Burn98

Hello everyone,

I'm a young guy from the Toronto area here in Canada. I've been saving up money for a while now and was in the market for my first car, I have a daily already (family car) and was looking to buy a fun sports car of some sort, hoping for something Japanese. This is when I stumbled upon a 1988 Mazda RX-7 FC 10th Anniversary just at the top of my budget. This is a car I'm very fond of and have a love for with the look and the popup headlights I so miss (also thanks to Initial D). It's a car I never see in my area, even at major cars shows and would love to bring back to the scene. I wanted to ask how difficult it would be to get parts for this car with it's age and it's rotary engine. Where would I go to get them (website/s) and what can I expect to pay as a general ball park for common issues? It would cost a good chunk of what I have to purchase but it seems to be pretty sorted (haven't viewed in person) but of course things happen and I would like to know what I could expect in terms of maintenance and common issues. I have read some of the recommended buyers guides on here and have done a bit of research on my own but I'm still feel that there is much more to learn. I'm happy to do the work, I've been working on other sports cars with my Dad for a couple of years now and would love to tinker with the rotary engine.

I would love any help with what to look for if I were to go and look at the car as well as how difficult getting parts would be in the Toronto Area.

Thanks,
Burn98

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

Welcome to the forum! As with any 30 plus year old car, there will be some challenges obtaining parts. There's near zero support for the 10th Anniversary specific parts. The good news is that the car is just a standard TII outside of the 10th Anniversary trim. In other words, most parts are available. Maintenance is key with these cars. Fix what needs attention and stay ahead in your preventative maintenance.

I would advise asking the current owner about any known maintenance and repair history. The engine is reliable if maintained and I've seen many original TII engines go past 140k miles. With that said, if you're paying top dollar, having a proper compression test performed with a rotary compression tester is a good idea. Just to have a general idea of how healthy the engine is.

with that said here are a couple helpful parts websites. Bear in mind that Mazda does still sell quite a few parts for these cars, so you can always compare pricing with your local dealer.

www.mazdatrix.com
www.atkinsrotary.com
www.racingbeat.com

The 10th Anniversary RX-7 is a very special car. 1500 were produced worldwide and and were based on the TII trim level. All were painted Crystal White. The color code on the vin plate should read UC. All 10th Anniversary RX-7's came with bronze tinted glass, Crystal White wheels, and black leather interior. They have a special 10AE embossed steering wheel, special 10th Anniversary RX-7 floor mats, and a one piece shift ****/boot made by Momo. The word Momo was embossed into the **** above the shift pattern. Only a couple of options were available on the 10th Anniversary. Antilock brakes, acoustic equillibration audio system (cd player snd speaker package), and glass break sensors were the options. I ince had a 10AE with a bronze moonroof panel as well. My current 10AE has a painted sunroof. I'm unsure if the bronze moonroof was factory or an aftermarket add on.

I also created a thread and keep track of all of the 10th Anniversary RX-7's via a registry here on the forum. If you get the car, please feel free to reach out and i will add your car's info to the registry. The registry can be found in the 2nd gen section within the stuck threads.

Burn98

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to hear that's most parts are still available, I'll take a look at what's specific to the 10th Anniversary addition more closely then. The listing for the car is a bit sparse so there isn't a compression test on there as of right now. I'll reach out to the seller about a compression test if I decide to go any further down the process of purchasing it. Thanks for the parts website as well, I had checked out a couple my Dad has used for his cars and there wasn't much on there so I was a bit worried. Reassuring to see that these website have much, much more available.

I had read that this was a limited run of the car which I didn't plan on buying specifically but it's the only coupe in decent condition in my area as I wasn't interested in buying a convertible and much prefer the look of the coupe. Price wise it's wasn't much more than the other FC's available either.

If I go to take a look at the car I'll confirm that it's a 10th Anniversary as well as it having all the various extra 10th Anniversary parts as well. The listing doesn't specify any of these things either.

Thanks again for all the helpful info! I'll continue to update about my pursuit of an FC.

WJM ROTARIES

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