jhammons01

Guys, I just bought this '89 Vert. It is bone stock and pretty clean. That's not the good part...... These cars really perform. I mean the magazines don't really do RX7s justice. I read a road and track article written about the '88 (almost the same car) and they called a "Chick" car. Can you imagine??? They also tested the T2 which they compared to a Corvette and a Porsche. Well OK for the T2 but the N/A is by no means a "chick" car. Maybe a Chick magnet car!! As well as this car performs I can only imagine what you Turbo guys gettin out of your rides!!

I am thouroughly impressed with this car. bought it for $500.00

siamiam

glad you enjoy it so much

3RotorRocket

Welcome to the forum & into the rotary scene.

Wish I could come across a good deal like that for my winter car.

Post up some pics if you can.

Enjoy

(Edit for signature)

mr5parkle

man, what a bargain for a pretty clean car that works. 500 bucks is hella cheap!!!

Luna

I wouldn't say the RX-7 is a chick car. It is definitely an elegant car though. So maybe they wanted to say "Gay car," but couldn't, so they said "Chick car".


In any case. I'll stick with my elegance.

jhammons01

Elegant??? Gay??? let me introduce you to a mid 90s Cadillac STS for elegant. Cabriolet for Gay. I drove last night for an hour on Pacific Coast Highway. Went from Laguna to Huntington Beach Top down, very fast......I didn't feel Gay. I raced all the other sports cars that were down there. I mean we didn't "RACE" just gave it almost full throttle when the light turned green. Gay did not describe it as I pulled 6500-7000 rpm and hit 85-95 on a two lane twisty highway! Blast, fun, racey, sporty, would be the words I use.

I feel you may be a little criticle of this car. I can pull out stories of building real muscle cars back in the 80s I had a '69 Mach 1 with a 351 Cleveland/shaker scoop. I had a '64 Maulibu with a 283. I had a Cutlass W/rocket 350. I built numourous VW bugs with 2000 cc dual carb rockets. I had a 94 Caddy STS with a 300 hp Norstar. Yes there is a difference, No this car is not going to beat any V8s but I don't believe "Chick" or "Gay" are the correct adjectives to be coupling with an RX7.

The reason I started looking at RX7s is solely due to the SCCA Pro7 racing class here in California. They race stock 1st gens. (found this one and couldn't pass)They don't allow turbos or super mods to the engine.......seems to me that they picked the RX7 for some reason other than "Gay or Chick". Could be the perfoemance right out of the box. I mean they race all kinds of other makes but you have drop 20k to get them on the track. The Pro7 class touts the fact that you can race a car for 5-6K!!! (that'd be an RX7 n/a)

Again just my two cents for what its worth.

alwayssideways

dude i totally feel you .. i found mine ,, it was a little more than i wanted to pay but it was worth it .. i mean i searched for mine for almost a year .. i wanted a t2 but settled for na. but anyway , i love the car in everyway shape and form. the handling. and the power range. and when i start into modding it , its gonna be great. but you just dont know what your missing till you drive it .. one of the most fun cars i have gotten to drive .. it makes driving to work fun .. i actually try to get to work fast as i can , heheheh .. but it totally different from any other car i have had yet

jhammons01

Just pulled in again from another screamer ride! Hit this one corner so fast.....drifted just a tad....cought traction and nailed the throttle and shot forward like a rocket!

This forum is soooo much better than the Celica board I used to freguent, now I know why! THE CAR!!! its the car stupid!!

Thanks for all the info on this board!!

John Hammons

DEZERTE

i owned a bone stock NA s5 automatic vert, the slowest RX7 ever made..and believe me, it WAS a chick car.
Not anymore though, i love it.. see sig

Cybaster

ok, i mean having a T2 myself.... i really don't think this car is a "Chick car"

if they are going to compare the T2 with a vette or a Porsche..... uh.... i say sort of in the wrong class

don't get me wrong, the T2 is great.... but comparing to a vette....

i say bring them to the mountains and tight turning roads any day..... see if the T2 is better at cornering or the vette....

well the Porsche.... what can u say? Rear engine.... control freak... but the price tag?

better yet... lets go to the freeway here in SF.... see if the FC can go in and out of traffic better than the vette or the Porsche?

i say the 13B has its Good parts... and if i was given a vette or a Porsche, i think i would sell those and get a good T2 to upgrade =)

That's why i only read road and track when they talk about Ferrari's or Lambos.....

other magazines..... they hardly show the FC or FD....
well where i live..... Ricers everywhere...... integras, civics, and del sols...... i am proud to own a FC

Froggmann

Hey do you get the same scared expression I get when you pull up to a ricer? At first I thought it was wierd how they would never "play" with me but now I understand. THose who do usually lose...

Cybaster

You know... come to think of it i do see that alot now =)

except from those Integra GS-Rs.....

but i was talking to my friend just a few days ago how come those Ricers (and also some driving mustangs etc.) have that MEAN look on their face... it is sort of like
I HAVE A COOL CAR BUDDY... WATCHOUT! GRRRR!

then i look at them and think.... what an idiot....

well anyways i used to drive an 86 Celica
automatic, paint is crappy, what? 115 hp?

my friends used to not REALLY look down on me but eeh,

now i got a car 3 years younger.... 89
but now they respect it ^_^ (sorry to sound like my friends are asses..... but it's there)

enjoy that 7! its the most fun u'll ever have.

DoriftWolf

I don't know the age of the particular posters here, but being someone who was actually driving back in the 80's when the FC3S was on the market, I can see some serious misconceptions here.

True the numbers don't seem that impressive when we have a stock FWD Hondas that do 0-60 in the six and seven second ranges, and 15 second quarter mile times, but back then, to have a stock car in that range was quite a feat, especially one in the RX-7's price range.

Actually the Porsche being compared to was a 944 and 944 Turbo, which is extremely comparable to the RX-7 except in price.
The early C4 Corvettes, also what would've been compared to the RX-7 Turbo was similar in performance, it wasn't until the early 90's that the C4 really got a big increase in performance, and the build quality of those early cars makes our 7's look damn good.

The FC3S Turbo II was held as the benchmark for sports cars of the class for several years, only being ousted by the Z32 300ZX, which was a huge jump in price, which was then ousted by the FD3S RX-7 a couple of years later. It's direct competitors, the 300ZX and the Supra were considered extremely inferior in comparison, and the Corvette was the only car that came close to it in terms of handling, straightline speed, and braking.

Incidentally, both the Corvette and the 944 had substantial increases in power in response to the RX-7 Turbo being introduced.

It's hard to keep these things in context, but you really do need to compare the cars of the same model years to really understand what an achievement that the FC3S was in it's time.

This might bring some flames from some hardcore fans, but as far as "Road and Track" is concerned, back then it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. The only decent stuff in it was the cartoons and the pictures. If you read "Car and Driver" of the time, you'd notice a big difference between their test results and the "Road and Track"' and for a decent driver, the "Car and Driver" results were what you could really expect, the "Road and Track" results were for the people who truely couldn't drive and didn't want to feel inadequate. Typically "Road and Track" quoted manufacturers ratings and their "tests" were driving the car around for a couple of hours. I've read some more recent issues and I'm glad to finally see them actually conducting tests, but they seldom did their own testing in that era. I could honestly imagine them calling it a "chick car" because their testers probably didn't have the skill to drive the car at it's true potential.

screamingbluemessiah

DoriftWolf, I couldn't agree with you more. I too was driving a RX-7 back in the '80s. As you said, it may not be able to compete with everything on the road today, but back in the '80s it was very competitive for it's price class. And, since I am stuck in the '80s, its a good enough car for me.

jhammons01

Driftwolf, Thank you. I didn't know I had to bring all the exhibits for the Jury to touch and feel. The articles are found on Icemarks web page.

http://www.mazdamark.com/about_the_fc3c.htm

You can read for yourself. See which Corvette and which Porsche they were (I was) talking about.

It was a different world back then. We were still hampered by the gas crunch in the late 70s. "Hot Rods" came with a misearble 305 V8 (whoopti Do). The "RS" versions came with a 250 Straight 6. The Corvette was really scorned during those years due to the pitiful (gas saving) engines. The 944 and the wonderful 924 were dismal at best (can you say vapor lock) ( can you say tow truck). I mean there is a sell yourself car lot here and there are two porsches from the late 80s The 911 has a 15k price tag on it and the 944 has a $2500 price tag on it. Cars were really bad back then, We had to grab all the old late 60s and very early 70s muscle cars. They would go fast in a straight line!!! Then came the RX7s, the Supras, the 300ZXs. These weren't the big V8s we were used to but the test of time has proven their value.

n4ji

iTrader: (1)

That's really cheap for an S5 vert. Glad you enjoy it.

Some people tried to call my AE 'cute.' They woke up the next morning needing to buy 4 more tires.

ajsuper7

these are fun cars we own, i duno they really were great for the time. thats prolly why i still like them so much. no one really knows what they are anymore and ricers are always surprised when you go wot with a full exhaust system and blow flames out the tailpipes. one of the funniest things ever is when i was being tailgated on a two lane road by a white civic, i could see the color in my rearview cuz he was following so close. downshifted to 2nd and peged it out at 8200 only to see the civic trying to keep up turn orange from the flames...he backed off and asked me what the hell is in that thing at the next stoplight...haha its only a nonturbo rotary buddy...anyways to sum it up, great performance and ok straight line speed but overall a great ride when taken care of.

GregSL-SE

I've got an '89 vert that I love. I'ts not as fast as other RX's I've owned, but still great to drive... once moving-Hey DEZERTE, I have read up on converting auto>5 sp, and was wondering which one you did and how it works for you? Thanks in advance.