The Mazda RX-7 was a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, rotary-engine sports car built in Japan from 1978 until 2002. All three of its generations used a compact, lightweight Wankel rotary engine with twin-turbo power coming along in the 1990s. This edition has this 252 hp set-up and we’re told the car runs well, just needing some cosmetic attention. Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this fast and furious Mazda is available here on eBay where the bidding stands at $22,000 (no reserve).
These cars were popular not only in Japan but also in the export markets, including the U.S. In its 25-year production lifetime, more than 800,000 copies were built. The third generation arrived in 1992 and with it came the first-ever, mass-produced sequential twin-turbocharger system exported from Mazda’s native land. The system was complex, using two turbochargers, one to provide 10 psi of boost from 1,800 rpm. The second turbocharger kicked in at the upper half of the rpm range, during full-throttle acceleration to maintain 10 psi until it redlined. Was it the kind of enhanced acceleration that pushed you back into the seat? Maybe one of our readers has personal experience with these twin turbos.
This ’94 RX-7 is said to run and drive smoothly, thanks in part to a professional rebuild of the engine at 80,000 miles (the odometer is pushing 90k now). The car sports some upgrades, which include an aluminum Air Separator Tank (AST) and an upgraded exhaust system. We’re told this hot car was once owned by a senior citizen who must have had the need for speed. It has been kept up, so the seller is confident that it could take a cross-country trip at the drop of a hat.
The Mazda received a paint job about 15 years ago and looks good today until you get up close and it begins to show its age. But there’s no hurry to do much about it, so you could drive it now and fix it up later. The interior isn’t perfect either, with a small tear here and a missing map pocket there. The auto has factory air conditioning that works, but the controls can be a little finicky. If you’re looking for a diver-quality Japanese pocket rocket, could this RX-7 fill the bill?
Put you back in your seat? Hell yeah it would. However, today there are some really mean twin turbo sedans coming from Japan.
I had a ’93 with an auto. The turbos will come on fast and hard. It will convince you that turbos are the way to go. This was the fastest car that I’ve ever owned.
Took one of these for a test drive when they were new. The salesman very calmly mentioned the speed limit at the moment the second turbo kicked in and the back end got a little loose. Great cars-like a Miata on steroids.
I love the stock sequential twin-turbo in my ’94 R2 spec. Hits early and stays fairly smooth (at least in my experience) through both boosts. The trick for me was to unlearn how I learned to shift a piston engine manual. If (when — hard to unlearn) I shift at 3,000 RPMs, the engine lags like I shifted from first to fourth in a first-gen Honda CVCC. But shift at 5,000 RPM or higher, and it’s more than a joy.
This seems to be a decent base model with some nice upgrades for both reliability (exhaust and cooling) as well as handling (front strut tower bar). And an ostensibly expert rebuild only 9K miles ago should be a great insurance policy.
Looks like a really nice one. It is getting rare to find a “FD” that has not been “modded” beyond recognition. Nice clean specimen we have here! Somewhat overlooked in it’s day. Currently 33 bids $28,600 and over 9 hours remaining. Bids will continue to climb.
That strut brace might indicate that this car is an R2 if the brace is original
$34,100 final