I saw this on another forum, and thought it would be a good thread here.
Who/ what influenced you to get a FD?

For me it was back in 1995 when My dad's 1989 300zx TT blew up, we went around to every dealership in Atlanta test driving cars, and seeing who had the better deal. At the end of the day we narrowed it down to the Dodge Viper and the FD. It was such a beautiful car to me( FD not viper), and I knew then ( 4th grade) that was the car I was going to have.

 

When I was about 6 or 7 I was really into drawing. I would draw mostly airplanes, helicopters, then I started to draw cars. So my mom bought me a book on How To Draw Cars. The car that I thought looked the best and most fun to draw was the Mazda Rx-7, I would draw it or just look at it all the time, over and over again, just trying to make it look perfect because to me it was a perfect looking car. I would try to match its beauty through my drawing. Well at the time I had no idea what the cars status was. But I knew that I was one day going to own that car. So eventually I stopped drawing, but I finally got one and don't want to own another car again because my dream is fulfilled.

 

I see a good number of owners come and go over the years but I like to think FD owners are more dedicated than many other car models. Maybe it is because of the styling, the performance or maybe how unique it is.

When I was about 15 I saw the first commercials and was captivated. I wasn't even that much in to cars. I remember my first thought was "I hope the car's design is just as awesome under the skin." When I learned that it was I marked it as my dream car and later in early 98 realized that dream.

I still love it for all 3 reasons above.

 

the picture thread on this forum influenced me.

i stumbled across this forum over a year ago. i recently got into cars after getting a mazda 3. Before that, I wasn't really into cars. I drove a nissan quest throughout college and didn't mind it at all. after realizing how slow my auto mazda 3 was, i wanted to get a faster car. i narrowed it down to an s2000 and an fd. the deciding factor was that if i wanted an s2000, i can always get one in the future. however, fds are getting rarer and rarer. so, i found a local fd and i love driving the thing. i also love the attention i get in it =).

 

As a teenager growing up in NY my friends and I would work on cars all the time. The rotary engine was the new thing. So the FB comes out on the cover of road and track and I vowed to get the car. Just making it to the work force out of college I had some money to burn...But once I got married and had a kid the car had to go. Having a baby seat wedged in the back didnt make the wife too happy.

So the only thing to do 20 years later was to get another rx7. The FD being the pinnacle of rotary engineering was the answer. If the "FE" comes out someday I'll get that too.

 

the rx8 = FE

 

I grew up driving just about every conceivable POS, ugly, rusty, 8 ton 4-wheeled, mosquito foggin' barge made. I promised myself a new car after college and always wanted a sports car. Not a sporty "pony car" but a lightweight and fun two-seater. In 1981, it was between a 280ZX and an FB. I guess you could say the old guy at the local Datsun dealership influenced me. He was such a rude arrogant 'A-hole' I walked out and bought a spanky new "FB". Loved it. Sold it nearly 4 years later to buy my first house. Had about 25k on it but I got just 2k less than I paid. Which was fortunate given the interest rates in the mid-80s. Engaged, married, kids, new mortgage. Finanlly in 02 my wife said I could get another. Helloooo RX7club.

 

/not!! (i hope)

 

In 1995, I was shopping for a used 300ZX TT, and happened to pass by a Mazda dealer with a new 95 MB Base for sale. Thirty minutes and one test drive later, I forgot the Z and started looking for an FD

 

In 1999 I came to country and noticed this car on dealership. I didn't know what it is or anything about rotary engine. Price was too high for me at that point and I wouldn't even think that I can have one of those. But I liked it immediately. Just for looks.

Time went by and I got ready for 2nd "fun" car. Did research and decided to get FD because it's rare, unique and FAST. And because of many cars I liked - I remembered FD through all years and I still liked the way it looks. I love the way rotary engine sounds too

 

the man is right. just looked up a sample rx8 vin:

JM1FE17N350156267

 

+1
The FD does have the best lines of all the 90's JDM sportscars.

 

I can't remember the first time I saw one, but by the time I was ready to graduate high school (97), I knew I wanted one. A couple of years later, I found myself at a pawn shop next to a mazda dealer in annapolis (west st). Parked only a few feet from the pawn shop entrance were 2 FD's. I was gawking at them when the salesman came out with a plate, and offered a test drive. I happened to be wearing a shirt and tie (just off of work), so I guess he figured that I had money (I had barely a dime to my name). I of course accepted his generous offer, and before I knew it I was cruising down west st. towards route 50 in a MB FD.

I only drove it for about 20 minutes, but that was long enough for me to become addicted.


BTW, the salesman was more than a little surprised when I drove off in a baby-****-brown dented 87 toyota corola. He didn't get the sale of course.

 

It was my first day of school for my 11th grade year in HS when my grade level (and 12th) were only allowed to get off campus for lunch. At the time, I was "borrowing" my parent's Toyota truck since it was the 3rd car in the family. Anyhow, as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw a super nice red sports car. I tried to follow it as much as I could in hopes towards the direction where I was having lunch. It finally went off route and I drove off. I didn't know what car it was then but I saw the Mazda emblem and did some major searching and finally found it. I have to admit I had liked an MR2 (91-95' turbo models) around that time but this Rx-7 was breathless when I saw it for the very first time.

So about 6-7 years later, I picked one up in 2005. The wait to get one didn't seem long...just had to save for it (finish HS, college, work, etc) as my dad is a van/SUV-lover...hates sports cars much less fast ones. A life-learn lesson is that I learnt that great pride comes with self-motivation and resposbility to work for things you want. Can't always rely on parents or others to get what you want = spoiled.

 

Ive always been into RX-7's. When i started looking around, i found my baby in at a car dealership in Lousiana.

To be honest, i was looking for an FC for the longest time, but i couldnt find one that i liked. After a while i started looking at FD's. For the most part i didnt think i could find one that would be in my price range, and then i found her xD $15,500 VR with 77,000 miles on the clock.

 

Great comment! I also saved for several years to buy mine and when I got it my silver bullet was my only car. It has also tought me many of my lessons in life like if you want something done right do it yourself.

 

so how old were you when you bought it?

 

First saw it when 18 but bought mine when I was 23 in '05. So it was 5 years later..not "6-7" as originally stated. I got my self confused when I first ever saw an FD up to today, 2007.

 

when i was 13 or 14 while living in California I was with my mom a Mazda dealership. She was at the time purchasing a 1995 mazda MPV minivan, but at the middle of the dealership they had an incredibly clean silver rx-7. The salesman let me sit in it and I felt like I was in the cockpit of a jet plane. Since that moment I wanted an Rx7, but it would take 6 years and 3 cars later for me to get one.

 

I have been admiring FDs for a long time, they just seem to represent what a sports car should be. So early spring of my senior year I started reading this forum religiously. In my research I found that KDR was about 30 minutes from my house, later that day I called Dave and asked if I could come take a look at his shop. About a week later my dad and I drove down, when we walked into his building and I saw the FDs lined up against the wall I immediately fell in love. My Dad and I spent 4 hours talking to Dave and learning about FDs and rotaries, I can't say enough good things about Dave. Anyway Dave told us it was a shame that I didn't go looking a few months earlier because he had the perfect car there.

Anyway a lady had bought the car for her son and had it sent up to KDR to get a new motor/rebuilt turbos. While the car was at KDR her son was killed in a motorcycle accident, the lady then wanted nothing to do with the car and had Dave sell if for her. About a month after our visit with Dave my Dad was driving home and saw an FD in front of him. The FD turned into a neighborhood and my Dad figured he was going home, my Dad then proceeded to follow the guy home (creepy I know). My Dad asked the guy a few questions about the car and eventually found out that he was thinking about selling it (turns out it was the same FD Dave had told us about). I called the guy later that night and a week later we went and took it for a test drive, it was amazing! A week later found us at KDR to have Dave look over the car, a short drive to the title office found me the proud (and very much broke) owner of my FD.

Now I am addicted to working on the car and hence still broke. The car has 60,000 miles on it with 5000 on the motor/turbos, I am the 4th owner (although the second never saw the car) somehow I managed to get it for 13k. I have since had Dave install/tune a PowerFC + Commander. This summer I installed a Koyo radiator, Racing Beat single tip exhaust, had the driver's seat recovered (Sabatini in New Jersey does amazing work), and put on an R1 front lip (thanks to Ray Crowe).

I am still in love with the car and baby the crap out of her, although I have been known to drive spiritedly. Unfortunately I leave her in Pennsylvania when I go to college in Indiana, so it makes for a long school year haha.

 

Ever since I could remember... at a very young age, my older brother was into cars, and introduced me to the FD in 1993... loved them ever since. My mouth drops when I see any FD. I knew I had to have one... after test driving one, I fell in love even more! Now I never want to get out of my FD

Dennis,

 

i guess the credit really belongs to all the colorado 7 guys. it was about 4 years ago i just had my n/a fc at the time. i was one of the oh they are cool and all but fc's still look better. at this point i never even had a good look at one up close. but this one day i was outside this store where my friend worked and i just barely saw this thing sticking out, mike b's, back when it was vr , and i knew what it was. i walked away mid conversation with my poor friend and watched it drive off.
then maybe a month or 2 later we met at the first rx7 meet i went to. being around so many of them i just caught the bug right there and i had one about 4 months later.
you guys helped too ive been coming here since 03. found my 2nd gen on here. before that i couldnt decide what i wanted, i was shopping around for a 300zx or an mr2 as well oddly enough

 

My best friend from high school. I had a Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am with about a $6000 motor. This friend was going to do some paint work for me and in the meantime he was going to loan me a car to drive. Since he owned a body shop he had several car sitting around, but he tells me, "You should check out this little car I just picked up." I'm like "What is it?" "A Mazda RX-7" he says. I'm like, "Dude, I don't wanna drive no ****** rice burner"

Well, he convinced me to check it out and I can tell you after 30 minutes I was no longer interested in that Trans AM. That was in 1981 and I traded my Trans AM that very day, dead even, for that RX7. I did end up getting some boot in the deal, but I would gladly have traded straight-up. Then in 1983 I traded that car in...on a brand new RX-7. Then in 1988, when my son was born, I had to get rid of the RX-7 and get something more family oriented.

I was rotor-less for the next 20 years, but in 2005 I bought a 1985 GSL-SE to do a ground up rebuild on. I had been looking for one worthy of this project for a while and I found it on this forum. I had looked at FD's, but I didn't want to spend that much on a "toy". Most of the FD's I'd seen were priced at $17k or more. Then I came across a little extra money so I went looking at FD's. I came across one in Seattle, 2K on anew rebuild and new turbos. Asking price $17k. Still more than I wanted to spend, but I called anyway. I went and looked at it and it was immaculate. When I slid behind the wheel and got out on the freeway, it was just like it was back in 1981 when I came across that 1st RX-7. I offered the guy $13k, thinking we would haggle and I'd go home empty handed. Imagine my surprise when he accepted. 2 days later I was the proud owner of a 93 FD. And I LOVE every single minute I spend behind the wheel fo this car. LS1 conversion? Screw that! That rotary IS the RX-7. Without it, it's just another car. If I want a V-8 I'll go to the grocery store and buy some.

 

Being as old as dirt i have owned about every kind of cars 55 chevys 57's 67 l88 corvette, alpha romao, austin healey 3000, chevells, mgb's, even fiat 600, and about 12 secound gen rx7,s. I remember when the 93's came out i thought thats a sweet car, One of my best friends bought a 93 fd and had to borrow money to fix it, long story short i made the loan and when he moved to california he gave me the car. Now after spending more than the car cost new im hooked on the fd. Its quite the love hate relationship!

 

rlaugh:
I had to laugh at that part, it seems the story of our "dramatic" cars.
Every time I get mad at the amount I've spent, I think back to the first time I
pressed the gas and it all goes away.