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
I can't comment on the diameter, but they did have Nardi branded ones for a hot minute, among many others:
Older generation owners like the first Efini badged one.
deaconblue said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
Being a former RX7 owner, I was thinking more on the lines of an LS swap.
There's at least one CYM that had been swapped.
Fuzzy recollection says that CYM (color code J9) was only available with the R1 package.
That ugly ass front plate holder, though. Bleh.
In theory, we’ll see it at Mecum later this month. Anyone else going?
This one from the FD's debut also popped up in my feed. It's racing against an R32 Skyline GT-R at a very wet Ebisu circuit, so of course it gets trounced but we see some nice sliding around by Tsuchiya.
Bonus: You'll be able to find this car in a crowded parking lot.
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