Painless rotary ownership? November 2007 to June 2010
Discussion
Hello all, I have decided to create a Reader's Cars thread to tell the story of my time with my Mazda RX-7 twin turbo.
This was my second RX-7, the first was a black '93 twin turbo import bought in May '07. Sadly this car was written off in August when my wife (then girlfriend) hit standing water and spun coming onto the A3 on the daily commute she was using the car for. Luckily she was unhurt but we learnt a couple of things about RX-7s that day - don't use it as a daily driver and don't drive it in the rain!
With the insurance payout burning a hole in my pocket I had unfinished RX-7 business so I set about scouring all sources for another one. I had a budget of £4500 so I couldn't believe my luck when I found this one, badly advertised on PH. The price was right - £4K and the car had some very serious bonus points:
At that time it only had just under 44K miles, a number of mods - exhaust, suspension, wheels and (questionable but it grew on me) bodykit but the biggy was that it was one of only 124 UK Spec models so not only did it come with all the options (cruise, leather, sunroof etc) it was also easy to insure cheaply as a classic. It would seem that buying sports cars it's easier to get a much better deal in the winter too.
Driving the car back from Gosport was an interesting experience - the previous owner seemed to think that winding the coilovers to their lowest setting and having the dampers on full hardness was appropriate for the road!!?
Advert pictures:
Back home:
Driving a rotary-engined car gives all owners paranoia - I had it bad, I would convince myself the car was leaning out (with the big exhaust and unmapped ecu) and throw a tip, burst a water seal and explode the turbos on every outing so I thought I would give myself some peace of mind by installing a boost gauge so I could make sure it wasn't over boosting and that the turbo switching arrangement was healthy. This was back in January 2008
boost gauge install:
Luckily the car was perfectly healthy so it was onwards and upwards! I took the car along to a PH Sunday service in February '08 and met amongst others Papercup and checked out his very serious track beast:
Also around the same time out with my friend Dr. D and his old Supra (it came with that plate!)
I thought I'd join in on the rotary scene so I went along to the Mazda Rotary club meet a Brooklands April '08 and saw some very rare Mazdas:
A couple more pics from May '08:
Eager to test out the car's straight-line performance I went along the 'Performance, Tuning and Modified' show at Santa Pod May '08. My best 1/4 mile time was a 14.14 @ 99.82 with a 2.1s 60'. Supposedly the time for a stock Japanese car (255bhp) was 13.9 @ 100 so I wasn't far off considering that the UK cars were 237bhp but obviously then the desire for more power bit me!
RX-7 vs celica ptm show May 08 14.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILRSipyKjdg
June '08, took the car along to a local (well it was in Dorking) Jap car meet - note the AE86!
Another cheesy posed pic with Dr. D and his Supra
Also a not very sunny day trip to the beach at Calshot
I went along to the London Motorshow in July '08 and not only did I get to drive a couple of Mazda's in the Zoom Zoom challenge I also saw 2 RX-7 on show and the Furai concept car
Before getting around to any upgrades I took the car out to a taster track session at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. This was a cold but clear December morning, I spun the car on my second lap - in that 25 mins or so on track I learnt alot about my car! fortunately I took it a bit easier after that, warmed my tyres and went home no worse for wear - incredible good fun
On to Feb '09 and this was no time to be taking out the Rex:
By March the snow was gone so I set about spending my collected pennies on some bits and pieces for the car.
I built a budget removable speaker box from some mdf and a bargain set of maplins speakers and an amp - all-in it was less than £50 worth but looked ok and filled in some depth in music that wasn't there with the original speakers
By far my favourite upgrade however was my new ECU - an A'pexi Power FC and hand controller, I installed it and ran it on the base map for a few weeks but already high rpm acceleration was much improved with it there.
For my birthday in April '09 I took at trip to the tuner's - RE:Worx in Portsmouth where I had a map put together for my car on the rolling road:
The car made 323bhp @ 0.9bar of boost on the RE:Worx rolling road after the tune. I was very, very happy!
I was keen then to test out the new power on the drag strip at Santa Pod so I took my 'crew' along for support and broke into the 13s!
Here's my highlights video of the tuning and subsequent Pod trip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXYDZIKBmU
April was also the month for another Mazda Rotary Club show at Brooklands - this time we got to go on the track and take some photos
I hadn't been happy with my 1/4 mile times in April so I went back to Santa Pod in May '09 and did a bit better - running a 13.5 @ 103.92 with a 2.1s 60' - 0.6s better than my previous best the year before
Here's a video of the run against a 380bhp Evo VII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pmuhvzu1Ao
As it was local I went to another Pistonheads Sunday Service in August '09. I met a great bunch of local PH'ers (great convoy!)
A few random detail shots from around the same time
In September '09 I had an issue with the engine (rotary paranoia kicked in) huge (comedy) loss of power and a very loud hissing sound - it turned out that one of my old rubber boost hoses had perished so I bought some silicone ones for ~£50 - problem solved!
Thinking I might fancy doing some more track stuff I got a bargain set of lightweight black Speedline wheels already wearing some Eagle F1s for £200
Another problem in Dec '09 - I really thought I'd killed it this time, engine water seals I thought, it had to be? I had a brief overheat and got scared to start the car again, I had my neighbour check it out with me (he builds AM engines) and we found that it was just my waterpump that had failed, a new pump and gasket was in order. Well the car was in pieces for weeks as it was just too cold to work on, on the drive
By mid-January 2010 tho, all was good again and running happily
Messing around with a wide-angle lens in March:
Finally got to the track again in March - this time an airfield day at North Weald - epic, awesome fun. I do have to say tho I wasn't really taking it too seriously. The Rex was just so much fun keeping it sliding on the ragged edge that my times and lines were not my first priority!
Another highlights video - check us out 5-up in a mate's 330D taking one of the short sprint courses at the end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5gszXVrR0
With a new (little!) lady in my life, a two-seater sports car just couldn't cut it so I finally sold the car yesterday (June 12th) with just over 50K miles on to a girl who travelled all the way from Barcelona to buy it! here are a couple of the last few pics:
And the last place I drove it to - the space in the Gatwick car park its new owner drove it away from
This was my second RX-7, the first was a black '93 twin turbo import bought in May '07. Sadly this car was written off in August when my wife (then girlfriend) hit standing water and spun coming onto the A3 on the daily commute she was using the car for. Luckily she was unhurt but we learnt a couple of things about RX-7s that day - don't use it as a daily driver and don't drive it in the rain!
With the insurance payout burning a hole in my pocket I had unfinished RX-7 business so I set about scouring all sources for another one. I had a budget of £4500 so I couldn't believe my luck when I found this one, badly advertised on PH. The price was right - £4K and the car had some very serious bonus points:
At that time it only had just under 44K miles, a number of mods - exhaust, suspension, wheels and (questionable but it grew on me) bodykit but the biggy was that it was one of only 124 UK Spec models so not only did it come with all the options (cruise, leather, sunroof etc) it was also easy to insure cheaply as a classic. It would seem that buying sports cars it's easier to get a much better deal in the winter too.
Driving the car back from Gosport was an interesting experience - the previous owner seemed to think that winding the coilovers to their lowest setting and having the dampers on full hardness was appropriate for the road!!?
Advert pictures:
Back home:
Driving a rotary-engined car gives all owners paranoia - I had it bad, I would convince myself the car was leaning out (with the big exhaust and unmapped ecu) and throw a tip, burst a water seal and explode the turbos on every outing so I thought I would give myself some peace of mind by installing a boost gauge so I could make sure it wasn't over boosting and that the turbo switching arrangement was healthy. This was back in January 2008
boost gauge install:
Luckily the car was perfectly healthy so it was onwards and upwards! I took the car along to a PH Sunday service in February '08 and met amongst others Papercup and checked out his very serious track beast:
Also around the same time out with my friend Dr. D and his old Supra (it came with that plate!)
I thought I'd join in on the rotary scene so I went along to the Mazda Rotary club meet a Brooklands April '08 and saw some very rare Mazdas:
A couple more pics from May '08:
Eager to test out the car's straight-line performance I went along the 'Performance, Tuning and Modified' show at Santa Pod May '08. My best 1/4 mile time was a 14.14 @ 99.82 with a 2.1s 60'. Supposedly the time for a stock Japanese car (255bhp) was 13.9 @ 100 so I wasn't far off considering that the UK cars were 237bhp but obviously then the desire for more power bit me!
RX-7 vs celica ptm show May 08 14.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILRSipyKjdg
June '08, took the car along to a local (well it was in Dorking) Jap car meet - note the AE86!
Another cheesy posed pic with Dr. D and his Supra
Also a not very sunny day trip to the beach at Calshot
I went along to the London Motorshow in July '08 and not only did I get to drive a couple of Mazda's in the Zoom Zoom challenge I also saw 2 RX-7 on show and the Furai concept car
Before getting around to any upgrades I took the car out to a taster track session at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. This was a cold but clear December morning, I spun the car on my second lap - in that 25 mins or so on track I learnt alot about my car! fortunately I took it a bit easier after that, warmed my tyres and went home no worse for wear - incredible good fun
On to Feb '09 and this was no time to be taking out the Rex:
By March the snow was gone so I set about spending my collected pennies on some bits and pieces for the car.
I built a budget removable speaker box from some mdf and a bargain set of maplins speakers and an amp - all-in it was less than £50 worth but looked ok and filled in some depth in music that wasn't there with the original speakers
By far my favourite upgrade however was my new ECU - an A'pexi Power FC and hand controller, I installed it and ran it on the base map for a few weeks but already high rpm acceleration was much improved with it there.
For my birthday in April '09 I took at trip to the tuner's - RE:Worx in Portsmouth where I had a map put together for my car on the rolling road:
The car made 323bhp @ 0.9bar of boost on the RE:Worx rolling road after the tune. I was very, very happy!
I was keen then to test out the new power on the drag strip at Santa Pod so I took my 'crew' along for support and broke into the 13s!
Here's my highlights video of the tuning and subsequent Pod trip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXYDZIKBmU
April was also the month for another Mazda Rotary Club show at Brooklands - this time we got to go on the track and take some photos
I hadn't been happy with my 1/4 mile times in April so I went back to Santa Pod in May '09 and did a bit better - running a 13.5 @ 103.92 with a 2.1s 60' - 0.6s better than my previous best the year before
Here's a video of the run against a 380bhp Evo VII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pmuhvzu1Ao
As it was local I went to another Pistonheads Sunday Service in August '09. I met a great bunch of local PH'ers (great convoy!)
A few random detail shots from around the same time
In September '09 I had an issue with the engine (rotary paranoia kicked in) huge (comedy) loss of power and a very loud hissing sound - it turned out that one of my old rubber boost hoses had perished so I bought some silicone ones for ~£50 - problem solved!
Thinking I might fancy doing some more track stuff I got a bargain set of lightweight black Speedline wheels already wearing some Eagle F1s for £200
Another problem in Dec '09 - I really thought I'd killed it this time, engine water seals I thought, it had to be? I had a brief overheat and got scared to start the car again, I had my neighbour check it out with me (he builds AM engines) and we found that it was just my waterpump that had failed, a new pump and gasket was in order. Well the car was in pieces for weeks as it was just too cold to work on, on the drive
By mid-January 2010 tho, all was good again and running happily
Messing around with a wide-angle lens in March:
Finally got to the track again in March - this time an airfield day at North Weald - epic, awesome fun. I do have to say tho I wasn't really taking it too seriously. The Rex was just so much fun keeping it sliding on the ragged edge that my times and lines were not my first priority!
Another highlights video - check us out 5-up in a mate's 330D taking one of the short sprint courses at the end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5gszXVrR0
With a new (little!) lady in my life, a two-seater sports car just couldn't cut it so I finally sold the car yesterday (June 12th) with just over 50K miles on to a girl who travelled all the way from Barcelona to buy it! here are a couple of the last few pics:
And the last place I drove it to - the space in the Gatwick car park its new owner drove it away from
Martin_Hx said:
Thanks for sharing !
What did you replace it with then ?
Well I started a 'what car' thread not long ago to help with the dilemma. I wanted to free up some cash to go towards house upsizing but keep some of the fun while also having more than two seats. In the end I bought a 1995 BMW 540i touring for £1K. I'm loving it so far and it's my first V8 What did you replace it with then ?
small update to the story:
I had an incomprehensible robot-translated e-mail from the Spanish girl who bought my car about a month ago - something about a minor prang she'd had and whether there was any chance my insurance was still valid and whether it would cover it. Definitely a big NO to both so I left it at that and wished her all the best with getting it sorted.
Then this week I got a letter from the 'Motor Insurance Bureau' in the UK. apparently the Spanish police who had been at the accident noted the UK plates and they had a duty to look me up but cross-checking with the DVLA proved I'd notified them of the export before the accident and it had nothing to do with me.
I'm really hoping that my seemingly unlikely yet successful sale of this car won't come back to haunt me!
I had an incomprehensible robot-translated e-mail from the Spanish girl who bought my car about a month ago - something about a minor prang she'd had and whether there was any chance my insurance was still valid and whether it would cover it. Definitely a big NO to both so I left it at that and wished her all the best with getting it sorted.
Then this week I got a letter from the 'Motor Insurance Bureau' in the UK. apparently the Spanish police who had been at the accident noted the UK plates and they had a duty to look me up but cross-checking with the DVLA proved I'd notified them of the export before the accident and it had nothing to do with me.
I'm really hoping that my seemingly unlikely yet successful sale of this car won't come back to haunt me!
declasm said:
small update to the story:
I had an incomprehensible robot-translated e-mail from the Spanish girl who bought my car about a month ago - something about a minor prang she'd had and whether there was any chance my insurance was still valid and whether it would cover it. Definitely a big NO to both so I left it at that and wished her all the best with getting it sorted.
Then this week I got a letter from the 'Motor Insurance Bureau' in the UK. apparently the Spanish police who had been at the accident noted the UK plates and they had a duty to look me up but cross-checking with the DVLA proved I'd notified them of the export before the accident and it had nothing to do with me.
I'm really hoping that my seemingly unlikely yet successful sale of this car won't come back to haunt me!
You will be fine. Not fined!I had an incomprehensible robot-translated e-mail from the Spanish girl who bought my car about a month ago - something about a minor prang she'd had and whether there was any chance my insurance was still valid and whether it would cover it. Definitely a big NO to both so I left it at that and wished her all the best with getting it sorted.
Then this week I got a letter from the 'Motor Insurance Bureau' in the UK. apparently the Spanish police who had been at the accident noted the UK plates and they had a duty to look me up but cross-checking with the DVLA proved I'd notified them of the export before the accident and it had nothing to do with me.
I'm really hoping that my seemingly unlikely yet successful sale of this car won't come back to haunt me!
As long as your slip went in before the accident there is nothing to worry about.
I would expect that your buyer had figured that she could run it on UK plates and avoid their speed cams etc for a time.
Silly, very silly, if you are going to bin it and bring this to attention.
MadRob6 said:
Sounds like you sold it to a lovely person. You seem to have everything covered at your end so should be alright.
How's the BMW going?
Hey!How's the BMW going?
She was actually really nice - just a little overenthusiastic and naive (enough to fly to another country, carrying ~£5K in cash and buy a car on trust and drive it 1500 miles home)
I'm on the verge of swapping the 540i touring for an E36 328i coupe as I've got a couple of trackdays coming up but it's a lovely thing - want to buy it?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1962757.htm
AbarthChris said:
A fellow RWYB club member!
The 328i I told you about via email yesterday is a PH mod's car - Neil_bolton. apparently it should have an MOT by the time he returns from honeymoon next week.
Shame I joined the company too late to see the RX!
The 328i I told you about via email yesterday is a PH mod's car - Neil_bolton. apparently it should have an MOT by the time he returns from honeymoon next week.
Shame I joined the company too late to see the RX!
- frantic search*
http://www.pistonheads.com/members/showcar.asp?car...
looks very nice! Although I have a potential swap lined-up against this one:
http://pistonheads.com/sales/1884934.htm
which might work out as he's throwing in a brand new apex suspension kit - but I expect you'll see on the RWYB club list on Monday
Big Tav said:
Nice pics of your car in the snow! Did it cause any problems with the motor because of the warming up/cooling down process with a rotor?
The car never drove in the rain - let alone in the snow! I don't think I started the car between November and the end of January - also it was out of action while I replaced the leaking waterpump and I had a brand new daughter to maintain!Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff