There seems to be a general consensus here that if you are forced to drive the FD daily more than likely the allure of the car can wear off like it has for me. I want to give in and move on but I know the FD occupies a great deal of my heart so my plan of attack is to acquire a real dd as quickly as possible and hope my love for this great car will return.

Ps. Being able to share in all of your admeration has given me sort of a second wind, thank you all for that.

 

Try to drive a normal car like you do the 7. Cures me pretty good.

I've had her a long time and every day when I walk out into the parking lot to go home it puts a smile on my face.

There's a reason the "you might be an rx7 owner if..." hits home for every one of us. Don't know many piston guys that are so dedicated to their cars that they'll tear it down to the subframe doing repairs just to keep it.

This car is amazing, even if some of the shine wears off.

 

I love my FD. She's had her problems and she requires a lot of maintenance, but hey! She's an 18 year old car, so that's to be expected. I have the only FD in my town excepting the FD's that occasionally come in for a year or two while their owners are stationed at the neighboring naval base. Every look I get while driving the car is priceless, from the delivery guy in the UPS truck hanging half out of his seat to get a better look at Roxy, to the Civic full of Asian teens snapping their heads in unison as I drive by. Taking her to the coast or the mountains is a blast! I could never see myself getting rid of her; I simply enjoy her too much.

As for my DD, I have a TT FJ Cruiser that I go around town in. I take her offroading (and figure that I can use her to tow my track FC around whenever that's ready ), so I think that my FJ is a fun vehicle as well. I don't like to drive vehicles I can't enjoy.

I do sympathize, though; when I first bought Roxy it was about a year before we got her running properly, and it was very frustrating. If you think that your FD is getting too expensive to have as a DD, why not garage her for now, save up some money, and then overhaul her exactly how you want when you have the funds? But if that's not realistic, then you can sell for now and pick up something else fun, like a STI or S2000 and then return to the rotary game later.

 

FD's require money and knowledge. If you have little of one, you will need a lot of the other. This isnt a new concept though. It's basic principles of the modern man. Don't buy things you can't afford. Much of this is why I have been in the rotary game for around 15 years, owned 9 Rx7's of every generation yet just bought my first FD two years ago.

Like you, it has been my dream car for a very long time. I had come close to getting one a few times before, but knew that I wasnt financially ready. I didnt have a garage yet, or all the other anemities that I feel are absolutely required to own a car of this caliber. So I waited....

Now, I have the car of my dreams stress free. It sits in the garage and waits for my next big scheme. Driving it is a blast and owning it is a privledge.

 

There's been talk of subaru STI's a little bit in this thread, and it reminds me of the guy at my work yesterday who started bagging me off in the coffee room for driving my FD. He owns a gray subaru impreza wagon and uses it to haul his kids and stuff around in, and drive to work and back every day, as an accountant. Slick hair, points his nose up most of the time, and has to tell everyone how they're wrong about everything. Has to have the last word, and has to be better than you.
Anyway, he started on about how his impreza wagon has 4WD, and would out handle my FD, and beat it in a straight line, and cost 3 times more, better looking, etc.
No matter how much I tried to educate this guy, he just HAD to be better, and he acted as if his subaru was a 1200hp supercar, and the end-all of all cars. He kept pushing about how my car was so old, and his was brand new.

I ran into him after work. He was in his world beating impreza wagon, bluetooth headset on, stopped at a red light. The lane next to him was empty. I pulled up next to him. Despite my car being an auto, its still a damn lot quicker than an automatic non-turbo impreza wagon. When the green light dropped, I left him in my rear view. So much for the newer, more expensive car being better... And that made me love my car just that little bit more.

It has an epitrochoid shaped heart and a 6 bit ECU. Maybe thats too different for most people to accept. But I love it unconditionally all the same

 

I keep going because I have pride in my FD. I work on it myself and with the help of my friends. When I'm done doing something I can sit back and say "I built that". I can drive it, ripping up and down back mountain roads and experience what I've done. To me, there's a true sense of accomplishment in that.

I actually envy people who DD their FD. Living in mountainous Colorado, kind of difficult to do here, so I'm forced to DD a Protege. I still try and drive my FD as much as I can. If I parked it forever I'd surely loose interest in it.

The thing is, if you're a true car enthusiast, the mod bug never ends. Say you're tired of dumping money into the FD so you sell it and pick up an Evo, STI, or whatever is the flavor of the month now. You're going to mod it, trust me. Soon you'll be putting more and more money into the car and then, inevitably, it will still break. Cars break down, just no ending it. You can curtail it with some good preventative maintenance but that's about it.

I've driven a bunch of cars, a bunch of cars faster than my FD or most FD's, but none had nearly the same "sense of occasion" as my FD did.

 

I've had an FD as a daily driver for six years. I've written one off crashing at 70mph (ish), I've blown up three engines and several turbos. It's kicked me right in the codlings and the wallet more time than I can even remember. Plus, I've got a mortgage, two kids, work shifts, blah blah...

...at no point have I ever thought "I wish I was in a nice sensible little econobox shuffling along with all the other doomed sould driving the automotive equivalent of beige, not realising every mile brings me that much closer to never caring about anything again.". There has never been a drive when the FD has failed to make me feel involved, alive, special, and even dare I say, slightly awesome.

However, there comes a point in everyone's life when they have to admit that it's not actually very sensible day to day transport (a 430 bhp single that gets 220 miles to eighty quids worth of petrol, is louder than a Typhoon Eurofighter on reheat, can only fit the kids or the wife but not both, and the fuel smell makes my head spin for half an hour after driving it, etc, etc) and do the sensible responsible adult thing. In view of this, I've decided to grow up, sold my beloved Kawasaki and bought a daily driver.

Yeah, it's another RX-7 Oh yes. Now I'm twice as awesome.

 

DD is the answer. Don't drive it expecting it to be the same as the rx7 or comparing the two. Just look at as getting from A to B... a totally different experience.

And when you finally climb into the cockpit of the RX7 on Friday night, you will be one happy guy.

 

This is an interesting question. This is a car that I admired when I was high school and repeatedly watched videos of a Japanese executive explain (in Japanese) why these cars are real sports cars, while he was driving in a gold/champagne colored FD. It was so exotic and I rarely ever saw them on the road.

For me the biggest thing is owning an FD that was reliable and realistic. I first created a plan and STUCK to it. It's very easy for an auto enthusiast to continue to throw money at a bad situation, while having unrealistic expectations of an outcome. I decided to go with roughly 300HP for reliability and fun. Then it was a matter of selecting a few mods that I could afford and made sense to my plan. Last and the most difficult is to respect and admire what other owners have done to their cars, but not turn every want into a need. But this doesn't go without saying that the car has cost me a bit in unexpected repairs. But to me this is my collector's car, however I do not wish to dump endless amounts of money into an old car. Much like life things evolve and sometimes its never a bad idea to upgrades to new, better, advanced. Until that day comes I plan on holding onto it as long as I can.

 

I remember when I first saw/drove a friends FD in 1995, and I HAD to have one. I loved the combo of concept, looks, speed and handling. It seemed just perfect.

I've seen a of cars since that I'd love to have, and have had temporary "crushes" on, including M Coupes, S2000's, Z06's, Elise/Exiges, but none I HAD to have. Heck, I can't even afford a GT3 and Fritz isn't sure even it is better. I guess I'm still waiting around for that next HAVE to have car.

 

proud owner of an FD with 4 years already, checkin in. ive been through a few sagas myself during my time with the car. i had to get engine rebuilt, a new ECU system installed, get it tuned, and basically i had to re-do the entire single turbo set up that it came with already. i just wasnt happy with it . also the old ECU system made it extremely unfriendly to any user. everyday i'd fire it up i would worry if i would even make it back. it was a hell of a time back then but i never gave up.

if something broke i just shrugged it off and found out what it was. then id just save the money over time and focus on work or my college education. hope that further helps you out. just get the DD, save money, and let the car sit for a while until you are ready to get things done. there is no rush man, just take your time. when the car runs beautifully...you WILL get paid back.

i waited 2 years to get to where mine is. it was a hell of a wait filled with me going crazy, being saddened, gettin angry because things would go wrong, or overly anxious to see if it would work out. in the end it was all worth it. the car runs beautifully with no problems anymore whatsoever. all i had left was a fuel leak on the rail and a minor oil leak on the turbo's feed line. got that sorted out and boom! i can now drive the car whenever i want without having to worry about it leaving me somewhere or detonating under boost (thank you BDC for tuning it with methanol!).

when you reach this point, you will fall in love with the car all over again. it will be with you again. just like what other guys posted, i get plenty of attention in it too. both negative and positive. its like my FD is a gorgeous sight to some...and a devil to others. those who view it as such always want to race me, or if they're a cop pull me over. those who think its gorgeous want to talk to me and bombard me with the same 100 questions everybody asks lol. 3 guys asked to buy it. i always tell them "200,000 just to even put the thought into my mind" they ask me why after calling me insane. i tell them, "dream cars dont come with reasonable price tags."

 

Hi Justin,
When I bought the GT3 I never planned on getting rid of any of my FDs it wasn't a replacement it was simply to experience a car that allowed for the same thrill on track as the FD. I discovered the GT3 was every bit as nice to drive on track as I had imagined but it also needs around 20k in susp work for me to really get the most out of it so I'm torn between upgrading it, selling it, getting a different one that's already built etc........

On the other hand I feel foolish owning one at all because the cost of insurance and prop tx is a lot for a car that I don't even drive on the street soooooo who knows what I'll do but the fun lies in the process

Just like you I'm completely addicted to this car so I must DD one or after about 4 days I'll seriously start getting a little crazy. If I get bored I simply go to the BMW dealer and try an M3 or go to the Porsche dealer and try Cayman etc......and after 10 minutes I'm like this thing isn't nearly as fun to drive as my FD. If my FD isn't working properly I'll literally rip into it for days spending hours figuring out the boost problem or whatever else may be going on. I have no tolerance for it not running right because it's so incredibly cool when it's working as it should. It's this sort of passion for this car that's taught me how to work on cars and it's the cars performance that's taught me how to properly drive a car. It's crazy to have a love affair with a car but FD, I LOVE YOU I could write a book about all the plus's a minus's of owning this car but the minus's are really just tons of little nuisances and plus's are BIG highs that greatly overshadow the little stuff.

Any who I'll stop preaching to the choir and BTW the choir is a whole different reason the FD is cool

 

Quoted for truth.

 

I think there is a certain mentality that varies from owner to owner when it comes to having an FD.

Some people strictly adore and cherish what they have, knowing the ins and outs, and absolutely can NOT see a car comparable in terms of its performance/style/rarity/feel for the dollar.

Then theres some people who have spent years and years owning one, maybe not even driving it as often due to downtime yet find themselves not letting go because they feel insecure, maybe they find something in the FD that brings them satisfaction which justifies them still owning it. Regardless if their FD is down and just sitting in the garage, maybe they feel good knowing they have a car that "looks good", and thats good enough for them to hold onto it. Just to say, "yeah i have an FD" if ever the subject of cars come out in social discussions.

I have been on this forum for a long time, maybe not as long as some that posted in this thread but this is my observation of my years here on this forum.

I already told myself before i bought the car that i will never sell the FD. Even to this day i still cant sell it. Because of that promise.

Do i even need the FD? lol NO!! I mean i drive the car on the weekends, i never tracked it, i dont go to RX7 RELATED meets so really im not using it for what its "meant for". The car still needs A LOT of misc work which i dont find the time nor the motivation to do. Its not practical for me since i live in the northeast and i own another high performance RWD car. Any other person i know think im retarded because i still have the FD. Because it gets about 7-8k miles a year, because they hardly see it, because i only drive it on the weekend, because they feel like its just money sitting there and its a waste because im not using it the way they feel like a car like that should be used.

Yes there are times where i just wanna go into something else and dont look back. But i dont feel its right. IMHO theres about 13k to come out of my FD if it ever sees the market. And i would use that money for a C6Z.

But i dont go that route because i love the car and i vowed to never sell it. Obviously if its a life or death situation and for whatever reason i go broke and needed money, of course its gone. Or if i catch the bug and start experiencing the never ending problems i've seen on this forum in my years, then i would prob sell it.

But in the end, i feel like ill go back to the FD later on regardless.

 

I think this is pretty accurate. But theres something missing from all of the reasons posted already, well, either that or I'm just weird haha.

I've owned mine for about 3 years, even traded my first turbo g35 coupe for it, because I always wanted one, finally had a garage, and decided it was time. The trade was an aweful decision financially, but even on the first drive home with the FD, the smoke from the bad oil control ring billowing out the back at every stop, I never looked back. I picked up a cheap DD for $1k and went to work on the FD.

I was somewhat mechanically inclined, but have learned a ton from working on the car. I've only driven it about 8k miles, and it's never been quite right (get's closer to being done every summer haha). It was quite a mess when I got it, but I think i've fixed all the problems, and now am well down the path of complete customization.

This is what keeps me interested, its amazing to drive, but the part I love is making it my own. I bet if you started a project, and did something that no one else has done it would bring you a whole new level of respect and desire for the car (if you have the time and money obviously, or else you'll end up with a car that never moves again). I've never really done fabrication work before, but now when I'm cutting metal for brackets and piping I'm thinking how to make it look awesome, and not just making it functional. So it's turned into more of a way to express myself. I could care less if other people like it, I get home from work and work on it in a freezing cold garage all by myself until 4am sometimes. Maybe I'm becoming a hermit haha, but it really relaxes me when I'm out there plugging away making something that noone else has.

And on top of that, probably 1/4 of the time I'm out there, I'm just thinking about what to do next, trying to come up with something new. That's what keeps me going on the FD.

 

I have owned my fd for 10 years now. I drove the car off and on for two years, and then an oil control ring broke, and the car sat in a barn for 8 years, waiting for the day when I could afford to bring her back. Sometimes we would push the car out of the barn, just to wash it and admire it. Every time someone new was in the barn they would be amazed that there was an rx7 in there. I have had many friends try to buy the car, most with dreams of a v8 swap, but it never crossed my mind to sell her. Now, I finally have the resources and knowledge to rebuild the engine and get all maintenance items taken care of, and every day I get closer to completion, I can feel my blood start to heat up again!

 

right on!

screw that daily driver econobox ****... ill drive real sports cars daily until im too old and feeble to get into them anymore.

 

it took me 1 year to even find my fd in japan, and nearly 2 more years to get it legalized here in germany. I had to collect it from the netherlands, because there was the harbour where it arrived from japan. It was an 8 hours trip with heavy snow (50cm, -20°C) and we nearly crashed because the trailer with the rx7 suddenly broke out.
Later, someone broke in my car, had trouble with repairing etc.
Registering was also a pain in the ***. I'm the first guy with a 99+ fd here. Everybody said it's impossible. but it was possible... well cost intensive.

But now, the car looks and feels so great, everytime i drive it i don't regret anything i've done. This car is so rare here, i once parked next to a Mercedes SLS and everybody looked at the fd . I just came out of the garage from polishing. My hands still smell of polish, i bet you know what i mean.

 

congrats bro... way to go after what you want!

 

I haven't posted on the board since selling my FD a little over a year ago. The fact that I still return to the board to keep up on my old ride and as well as look at pics of other reader's rides has me bewildered.

I bought my FD after many FCs. When I bought the FD I had this vision of turning it into a GT car and driving it daily. I poured money into every area of the car to the tune of about 45k.

At the end I had spent too much money and I was too scared to track it or even park it too far out of sight. Daily driving it became a real chore.

After spending that much money I started test driving newer alternatives ,true exotics and thought I'd be happier selling it and buying one of those. I sold the FD but I have failed to pull the trigger on another car yet.

I was seriously looking at 997 911s, used Ferrari 355s, 360s, Aston V8 Vantage, Jaguar XKR but I still kept comparing them to the FD.

The fact that the FD kept it's allure for me while looking at these cars is a testament to the manufacturer hitting the nail on the head in terms of design.

My old FD came to visit me about a month or so ago and I was offered a chance to drive it again but I declined. Mostly because I think I would have been filled with regret. I wish I kept it and drove it sparingly as it is truly a great car. But I agree with many of the posters in that daily driving any car can take away the magic.

I probably will not buy another FD as I sold my dream version and it doesn't make sense to repeat the process. But to anyone else thinking about selling, think long and hard before you do as there isn't much better on the road.

 

I bought my car in 95. It was a totalled 93 and I paid 18 grand when they were still worth 28. I don't even want to think how much I have dumped into the thing over these sixteen years, but there is no way I could have replaced the shear joy of driving, the mental stimulation of learning and modifying, the escape from ramdomness. Maybe it could have been done with another car. I don't know. All I know is that it was not and I am still thrilled when I feel the boost in my back.

 

I personally don't think that the FD costs that much to own, a stock one anyway.
As long as you take care of the cooling system there isn't too much that can go wrong.
The cost of an engine rebuild isn't much when you spread it out over the life of the engine and if you take the engine out yourself and send it for rebuild you are only looking at $2500.

As you start tuning the car you are of course going to start breaking things. This is normal with any car. But not many cars can get the sort of performance you can get from an FD with so little investment.

As for things breaking because the car is so old, well this cant be helped... just replace the important bits first and slowly start buying the other bits...

If you just want a nice fun sports car with out the problems associated with an old car, I suggest a Miata, S2000 or Lotus Elise

My 2cents.

 

Nothing can replace an FD

 

get a cheap car you can DD. keep the rx7 garaged and take it out on weekends.

 

Why do you say everything short of an engine rebuild? I think that the rotary is extremely user friendly once you get past the stock sequential boost pattern and rats nest. Once you get a nice daily, a teardown may be the best thing you have ever done. There is so much support for these vehicles. I am almost 30 and i have come to understand, that you dont daily what you want to mod. It is simple as that. Some get away with it, but the stressors of having to figure out how to get something back on the road asap, instead of formulating a real build plan will almost never net positive results. Keep your head up man, the car looks clean, just nickle and dime and save for a cheap dd, and get her in a garage and do a full run through of maintenance. As for past rx7's I had worked on, the owners generally regretted doing things like going non sequential/power fc because of gremlins, instead of saving for the big single/ and full standalone that they were originally wanting. The wankel is a beautiful thing, and if properly maintained can be an amazing experience.

-ricky