I've been FD-less for a few months and can't believe the money flow. I've never made a lot of money compared to some but owning my own business I've done pretty well. I've now realized just how much I spent on my FD and it's scary. I'm not going to divulge that figure but I'm not proud of it. I'm buying furniture left and right for my new home in Florida and will have enough to put in a pool - where is this money coming from??? I HAVE NO FD!!!!

What's scary is seeing people that even had more done to their car than I did - single turbo - hours of tuning - 5-6 engines later, body kits, built transmissions - and the list goes on - one guy at KDR (most know) put in over $100K into his FD. Why do people do this? Just to have quickest and nicest looking Mazda out there? After all I did to my car I only got $19K out of it - worst investment in the history of my life. It was great owning one - but man do they cost a LOT of money....

 

investment, ha

 

yeah, kinda sucks

 

I guess FD just makes you different from others!!!
People want to feel that they are one of a kind!!
Rotary Engine is definately one of it!!
It's a hobbie!! Not to mention its got the best tech support!!!

 

car's are black holes that never stop taking money but thats half the fun of owning one. the best part of owning a modded car is when there isn't anything that can beat or out show your car.

 

The FD makes buying a part for a honda like it's candy in the store. I can't believe people scring over the thought of having to spend say $50 for exhaust. I dunno

 

It was nice having one of the fastest cars around here - people knew my car and respected it. It always snapped necks wherever I went. I guess the FD is really the only car that can get that kind of respect and attention for the money. I do miss the attention and the sheer acceleration - just not the downtime and expenses of engines, turbos, you name it. Some of the time KDR couldn't figure out why my turbos weren't working right until one day everything worked good. I guess I'm glad the "hobby" part of my life is over. My wife was getting ready to skin me if I bought one more part

 

Yeah, I'm an FD junkie. The first step is admiting that you are addicted...

1. We admitted we were powerless over the RX-7 -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that having more Rear Wheel Horse Power greater than stock could not lead us to nirvana--but pretty ******* close when you 10-8-10.
3. Made a decision to turn our will, cash, time and our untimatley our lives over to the care of public transportation.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our garages and realize that we have bought a crap load of car **** that could've easily been down payment on a house-- Well, not in San Francisco...
5. Admitted to our Credt Card companies, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs...eBay is the house of the devil.
6. Were entirely ready to buy a Camry and remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked the new owner to remove our shortcomings and pay us a quarter of the amount we invested in the FD to drive it away.
8. Made a list of all ricers that we had spanked, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Screw it, you guys get the picture...someone else edit the last 4 steps.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


~"No Offense" to anyone on the twelve step program...

 

was it cheap furniture and an aboveground pool?

j/k


i can't see how poeple spend that much money on there cars. they are a bit more to maintain... but really not that much. they just make so many good parts for these cars its hard not to buy stuff. but as far as keeping it running... really i dunno. I drive a daily driver single turbo fd and have no issues. and I have not spent that much money on the car. way less than what they sold for new and I have had it for 5 years.

Glad your happy to be out of the fd curse tho.

 

What else am I going to spend money on? It's all going to be gone one day - or I'll be dead - so why not enjoy it now?

 

This year, I spent $5K for a repaint, $5K for a reman engine and general restoration. I think I've sunk $20K into the car since I paid $20K for it in 1995. Still cheaper than a used Porsche Boxster and even more unique, powerful, scintillating (damn I feel like I'm John Holmes when I'm in my car) with a swollen rush of acceleration ...you get the drift.

I tell my wife it's cheaper than crack or a mistress ...

 

 

I gald to hear you have some extra money. That something I wish I could have. But anyone who pushes the envelope no mater what car you have, your going to break thinigs. Everyone on this forum knows that when you severely modify an fd it's toxic to your wallet or any car for that matter. I know plenty of fd marriages that are healthy because they simply don't want 1000 hp. I know people who are happy with the stock twins and a 300hp. Those people, as we all know, are less likely to want a divorce. By the way I take donations if you want to give away some that extra money you have.

 

Umm investment, BWHAHAHA what are u kidding? Modifying is not to get your money back when u sell the car, u never will and then u say why do people do it then, well its obvious, it for THE PASSION AND LOVE OF CARS, thats all and every cent put into my cars is worth it for me, and if u are worried about loosing cash then buy a bicycle and if u really cheap WALK! HAHAHA

And most importantly if you do beside to mod agains, mod something worth modding ie. MAZDA Rx-7 hehe and not a freakkin honda or vw (they will always be slow and shitty)

 

To kwikrx7:

There you are, watching the sun set beyond your new pool, at your new house. You look down at your plush new furniture and some thoughtless clod has burned a cigarette hole in it...Right then you may experience a pang of remorse. That would be the "intangible value of use" once enjoyed with your RX-7.

To jpandes:

Very funny! I'll try to draft on your wit:

9. Made mods wherever possible, except when to do so would result in harmful claims of "Rice!" from our fellow Rotorheads.


10. Continued to take compression tests and when we had lost an apex seal, promptly repaired it.


11. Sought through fuel mapping and data acquisition to improve our understanding of A/F Ratio as we understood It, paying dearly for dyno time and the knowledge of its ability to avoid detonation.


12. Having had a rotary a-wankeling as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Discuss amongst yourselves!

 

To be honest going single turbo was the best thing I did to my car. My twins started puking oil, and spending 2-3k on a pair of essentially rebuilt stockers didn't make sense to me. A well sized single turbo does wonders for the reliability, I have had no problems to speak of since.. it just sits in my garage and starts up everytime I want to drive it. Some guys want the world and go overboard when they decide on a single turbo, that's when you start losing motors.

 

its a disease!

 

It doesn't help hanging around this forum. The first thing you learn here is that your perfectly good car will probably self-destruct at any moment if you haven't done all the reliability mods and the second is that you probably have the slowest FD on the road. These "realizations" start a gradually expanding and all consuming neurosis which is not easily diagnosed at first. However, it's not long before bank accounts, wives, girlfriends & others start to notice we have some "issues" and try warning us to no avail. Tom

 

Expensive, nah

In a week I spend $10 for gas in the beater Monday thru Thursday. Then I spend $40 in the 7 for Friday and Saturday!!

 

i said new car or fully built rx7.... you know what i chose

 

Well guys, last year I had the option of new car or used 7. Never looked back, never been sorry.

Jpandes:

kwik: I'm guessing the money you find yourself with is the money you got from selling the 7, not just not upkeeping it. If the extra cash is from the money you saved on upkeep, you did good getting rid of it.

 

Being the new owner of kwik's RX-7, I often wonder how the "younger" crowd affords cars like these. It's one thing for a married 40 yr old with no kids to have an RX-7 to keep his hands occupied on weekends, but it's another to be a 20-something (or younger) and be in the process of building your life.

I think the ideal state of existence is to have a Viper and an RX-7. My first Viper was the most bulletproof car I've ever owned. I heavily drove and raced it for two years and didn't need to do anything other than change fluids, brake pads, and tires. I am now building one better setup for racing (ie lightening). The problem with them are that they really aren't a lot of fun driving around in cities. The RX-7 on the other is a blast and very comfortable on narrow streets. Not to mention it's funnier to drive when autocrossing than the Viper is. On the track though, it's the area under the curve that wins races (that and a good driver). Hence my love of the Viper on the track. (Explanation provided again for those of you who missed it the first time. Sorry for the repetition to the rest of you.)

Other than some of the mystery of the rotary, the RX-7 is actually a pretty easy to work on. You've got to admire an engine block that you can hoist yourself.

Lou

 

The only way possible, turn my own wrench. If I paid someone to work on it or troubleshoot my problems every time I could never afford it.

 

Man dude...I hear you...Compared to alot of guys on here I haven't spent that much...but for my budget it's a bunch...Currently I have everything for my single install and rebuild but I am holdingout because that going to be about 5k...after that I want to work on my suspension and buy a nice set of wheels...then I think after that I will calm down a bit....but it's just down right amazing how much these cars run...It's defnately not considered an investment...more like throwing your damn money away. Anyway, I am not complaining becaue I have never spent my money on anything I love this much...not even a woman...

 

Yeah, that was my problem in the beginning - I paid someone else to do my work - I was always afraid I'd mess something up - especially when it came to the seq system. After awhile I learned some things and started saving money in labor. But I started where a lot of others started - with a bone stock car. It was fun modding the car slowly and evaluating each mod as I went but it's much cheaper to start with a car that's already built and then tweak it to your own preferrences.

Another problem of mine came when I had the goal to reach 400 rwhp with seq twins - I came close and with some more tuning would easily have been there but my wife had enough of it It was great while it lasted.

Lou was a great person to sell my FD to - hopefully he's abusing the hell out of it like it was built for