Mazda RX-7

The rotary is a great engine until the very second it explodes and you have to spend the money to rebuild it. Not a great first car.

I have a love for rotary engine, I would gladly take the time and fix it if that were to happen.

what $2-300 for a rebuilt kit? Sure is expensive.

brb have go go suck a few cocks so i can buy maccas.

weld the diff, cut the springs. you'll need about 3 engines per drift day tho and a litteral fuck tonne of twostroke

>Rebuilding a rotary is hard
It's REALLY easy to do. They're not even that prone to popping besides the twin turbo. Swap to a modern single with electronic boost control, delete all the vacuum lines, and you're golden.

"drift car" usually translates into "no fucks given, drift slut yolo", not a compatible mentality type with rotary engines...

You will be questioning it once your apex seals come gouging into the rotor housings and exhaust manifold because your OMP was clogged.

>knowing nothing about rotaries
Wew

Easy to rebuild, yes. Cheap on the other hand? not at all, especially if you critically damage any major components. A new rotor or aluminum housing piece run past $700, more so for upgraded components.

Also I highly doubt op is getting his hands on any twin-turbo rotary. Maybe a 13B-T Turbo II if he's lucky to find a good deal.

Assuming you get an FB

-Welded diff or LSD
(GSL and GSL-SE came stock with LSDs)

The rest is just if you have money/time left over to blow.
-Coilovers
a little complicated as you technically can't put coilovers in the rear. (controversial weak rear shock mounts) Although there are kits like rs-speed(no longer around) which give you the same benefits of coilovers without actual coilovers. I think STANCE made actual coilovers for the FB with a little spring perch set up for the rear. You can also swap an AE86 rear. Have fun looking it all up.

-Headers/full exhaust system

-Rack and pinion conversion or adding power just adding powersteering in general

its his first one, he'll fuck it up, hence why i didnt put a parts list. he'll put it into a wall/tree within 2 months anyway

Buy all the parts.

I know my bounds, that won't happen.

FC owner reporting

Buy NA with around 175k miles.
Get an underdrive pulley kit - at high revs you'll cavitate the water pump and that's bad. Did that shit yesterday and about blew something up. Don't skip this shit.

Buy a koyo radiator. Heat is the enemy.

Run premix if it's a dedicated drift car and never fucking neglect to do it. The OMP is fairly reliable but as a drift car you'll be murdering it on the redline too often to really want to trust it. If you're going to drive it on the street too, consider getting really good at pulling the OMP off in the paddock and putting the blockoff plate on and switching back again when you drive home. Or run a slightly lower ratio of premix when you go to drift but leaving the OMP on.

Always run good oil. Idemitsu is the dankest shit on the planet. Change frequently.

On the FC the handbrake already actuates the rear brake calipers rather than a smaller caliper. No need to swap to hydraulic handbrake, you already have it. You can also get kits to run two sets of rear brake calipers for even more skids. Some mazda passenger car brake master cylinders will fit and have bigger bores for more skids.

YOU WILL HAVE TO GIT GUD AT SUSPENSION TUNING. Stock the car is set up fairly neutral but prefers understeer. Read theory and get it to act the way you want. Most novice doriftu-ers don't run FCs because of this and:

The general bullshit reputation people give rotaries.

You will only blow an apex seal at obscenely high mileage or obscenely high stress if you're N/A. If you're turbo you'll blow if you run too much boost. Same as running 13lb boost with no supporting mods on a 2015 camaro SS. Don't be dumb.

The power steering rack is better than manual on the FC due to the gear ratios. The power steering is much faster.

You can run 255s in the back and +20/30mm fenders are available for chump change to run the same in the front.

I bet OP is going to buy a 180k+ RX-7 that has never seen a rebuild, drift it at some event for 30 minutes, then find out his seals cant hold compression or his gaskets are non-existent and leaking coolant into the rotor housings.

Rotors and housings aren't exactly common parts though. Usually it's not much more than seals.

Never drifted at an event, never will. I'm just planning to put an rx7 together that can take a little abuse.

BUY THE BOOK "RX-7 The New Mazda RX-7 and Mazda Rotary Engine Sports Cars" by Jack Yamaguchi. It's your bible.

You can do porting at home for gainz but don't bother until you rebuild if you stay NA. You won't break 200whp NA on a 13b without some serious bullshit. Use porting templates. When you become a rotary demon here are some specs for peripheral porting. These are official mazda documentation on a 13B from 1977 that won the Fuji 1000km (From the above book). INTAKE peri opens 86deg BTDC closes 75deg ABDC EXHAUST peri opens 73deg BBDC closes 65deg ATDC. Weber 48ida carbed. Made 290bhp+.

If you go turbo, listen to the RX7 forums. It's better to find a stock turbo engine to swap than turbo an NA engine. You can get those JDM import engines for like $1200 and they'll probably run well enough.

Turbo will be very reliable if you keep it under 400bhp and that should be enough for sick fucking skids. Remember, real touge niggas choose superior handling over more power. Ryosuke lowered his tune and everything you've ever learned about drifting is from Initial D so you should believe him.

If you get an NA 99% chance you will have an open diff. If it's dedicated drift car that lives in a storage unit, maybe you can weld it unless you go turbo and make hard HP. If it's a street car, trawl craigslist until you find a differential from an 86-88 turbo car. DO NOT BUY A LATER DIFF. 86-88 were clutch pack and 89-92 are viscous and the fluid in all of them is dead.

Buy a fuckin' Nardi Torino wheel so you can be like that guy in the webm that gets posted in eurobeat general drift battling the white GTS in the turbo II. Mine came with one already installed tho.

The stock oil cooler is godlike. Don't fuck with it. If you live in texas, consider buying a second stock oil cooler and running them in series.

If you buy NA get the turbo brake calipers. this will require a hub change unless you have an adapter machined. Better anyway since many NA cars were 4 lug.

damaging your rotor housings is a real possibility from fragmented apex seals. I've seen it before.

At the end of the day if you're bouncing off of redline every session you take it out you are probably going to hurt something. Rotary rebuilds should be proactive, not reactive. If you bust an apex seal, you will probably eat the housing. Eat the housing, now you have to find a good one to use in your rebuild. Craigslist is your friend but let's be honest parts are only available for so many years.

If you run boost get good seals that won't break and have someone really fucking good tune it. Do not let some retard street tune it for a 6 pack because if you detonate you will almost definitely eat a seal, even newly rebuilt.

Don't be a nigger running with no fenders or hood. These cars are fucking graceful. No stickerbombs, no tribal decals. Paint it one color and I don't mean plastidip. Silver or white or blue are all fly.

If you don't listen to anything else I've said at least do these two:

READ THE ENTIRETY OF AARONCAKE'S WEBSITE. He is probably the best north american resource of rotary info short of jim mederer, but he's actually geared towards DIY without the support of a shop like jim is.

READ THE FAQ ON RX7FORUM. No matter what gen you end up buying there's a FAQ on every gen and it's worth learning.

FC is best though.

Thanks for your help.

>Ryosuke lowered his tune and everything you've ever learned about drifting is from Initial D so you should believe him.
unexpected kek

hahahahaha
Excellent point, listen up OP!

I want an FC so bad FUCK

I want the D

I WANNA DANCE

Well he did make a good point

It is a sexy fucking car

>tfw want an RX 7
>don't know how to maintain a vehicle
>don't know how to drift
>don't know how to drive stick

guess I won't be getting an RX7

>Parts are kinda difficult to come by
400k+ sold in north america and parts are difficult to come by... lol

Have an FB, yeah shits still hard to find. Anything interior is sun-shattered plastic, body panels are rusted through and shit second hand, if you have a 12a good luck finding rotor related pieces. 90℅ of repairs will be aftermarket parts or homemade. 400k+ sold but how many were taken care of the right way?

really thinking about buying this one

>10990

That seems high, i paid 6000 for mine and its in just as good shape as that. Nice tho.

also
>Eurobeat tab

noice

get FD

>someone saved a pic of my shitbox

ayyy

>A new rotor or aluminum housing piece run past $700
And a working pull from a junkyard car is $30, what's your point?

FBs had viscous diffs, which will all have failed into open diffs by now.

I'd be really surprised if you could pull a rotor housing right outta the engine in the junkyard, that's essentially a full tear down.

Maybe if you took the whole engine home it'd be worth it for all the spare parts. It's a gamble though because you wont know the condition of the rotor housings until you it crack open.

Once you have the engine out, you're six flywheel bolts and 12 tension bolts away from having it open. It's like 5 minutes with of work with a breaker bar.

Yeah i thought it was pretty high too but it's pretty hard finding one in good shape in my area. the eurobeat is like a good luck charm to aid in my search.

>$11,000
>FC
>No turbo
Are you retarded? What could possibly make you think that car was worth even a fraction of that amount of money?

If I wasnt drunk enough I would tell you everything about the SA/FB, op.

But alas...

>pic is one of my rides

>"Im looking to buy a Mazda RX-7"
>he didnt ask what RX7 to buy

wat

Yes i'm pretty retarded, what would be a good price for this model?

$2500 maybe, if you're feeling generous. Here's a car that's probably worth the trip:
chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/5681461359.html

That's assuming the engine is already out of the car and there's no accessory equipment.

Have fucking fun if everything is corroded or it's been sitting exposed, I had to deal with that tearing down a 13B-DEI and it sucked.

Personally I'd rather put my confidence in some brand new housings and ported plates than a junkyard special.

yeah i'm in chicago, that was one of the first ones to pop up but I kept looking. so this one is worth cash right?

>That's assuming the engine is already out of the car
No, it's assuming you're already pulling the engine out of the car if you're planning on using parts from it. The additional amount of time it takes to open up the engine, make sure the piece you want is intact, and take just that instead of the entire engine is negligible.
>and there's no accessory equipment.
2 bolts for the power steering bracket. Wow, it's fucking nothing.
>Have fucking fun if everything is corroded or it's been sitting exposed, I had to deal with that tearing down a 13B-DEI and it sucked.
It's standard practice to always make sure the spark plugs, carbs, valve covers, etc are all intact before pulling an engine you plan on using. And because of the way the rotary is built, one cylinder can be completely fucked and you still have a chance at getting useful parts out of it.

Assuming everything's there and it runs good, yeah. It's twice the car for half the money compared to . With your budget I'd be looking for an FD, though.