long story short I found a guy who might want to trade my evo for his rx-7. I dont wanna get into details because there are still a lot of kinks in this that I probably gotta sort out. but.....lets say that the stars line up and my luck holds out...

I have a 2003 rally red evo, 29k original miles. slightly modded, 8/10 on the outside and 9/10 on the interior. Great car, perfect mechanically, prolly gets around 320hp.

Now what I might be looking at is a 1997 rx-7. Yes, a 97...it is a twin turbo rhd, and it was apparently tuned by Top Fuel in Japan. 55k original miles.

he is asking $20k or trades, and mine is worth around that so he might be considering it.

buuuuut idk much mechanically about rx-7s, especially the late year models. all ik is that alot of mazdas use that 1.3L rotary, but idk how reliable they are. And I am hoping insurance would be similar...rhd might f$#k that tho but idk.

advice anyone? All things being equal i wouldnt mind an rx7, too many evos around here and I only know of 3 late year rx7s in my area, and non of them are post 95s....

 

What I know about rotaries (pre rx8). Not reliable, expensive to repair and maintain (more expensive than an EVO), fuel efficiency much worse than EVO. However they are good for a lot of power. If you are keen and know a lot about rotaries and can do your own maintenance and so on you will be a lot better off than if you didn't.

Mind you, NZ might be a different story to USA.

 

Why wouldnt u wanna trade for that?i mean its a great car but its rwd n really small inside cuz its a 2 seater...insurance is expensive and the car will cost a fortune to fix or upgrade..u will surely miss AWD!not to mention thats sweet 2step and the comfy Recaros..but its your choice.

 

It would definitely be a downgrade. I would pass on the offer.

The only way I would own one would be with a LSX in it. That would be fun.

 

If you have to ask about buying an RX-7, you're not ready to own an RX-7.

 

Plus, 6 years older and almost twice the mileage and worth the same? Might be worth it if it was collectable.

 

Don't be scared of the rotary !

If the FD is tuned properly you will be fine. I had one for 6 years and had a great, safe tune on it and beside the "basic" wear and tear items the car never had a hiccup. The FD gets a bad rap because if you don't know what you (or your mechanic) are doing they are easy to blow up vs. the Evo which has a higher margin for error.

I would never buy an FD without a complete pre-purchase inspection from a reputable rotary specialist (not a Mazda dealer)

The upside is that you have a car that will absolutely crush an Evo in terms of handling and driving impression, makes an Evo look like someone's homely sister and has a certain degree of uniqueness.

Best of luck on your decision!

 

^^
crush an evo in handling???

 

In my opinion, out of the box the FD easily conveys a much better handling impression/feel and is night and day better than an Evo.

Why? COG, body roll, dive characteristics, weight distribution, to name a few. There are lots of cars that are much better handling out of the box than and Evo- the Evo pushes like a pig out of the box. Where the Evo wins is when it's pushed to the limits and simple tweaks (like a locking rear diff) quickly close and push beyond the gap.

 

Is this the same one on ebay? There is a white 97 on ebay.

 

With all due respect, if you're gonna lay some claims down on an EVO forum, have some hard numbers to back that claim.. Some cars might feel faster because their balance between power, braking, & handling is more equal than in other cars, but once you pull out the stopwatch, it shows otherwise.

As far as reliability of the rotary's go, I think you would have to do considerable searching to find an RX7 that has good mileage on it & still has the original, non-rebuilt engine. Most of the RX7's I've seen either have been rebuilt or are in need of it. Like it was mentioned, the rotary engine's are more sensitive to improper tuning, & non-favorable engine conditions. It doesn't take much to blow those motors. If you're seriously considering to do the trade, don't go through on it without taking the car to a rotary tuner for a full inspection!

Last thing you need to keep in mind is:

A. Insurance will be hella expensive for it!!
B. Gas mileage on rotary's BLOWS!!! You'll think that you have a V-10 under
the hood instead of a 1.3L!
C. Tuned rotary's (rotary's in general) are not friendly towards your local smog
station! If you have to go through DEQ in your area, keep all extremeties
crossed that it'll pass!

 

^^this I owned and built an RX-7. expensive as hell to rebuild but not difficult to do. Best thing you can do for then is ditch stock Ecu and remove all the vac. line BS makes working on it sooooooooooooooo much better.

 

Don't necessarily disagree with your "stopwatch" comment; but I'm speaking of handling characteristics out of the box, not necessarily who will get around an auto-x or road course faster (too many varibles with the biggest one being the driver )

Maybe I was lucky with my Rx-7 and Rx-8 but I had no major problems because I knew what I was getting myself into and had good people that worked on the car...

I'm on an Evo forum because I've had an Evo (DD and now a race car) for over 5 years now, so it's not a slap in the face to the Evo but rather a comparison of both cars that I know pretty well.

Point is don't run away from one of the best looking and best handling cars around because it's a rotary; but rather go into understanding what you are getting into and some of the pitfalls (well documented here and many other places)

 

As you may have noticed there are two very different opinions, I don't think you're going to find the one best answer from a thread. It's going to be all about what you want.

 

evo hands down


Andy