Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

Just curious how rare and difficult these cars are to obtain. If one were looking for a RX-7 (series 6+) with no major modifications, and in decent condition how difficult would it be to find? Also, how much would one expect to pay. They seem to average around $25,000 here in Australia.

Cheers.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/362101-importing-an-fd-rx-7/
Share on other sites

Ah okay. I was reading through wiki and read that Australia had some RX7s. How do the S7/8 get here then? I thought we couldn't import cars that were Australian delivered.

or sold between certain dates. hence the reason you cannont comply 91 GTRs.

s6 rx7 was sold here. there are a few grey s6 running around but not many.

Kez,

If you are in WA, I will be putting my series 8 on the market in a few months, once my new 370gt gets a little closer to our shores.

Car is basically stock, Cusco Zero 1 Coilovers are the only major mod apart from a panasonic touchscreen Sat Nav/Ipod/DVD player and small amp and sub in the boot, turbo timer and alarm. It is in very good condition mechanically the only issue is the dodgy Mazda paint that they put on is starting to look a little rough around the edges if you look closely. Still has about 2-2.5 years warrenty on it from the Importer i got it from here in WA, send me a pm if you are interested, i havent really thought too much about selling it yet, been more focused on sourcing the 370gt.

I had basically decided to spend $10,000 - $15,000 on it to turn it into the monster that it should have been out of the factory, if Mazda hadnt needed to stick to a budget and make some money on them, but the Missus cant drive it and it does guzzle fuel like a muthaf'er around town. I'm pretty certain that I am going to be pretty devasted once it is gone, the 370gt is going to the a hell of a lot more luxurious but i dont think I will be as confident flicking through round-abouts at 100kph as in the mazda. I used to live in Kalgoorlie and it was great fun seeing v8's try to keep up and dissapearing into the distance as soon as their was any sort of bend in the road. Nothing funier than seeing someone shit themselves in the rear view mirror when they realise than they shouldnt have followed me into a round-about at 100.

Al

Be prepared to rebuild a S8 even if its super clean when you bring it in, I was looking for one before i bought my gtr and just found that after about 60000kms its literally a matter of time before a rebuild due to the seals deteriating. Buying one in aus with a rebuilt motor for a little bit more is a near safer option than buying a good standard one then spending 8-10k on a rebuild. The thing that kills them is the heat, the stock twins are terrible and often blow. Good mods to look for are; aftermarket radiator, metal air/water seperator, V mount intercoolers are also good as they provide better air flow to the radiator than a front mount. These mods provide reliability for the 13b. Dont be scared of buying one but do your research into the rx7, like HEAPS of research, there very different to mod to piston turbo cars.

Yeah I'm aware of the rebuild issue, but my understanding is they're a lot cheaper to rebuild than a piston engine anyway.

I've heard all sort of stories, from people rebuilding them every 20,000ks to people have clocked over 300,000km on their old rotary without an issue.

I understand they have their drawbacks, reliability and fuel consumption being two primary ones, but RX-7 itself is a phenomenal car. They rival Silvia's in weight and balance, yet can compete with the 2JZ in outright power. Plus they look and sound amazing. Damn, I sound like a fanboy already.

Kez,

If you are in WA, I will be putting my series 8 on the market in a few months, once my new 370gt gets a little closer to our shores.

Car is basically stock, Cusco Zero 1 Coilovers are the only major mod apart from a panasonic touchscreen Sat Nav/Ipod/DVD player and small amp and sub in the boot, turbo timer and alarm. It is in very good condition mechanically the only issue is the dodgy Mazda paint that they put on is starting to look a little rough around the edges if you look closely. Still has about 2-2.5 years warrenty on it from the Importer i got it from here in WA, send me a pm if you are interested, i havent really thought too much about selling it yet, been more focused on sourcing the 370gt.

I had basically decided to spend $10,000 - $15,000 on it to turn it into the monster that it should have been out of the factory, if Mazda hadnt needed to stick to a budget and make some money on them, but the Missus cant drive it and it does guzzle fuel like a muthaf'er around town. I'm pretty certain that I am going to be pretty devasted once it is gone, the 370gt is going to the a hell of a lot more luxurious but i dont think I will be as confident flicking through round-abouts at 100kph as in the mazda. I used to live in Kalgoorlie and it was great fun seeing v8's try to keep up and dissapearing into the distance as soon as their was any sort of bend in the road. Nothing funier than seeing someone shit themselves in the rear view mirror when they realise than they shouldnt have followed me into a round-about at 100.

Al

Sounds like an awesome car mate, but I'm in Victoria and not off my P's for a while which is why I'm considering importing as I have time to wait.

Truly epic car. Brought in an S6 about 5 years ago and sold it to a dude from QLD - he flew over one night to check it out, left a deposit and organised a truck to ship it a few days later after sending through a bank cheque. This was a 94 model with just over 40,000km on it, and the engine was fine. Sweet sweet rotary goodness.

Yeah I'm aware of the rebuild issue, but my understanding is they're a lot cheaper to rebuild than a piston engine anyway.

I've heard all sort of stories, from people rebuilding them every 20,000ks to people have clocked over 300,000km on their old rotary without an issue.

I understand they have their drawbacks, reliability and fuel consumption being two primary ones, but RX-7 itself is a phenomenal car. They rival Silvia's in weight and balance, yet can compete with the 2JZ in outright power. Plus they look and sound amazing. Damn, I sound like a fanboy already.

Yes they are cheaper than a piston engine but its still about 8k for someone decent to rebuild them. I did a LOT of research and spoke to many rotary specialists, your honestly better off buying one thats been built with a fresh motor with receipts from a reputable workshop, you will save yourself a lot of time and money. Basically I could get a good stock series 8 for 23-25k (in Aus and imported), I could get a mint Series 8 with a rebuilt motor and bigger turbo for 30k that had 16k worth of receipts for the engine build, turbo upgrade and a lot of the reliability mods such as bigger radiator etc.

Im not trying to turn you off them at all as they are a wicked car (i always wanted a gtr and mine come up at a good price), just research and speak to people that deal with them rather than the stories you have heard, jump on the rotary forums and ask about. I just found anything over 60000kms with a stock motor and it was when it needed a rebuild not if it would need one, the standard seals just let go.

Been considering these lately too...the engine rebuilds are the only thing turning me off them. Such a shame because the engines feel so nice and smooth to rev. Some very nice and clean 2001 examples came up on J-spec a while ago, estimated cost ready to drive on the road was about 21k. They've certainly come down in price since the Australian dollar is doing well against the yen.

yeah they are awesome and yes they are a bit fragile. the turbos on the S8 are actually very good and make an easy 250kw with basic mods. the factory radiator is already V mount of sorts and actually works pretty well. Personally I bought a Series 8 2001 RZ in japan. it had about 30,000kms but engine was already a little tired so I had a full rebuild done on it in japan at a japanese rotary specialist (amazing work, speed and price). it was fantastic. was putting out around 250kw with just a conservative ECU re-tune, little bit of boost and a nice (LOUD!) exhaust. was such a fun car to drive, amazingly well balanced. makes even a hack driver into some kind of drifting virtuoso. I wouldn't hesitate to own one again but it would have to be another RZ (bit hard as they only made 150 of them) or a spirit R (bit easier as they number in the thousands). I sold my RZ for very low 30K range which was a steal. it had an engine with only a handful of km on it, all the original RZ gear (carbon kevlar recaros, BBS wheels, bilstein suspension etc) along with book and receipts for all the work done.

great car but you need to be prepared to spend the money up front to buy a good one, and then spend the money maintaining it and most likely rebuilding it. if you're after a 'bargain' or a 'cheap one' then they are not the car for you. it will just bring heart ache. if you're buying an FD you should be looking at the top end of the market as tha's where the cars worth buying are. or buy a cheaper one and rebuild immediately.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
    • But first....while I was there, I also swapped across the centre console box for the other style where the AV inputs don't intrude into the (very limited !) space.  Part# was 96926-4GA0A, 284H3-4GA0B, 284H3-4GA0A. (I've already swapped the top 12v socket for a USB bulkhead in this pic, it fit the hole without modification:) Comparison of the 2: Basically to do the console you need to remove the DS and PS side console trim (they slide up and back, held in by clips only) Then remove the back half of the console top trim with the cupholders, pops up, all clips again but be careful at the front as it is pretty flimsy. Then slide the shifter boot down, remove the spring clip, loose it forever somewhere in the car the pull the shift knob off. Remove the tiny plastic piece on DS near "P" and use something thin and long (most screwdrivers won't fit) to push down the interlock and put the shifter down in D for space. There is one screw at the front, then the shifter surround and ashtray lift up. There are 3 or 4 plugs underneath and it is off. Next is the rear cover of the centre console; you need to open the console lid, pop off the trim covering the lid hinge and undo the 2rd screw from the driver's side (the rest all need to come out later so you can do them all now and remove the lid) Then the rear cover unclips (6 clips), start at the top with a trim tool pulling backwards. Once it is off there are 2 screws facing rearwards to remove (need a short phillips for these) and you are done with the rear of the console. There are 4 plugs at the A/V box to unclip Then there are 2 screws at the front of the console, and 2 clips (pull up and back) and the console will come out.
×
×
  • Create New...