The gen 2 RX-7 is another car (like so many) that’s overdue for a CC (anybody out there have personal experience with one?). But I did just stumble across this single shot of a convertible version, which was always a bit of an outsider. It wasn’t exactly made in large quantities, presumably because by this time, the Miata was mopping up the roadster market. The RX-7 cant properly be called a rag-top tough, since it had an odd top that included a hard panel over one’s head. Maybe some 5000 were ever exported to the states.
Mazda got it all backwards; they should have made a roadster version of the gen1 RX-7; now that would have been a hoot, and a real predecessor to the Miata. Oh well.
Owned two first generation Rx-7s but they are very different cars. There was a coach built first generation convertible that looked quite good (well at least top down like most aftermarket conversions). Ultima was another company that did it. The Pacific Avatar conversion used a boot lid from a Mazda 626 to keep it in the family.
I will volunteer for that, as I have owned two.
You actually see more of the Cabriolets (as they were called) than you would expect, but for good reasons. They were the slowest of the model (no turbo offered in the US, due to some quirks in the EPA fuel economy testing methodology, which I will discuss in the article), expensive, and really a fair weather car. In other words, mostly owned by fairly wealthy individuals who kept it in the garage and didn’t drive it too hard.
Also, these appeared in 1988 as the only smallish roadster on offer. Sales were pretty good for 88 and 89, but as you said it was only a warm up for the Miata.
The second generation RX-7 suffers from middle child syndrome and being the softest of the three generations, but it has its charms. Unfortunately, it has a serious flaw that pushes many off the road, and it neither the rotary engine, nor rust. More to come, if you are interested…
Yes, please!
I test drove a 2nd gen RX-7 in ’87. It was powerful and fast, but seemed big compared with the light swiftness of the 1st gen RX-7 I had driven once before. It was more than I wanted to spend too. I chose the ’87 Celica, which was just right.
I will be at my laptop tonight and can put something together.
Joe; Great. I have a nice complete set of pictures for the gen2 coupe. I’m sending you an e-mail with more details.
When I first saw this I thought it was going to be like the ladder on the fiesta the other day. You know – rx7 canoe carrier. Oh well.
My kids used to make fun of me wanting to hang a ladder rack on everything. It has it’s time but I guess; that this isn’t it.
Looks like a 7/8 scale Corvette convertible. Rotaries have always fascinated me and I’ve heard that they actually live longer if you drive ’em like you stole ’em. Is that true? That simple fact would make me want one.
To an extent, it is true. Though it is more that babying it will shorten its life. The Wankel is known for its high specific fuel consumption, and a lot of that has to due with a long, thin combustion chamber, which promotes incomplete combustion. This can lead to carbon deposits in the combustion chamber. If these build up, eventually they can break loose and wedge between the apex seal and the rotor housing surface, locking the engine right up.
Regular trips to redline seem to prevent these deposits from accumulating in the first place.
So that’s the basis of the old “don’t just take short trips at low speed and don’t let it sit around not being driven” advice for rotaries?
Probably on the first. On the second, I don’t recall the mechanism of it, but I do remember that after having sat for a while, it was always hard to get my RX-7s to start – it took some playing around to get compression enough to start. I do know the early fuel injected cars (GSL-SE and second generation) tended to have injectors that would slowly leak into the engine, causing them to flood out when you tried to start them. The solution to that was to pull the fuel pump fuse and crank it for a while, then put the fuse back in and it would fire up. A truly bad flooding condition required pulling the spark plugs to allow the fuel to be flung out the holes! I only ever had to do that once, and it was after the car had sat all winter.
Number one rule that still applies to the RX-8 – never shut it off when the engine isn’t warmed up! Wankels run rich when cold, and for whatever reason, have a tendency to flood if shut off during this rich period. I think it may be unique to Mazda’s FI implementation, because the carbureted cars never seem to have this problem. This is another reason people say not to take short trips, but I have to say that the danger is a bit overstated there. A few minutes of driving is sufficient to prevent it. The only time I ever flooded my RX-8 was on a cold January morning when I moved it from one parking spot to another to allow the plow to clean the parking lot. In that case it had been running for less than 30 seconds.
“I do remember that after having sat for a while, it was always hard to get my RX-7s to start – it took some playing around to get compression enough to start. I do know the early fuel injected cars (GSL-SE and second generation) tended to have injectors that would slowly leak into the engine, causing them to flood out when you tried to start them.”
I drove a second gen RX-7 coupe from ’89 – ’97, and had this same problem. The car would start fine cold, or hot, but would be prone to flooding when driven for short trips and not fully warmed up. This usually happened to me when I went for lunch.
On my car this was fixed by changing a fuel injector with a slow leak. I was told that when the car was cold, any fuel that had slowly leaked into the combustion chamber would have evaporated over time and the car would start. When the car was hot, the fuel would vaporize when it hit the hot combustion chamber, and the car would start. When the car was partly warmed up, it would be prone to flooding.
My car would start fine after the (expensive) fuel injectors were changed, but I had an apex seal failure shortly afterwards. I sometimes wonder if the repeated flooding might have washed oil off the combustion chamber walls and contributed to the failure.
I remember seeing a couple of convertibles around when they were new. These were very different cars than the Miata that appeared shortly thereafter. I seem to remember seeing a loaded up RX-7 convertible for almost $40k (IIRC) Canadian new in 1989, which made it a very expensive car. It was also relatively heavy, refined, and luxurious. The early Miata was a lot more like my MGB – lightweight, low cost and basic.
The RX-7 was a fun, interesting, car and the rotary was a unique engine. Once in a while I still see a well preserved survivor and I think it looks surprisingly modern for a 25+ year old design. It’s too bad they cost so much to keep on the road…
I just hope the RX7 Turbo I saw a few years ago at TCBY in Tigard has been put out of its misery. The kid working in the yogurt shop had desecrated it by turning it into a fake Acura because Integras were cool. The car had a badly applied black paint job, a Red Acura emblem on the nose, “powered by Acura” shoulder belt pads and the obligatory fart cannon. “the horror, the horror”
“powered by Acura” shoulder belt pads and the obligatory fart cannon.“
That did it! You made me forget what I was going to say…
Kid across the culdesac has a perfectly nice Integra coupe that he just installed a fart-can on. Too bad. As far as I’m concerned he could just as well have bashed in all the body panels.
My friend and neighbor has one. It’s still a handsome car. He bought it in Atlanta years ago. I have a Miata. The difference between them is like the TR6 and the Spitfire.