ive been thinking about buying one of the two and i and just wondering what the thoughts/opinions you evo owners might have on the rx7. do you think the rx7 compete with the evo on the autocross, drag( stand still, 10 30 etc mph roll).
i know its a 10-12 year old car but i just want to know your thoughts on it performance wise and such compared to the evo( 05 gsr if that helps...)

thanks,
-Mike

 

No doubt the RX-7 is a cool car but you will have to deal with some reliablity issues. They can be great straight line cars and just as good on an autocross track. It just depends on really what your looking for, new or old, two door- four door, that kinda stuff. And how much money you have to spend and what you will use it for.

 

my evo is my second car/non daily driver and sometimes it will sit for weeks and i start thinking, i might as well get a small impractical 2 seater again and since i don't drive it that much who cares about reliability. and if thats the case then the ultimate impractical, unreliable but insanely fun car is the 3rd gen rx-7. BUT then i will get in my evo and forget about it. i love rotories but the evo is an amazing machine. plus its nice to be able to get in a car that can be boosted way above 400 hp and it still starts. an rx-7 is a case of how much fun can i pull out of this car till i have to pull the motor out of it.

 

well, 3rd gen(FD) rx-7s can be more reliable than some other fds around with the proper care and attention that i know it needs. just like your evo it would be a non daily driver...just for nice days, weekends, and such.

for me im not looking to get like 450 hp out of a 7, just a nice 300-320(ish) on the stock twins(maybe 99 spec). its nice and lightweight also so you dont need tons of power for it to be insanly fast

any other thoughts out there??

-mike

 

The fd3s is one of my favorite cars. 2800 pounds + rwd + turbo = It would make a great second car, but reliability would be an issue if it was used as daily driver.

 

good question and it had been beat around this board more than once. the rx-7 is a great car, but it is 10 yrs old, and may have some reliability issues. i needed four doors, but wouldve gone with a 3rd gen if i didnt. i have owned a first and second gen rx-7 and loved them both. i had no issues besides basic maintenace stuff with either. i would go with the eov, actually i did go with the evo, but good luck in your decision.

 

I had a 93 RX-7 R1 as a daily driver. It was a fantastic car and was actually very reliable. Generally people started having problems when they began modifying them. However, even then, when done properly it wasnt too bad. You could easily upgrade to 300 - 350hp. Past that and you began breaking things.

The big thing for the RX-7 is its handling. It would carve corners like nobody's business. On a dry road course I would hazard that a stock RX-7 would have no trouble hanging with a stock EVO.

If I had the garage space I would love to add an RX-7 to be stable.

 

i had a friend that was building an ls1 rx7, he had the chassis and the engine and everything, waiting on a subframe from hinsonsupercars but he sold everything because rx7s are old cars.

unless you decide to really invest in a newer one or one with low mileage, the car is gonna be beat. creaks and squeeks everywhere, the chassis is gonna be softened, and you can do very little to remedy it short of seam welding. there's no polyurathan bushings available for it. and of course if you're not building an ls1 rx7 there's the ultimate engine reliability issue.

rx7s aren't efficient either so if you're thinking from that standpoint they're pretty sadly desgined cars.

you're gonna encounter these kinds of problems with any car that is old not just the rx7. but they can be made to go very fast, and they are the ultimate small car. now it's just time to put the ultimate big engine in it :].

 

dont you just have to upgrade to 3mm apex seals and then the engine is reliable? i heard that those are what always went... anyways ive always admired the FD, i think its a glorious car, best motoring proves it can hang with the evo... evo is just more practical.

 

If you stuffed a SR-20 motor in it then ahhhh yaaaa, but if not get the evo

 

I rarely see and rx7 engine make it past 60k. Just look at ebay, every auction will say new engine installed. they can be hella quick though

 

after i saw the pictures of the electric blue...its all over. i love the rx7 and all its glory but that electric blue just hooked me. thanks to whom posted that

 

My 93 Rx-7 was a total lemon, easily the worst car I've ever owned. It was more trouble then my Alfa Romeos. Really, look at the list of TSBs and recalls - they're a mile long. And, it wasn't any faster then my Z28. When on boost it's good, but there was a big bog between the first and second turbo that made for a very uneven power curve. It was hissy and spitty and sucked the gas. And I haven't mentioned the rattling and clunking suspension. It stranded me twce and I worked on it more the I drove it

The only up side is I sold it for more then I paid for it (I bought an E36 M3 to replace it). Oh, and I liked the the looks

I would take my Evo over an Rx-7 anyday.

If you get one, it WILL be a 'tinker' car.

Oh yeah, performance wise I think they are very close.

Jim

 

the apex seals are what go, but only in stock form. people blo aftermarket motors too, people blow buildt motors. the other thing is engine management in the rx7 community is mostly haltech, which is hard to setup for pulling timing when your **** goes wrong. it's also awfully expensive.

rx7s are great cars, one of the best purpose built cars EVER! but it also depends on what you're doing. the rx7 is a black sheep. it can't hang with the big dogs, unless you get a 3 rotor swap or an ls1 swap with a very small super charger or a super displaced motor. if you watch best motoring, lots of the rx7s are underpowered, pulling 350 max, now this is also because they want SAFE horsepower, some the apexi drift car is pulling circa 415. anyone can go nuts on an rx7 and burn it. so as compared to skylines and supras and the such on highspeed tracks, in the words of best motoring drivers (almost all of them) it's fast in the corners but on the straights it doesn't have enough power.

also cooling the hp in an rx7 is hard because the engine makes lots of heat to begin with and the rx7's radiator and cooling setup has never been good, one of the first things you should replace but after that it's all about monitoring. and once again the rx7 motor is very inefficient, easily beat to death by an ls1. it doens't burn up all the fuel doesn't stay cool revs high at least.... but i mean that's the whole idea with the renesis motor, it was such a huge improvement over the last generation rotories... so much cleaner so much more efficient.

it's obvious that the rx7 is a drifting king car.

as compared to evos and that niche of motorsports that it occupies, only the older rx7s were any good in rallying and the new ones are light and fast but don't have enough grip when you're talkin' critical one lap wonders, there's no rx7 time attack cars that are really worth mentioning (i don't think, hit me if i'm wrong).

but then there's the street, the rx7 is kind of an ultimate touge monster, an s2000 without the lame nonturboableness. albeit i'd prolly take a custom built hard top s2k over a fixed roof rx7 because s2k is newer, stiffer, newer technology, it'll last longer and is definitely more comfy even tho i don't care about comfort, it adds that without losing out on much but the engine WHICH btw is more reliable by far.

 

I own both. and i was planning on selling the evo but now im selling the rx7 only after 2 weeks of having it, i figured i want a newer car.


buy my 7 its really nice and clean.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=4516319256