In 1986, Mazda introduced the second generation of its rotary-powered sports car, the RX-7. Known as the FC, this generation of the RX-7 earned lots of praise from critics for its nimble handling skills and handsome design. While the years haven’t been kind to most of these lovable rides, this 1986 RX-7 that is available here is a super-low mile example in factory spec.
This RX-7 is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where it is available with a clean title. The seller, Grand Rapids Auto Gallery, mentioned they purchased the vehicle from the original owner, who bought it new and only put 7,739 miles on the clock.
Both the interior and exterior of the vehicle are in showroom condition, with the factory Pure Red paint color gleaming in every photo. Meanwhile, the grey and black interior is in similarly remarkable shape, with no serious blemishes or cracks in the dashboard material.
Under the hood, you’ll find a naturally aspirated 1.3-liter rotary engine, which pairs to a 5-speed manual transmission to drive the rear wheels.
The seller is asking $29,900 for this immaculate RX-7, adding that it is a “must have for any investment collection and car enthusiast.” Would you add any miles to this beautiful FC, or would you treat it as an investment?
2 things. Love the flag in the background! (Murica!) And, when I opened barn finds it said this was posted 1 minute ago. I got nothing about the car itself. :)
It looks like they poured a couple of gallons of Armor-all on it. It’s so shiny it doesn’t look right.
It’s nice, but it’s hard to see $29,000 worth of nice. You could make a more convincing arguement if it was a turbo model.
Steve R
I love these cars, and had owned many from new back in the day. The concern I have with low mileage Rx7s like this one is the apex seals in the motor need to be exercised/lubricated or they go bad. When they go bad, a rebuild is necessary, which in itself isn’t all that bad, but you need someone who known rotary motors and is it still that pristine low mileage car if you pull the motor and do a rebuild?
Also, if I were to buy that generation I would be looking for a low mileage 90-91 convertible as I love a good old top down ride…
I was just going to say that healeydays.
If there is one engine you do not want to let sit, it is the rotary.
These are great cars as I have had 1 first gen 3 of the second gen and one of the third. By far the second gen was my favorite, fun car on the twisting roads and handle the highway with ease. Price is a little more than I can comprehend but so many of these were torn up by a generation of young drivers. Rotary is quite solid to 175k if maintained.
These cars had dynamic (inertia) rear wheel steering which is why they were so good on curves. Had an 85 and an 86, but for that kind of money I would look for a low mileage 95. Nice looking none the less however agree about those apex seals.
Back in the day, my daughter aged 16, was a passenger with a male friend, also age 16, on a winding paved road, slick with rain. He had been driving the family VW bus, but his father let him take the RX7 to take my daughter home from a party at their house. Dad had this set up for amateur racing at Lime Rock, no roll bar, but a 5 point harness for the driver.
Wife and I sleeping at midnight, phone call, “your daughter is OK, but headed for the emergency room by ambulance”. We get there before the ambulance, friend’s ambulance gets there first, he is basically OK. Wife comments to ER nurse, “at least we know they were not drinking”, her look says “naïve parents”, but we were right. Daughter has cut on wrist from broken glass, otherwise OK. Driver has glass cuts but is OK as well.
Excessive speed, maybe 90 mph, brakes, you could see the ABS skid marks for about 100 feet, off the road, hit an old apple tree, launched in the air over a creek, barrel roll in the air, landed on its feet, all four wheels splayed out, bounced over puckerbrush, another 50 feet or so, landed on its feet, doors would not open, rear window was smashed, the two crawled out through the window and up to the road where they sat on the guard rail until help came. Driver lost license until he was 18. We did not sue, no real injury and a good lesson for daughter, it is OK to be a backseat driver, but the point of all of this is that the car was totaled, but it was stout and the passengers were well protected.
Had a same color ’88 turbo back in the day. Fast little bugger for it’s time.
Maybe the Armor All they hosed it down with lubricated the apex seals LOL! Just kidding. I would be very worried about that, and the fact that if I drove it all, value would decrease precipitously.
My son and I just helped his friend build one of these!! It was fun!!!
I hope the buyer knows about the apex seals. I would not have known that. Thanks BF readers for teaching me something today.
I just watched one of these on Wheeler Dealers that was bought for $4500. After about $5,000 in parts and external labor plus 36 or so unpriced hours it sold for $9950. That’s a huge difference from about $30000 asking price for this one.
Was it a low millage survivor like this though? Nice original are always worth more than restored ones.
These pictures give me a lot of happy nostalgia, I drove an 86 Rx-7 in high school (late 90’s) almost exactly like this. As beautiful as this is, 30,000 is far too much, these cars are slow by modern standards and not that rare. At that price and with that millage you probably wouldn’t drive it all that much. I doubt it could ever pay off as an investment. Go buy a rust free one for $5,000, fix it up like you want and drive the hell out of it.
Bought a brand new 1986 back in the day. I was in sales so a lot of highway miles, ramps getting out of bunched in traffic and passing 18 wheelers on a regular basis. Got me to all my sales calls on time throughout New England for years. Performed basic maintenance oil changes etc. we parted ways in mid-nineties. It had a bit over 300k miles and still could go 0 to 60 in great time.