This was the shortest term of ownership I ever had a car for, about a year and a half but this brief flame burns bright in my memory.
The story begins in 1990 when my friend Bill graduated from Engineering school, and got a job. His new employer, a Nuclear Generating Station, was about 3 hours from anywhere so he needed a car right away.
Fortunately Bill could now give himself better than a student budget for his first vehicle; what he really wanted was a V6 Fiero but he couldn’t find a good one on short notice and wound up with his second choice, a 1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL.
This is the only photo I have where it’s still silver. Note the pink stripe!
It had been recently repainted in the original silver, with a very ‘80’s pink squiggly stripe down the sides. It had the carbureted 12A rotary engine, silky smooth 5-speed, light manual steering, dark red leather interior and a glass sunroof.
I’d landed a summer job at the same facility, and boarded at Bill’s rented house, so I got to participate in some of the fun Bill had with his Mazda.
Right away I liked the smoothness of the rotary engine and the phenomenal handling. Acceleration wasn’t outstanding, but once you were up to speed you sure didn’t have to slow down for curves much. We took it on an 800 mile round trip to Ottawa that summer, and the combination of sunroof, leather seats, no A/C and blistering hot sunny weather made it a grueling ordeal. Our tongues were hanging out the side windows as we drove between convenience stores to buy cold drinks. Later Bill made an insulating panel that fit up under the glass sunroof, and that made summer driving tolerable.
The RX once got a completely new exhaust system, front to back, by mistake. It went to the dealer for some work; they removed the exhaust and laid it on the shop floor beside the car. Overnight the cleaners threw the rusty old pipes in the scrap metal bin, which was collected before work started in the morning. The service manager was not amused but couldn’t charge Bill for the parts.
After four years in Bill’s care the RX had over 200,000km on it, was starting to rust, and was generally tired. Having had enough of driving to the city to visit the Mazda dealership, Bill bought a brand new Pontiac Grand Am which could be serviced locally.
Prophetically, this poster was on my wall during my teen years.
After assuring Bill I wouldn’t hold any future RX trouble against him, I gave away (yes, for zero dollars) my completely functional AMC Concord and became the proud owner of the RX by matching the dealer trade in of $900.
Here’s the setup of my life in the early 90’s.
My apartment was on the upper floor of the gray house, and I had my RX-7 and 450 Nighthawk (BOAL article here) parked curbside out front. My downstairs neighbor was a body man, and he did a very nice looking and reasonably priced job on the RX. I’d always wanted a car with racing stripes, and although this was not at all fashionable at the time had it done anyway.
We discovered the reason for the previous silver repaint, at some point the RX had been rolled or experienced some other trauma because it had dents all over the sides and top which had been filled with up to 3/4” of plastic filler. They said it was the Bondo-iest car they’d seen in a long time.
I didn’t let that bother me, because now I had myself a real sports car and I went Zoom-Zooming off into the countryside, enjoying every minute spent behind the wheel. I can’t stress enough was a joy it was to operate this vehicle, I’ve driven faster cars, more expensive cars, and ostensibly better handling cars in my life but the first generation RX-7 was so responsive, the controls so light it just brought a smile to my face every time.
Less enjoyable were minutes not spent behind the wheel, Bill had actually sold the RX-7 at the right time for him, its gradually spiraling maintenance needs becoming inconvenient and expensive. Luckily I could walk to work in a pinch, I had lots of free time and I could Zoom-Zoom to the nearby Mazda dealership on my motorcycle to buy parts so this didn’t affect me much at the time.
I’d also been working on parts of my wretched Triumph TR4 project in our shop after hours, which required shuttling tools and parts between my parents’ distant house and my apartment.
With the passenger seat removed the RX became a capable pack horse, everything from my MIG welder to TR4 front fenders went back and forth in there.
By this point I’d been at my first Engineering job for two years. I’d learned most of what I was going to learn there and wasn’t thrilled about small town life (no girls), so I concocted a plan to move to Vancouver and gave my notice at work.
My plan wasn’t the most well thought out, since it involved (among other stupid things) moving all my goods cross country in a tiny sports car, and attempting to register a rotary powered car with an emptied catalytic converter in a jurisdiction with stringent emissions testing.
Here reality stepped in and my half baked plan failed, which turned out to be a good thing. I wound up moving back in with my ever patient parents, going to Britain for a month long walking vacation / soul searching exercise, finding a new job and meeting the future Mrs DougD at a Halloween party that fall. She was unimpressed with her first look at my fine sports car, her initial comment was “What’s with the stripes?”
Reality also stepped into the cozy confines of my RX-7. Actually it wasn’t that cozy, I experienced my first harsh winter of RX-7 driving and found that it wasn’t great in the snow, and the heater barely worked. Peering out from under my toque through half fogged windows was only slightly more fun than working on the RX outdoors in the snow. I’d always found the RX hard to wrench on, even on ramps it was almost too low to work under, and it had been rustproofed with a grease based product that clung to hands and tools, and to the porcupine quills that remained scattered inside the front bodywork years after Bill had nailed one at high speed.
Although I’d done quite a bit of work on the car over the past year, including replacing the windshield (don’t try this at home – trust me) its needs were getting ahead of me. Now ten years old, the RX was starting to rust enthusiastically, and the aluminum rims had corroded enough under the beads that I was adding air to the tires every couple of days. Besides rocker and floor patching the RX was soon to require work on the brakes, suspension, radiator, and wiring. I didn’t have as much free time for repairs; I was spending a lot of it with my future Wife.
Additionally I couldn’t walk to work anymore, and some mornings the rotary would start hard, or not at all, and then I’d have to borrow Moms car. Finally I figured out that it only happened when I moved the RX in the evening so Dad could park in the driveway, if I drove around for 10 minutes before re-parking the car it would start again in the morning just fine. I fiddled and checked and tested but I never did figure that problem out.
Finally came the day when my mother had enough; her tirade motivated me to replace the RX-7 with the Wee Truck (COAL Article Here) and I was freed from constant tinkering and looming major repairs. I put an ad in the paper for $1,000 but the RX was a hard sell, a few guys came to look at it but wisely turned it down.
Yeah, right..
I eventually sold it to for $500 to a kid who planned to put it back on the road, but even with the highly distinctive paint job there were no further RX-7 sightings after it purred away down our street.
Just a year and a half, the shortest term I’ve ever owned a car and in terms of dollars spent per month owned that RX-7 was probably my costliest car as well. No regrets though, the first generation of RX-7 had the most smiles per mile of anything I’ve had and I thoroughly enjoyed squeezing the remaining use out of Bill’s RX-7; reality stepped in and it was time move on to new and better things.
Related Reading:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-1983-mazda-rx-7-zinger/
In other words, a good car in its day, but when its day was up, it had to go!
The only rotary engined car I’ve ever driven was a RX-2….with automatic transmission. It was a rental car. Like the author, I felt acceleration was smooth but not excessively quick, I chalked it up to the automatic.
The subject car actually puts me in mind of my 280Z. Fun to drive, no working A/C, and “victim” of an accident. I would eventually trade it off at a Ford dealership for a used Honda….also a hatchback. I now had the same/better cargo space, 1/2 the horsepower (only 70 in this lower-powered CX model), but TWICE the fuel economy.
Maybe I’m biased – I wanted one of these in the worst way when I was a kid – but the design of the first gen RX7 seems to have held up rather well. It’s a clean design and it doesn’t seem as dated as the subsequent generations do.
I like the way they echoed the shape of the rotor in the nose.
After owning a series of RX-2/3/4s, a ’79 RX-7 was actually my last Mazda rotary. I agree with your comments about the way it drove. On paper, aside from the engine, it all looked pretty conventional and un-sportscar-like with its recirculating-ball steering and live rear axle. In practice, these cars were effortless to drive fast. Mine was a 3-season daily driver (I kept it out of the salt) and gave virtually no trouble up to the time I traded it in with 130.000 miles. It was not, by a long shot, the fastest car I have owned. It was the car I wanted to drive when I had to cover a lot of miles in the shortest time.
I would happily put another Gen-1 RX-7 in my garage, this time maybe a GSL-SE. Great article, Doug.
Oh, I had a TR4 too. Did yours ever get finished?
There will be a TR4 COAL at some point. Working titles are “Know When to Hold Em” or “19 Years of Fail” so that should give you a clue if it was ever finished 😉
In German car mags the RX-7 would always be compared with the Porsche 924.
Although it would be the much better overall deal regarding the 924´s absurd price tag, the RX-7 didn’t stand a chance against the 924 due to its fuel economy.
enjoyed the read, I never have owned a 7, drove a couple over the yrs though, n still would put one in the stable if cards fell right. I have had a gen one n two MX-5 n almost bought an 8 one time (in a couple of ways LOL) been awhile since the 7 drives, how does it compare to the 5, anyone? love the site
A guy at my high school had one; this was in the mid 90’s and his was a late 1st-gen so it was getting on in years. Very nice-looking car though. Don’t know if the maintenance cost him an arm and a leg, but I always admired it when I saw it in the lot!
Still think they’re great looking but it occurs to me that I’ve not seen one on the road in quite a long time…
I’ve always liked the first generation RX-7, though I’ve never driven one. As far as Japanese cars go, it comes in a close second to the 240/260/and 280Z through 1977. As with all car companies, Mazda and Datsun could not leave a good thing alone. The 1986 RX-7 looked like a crappy Porsche 924, and Datsun totally ruined the Z car with the 1978 280ZX.
Thanks for helping me to remember what it was like being young 🙂
I had a good friend who bought a used RX7 and drove it for quite a few years. He did have to have the engine rebuilt at some point, but otherwise it served him very well. I was always a bit jelous whenever we rode in it. But then that was usually in the bowels of LA, which wasn’t exactly the best pace to enjoy it. That unique engine and exhaust sound is addictive.
I fully intend to own one of these at some point soon; either one of these or a Miata, and they can be found in great shape for about six or seven grand.
So is working at a nuclear plant as exciting as popular depictions would lead the average joe to believe? Seems like a fascinating place to earn a living.
As a summer student I had a very low level of security clearance, and the department I was assigned to was not busy, so I spent most of my days walking around and seeing what parts of the facility I could get to. It was interesting but by the end of three months it was insanely boring.
So, not terribly exciting, although they paid very well and I earned enough money to finish my degree.
Great story. I remember being young and enthusiastic as well, which didn’t always lead to the best car decisions. I had to laugh about your trip story – only 2 young engineers would devise an insulation panel for the sunroof. The rest of us would have just chugged more water and found a hotel with a pool. 🙂
I have always harbored a secret desire for one of these. However, I have aged and gotten enough sense to avoid the certain heartaches and headaches of an old rotary.
I’ve never been a fan. Never liked the exhaust note- especially the ported engine
noise. Used to be quite a few around, but they’re a rare sight now.
Always thought the styling was good, till it you got to the B pillar. Clumsy 3 piece glass, exposed hinges & the ‘hump’ in the rear panel where the number (licence) plate goes.
Here’s a quick & dirty rework I did on another website.
Chris
I like that… and it reminds me of my Reatta.
All that effort to make that drawing and all you had to do was find an 81-85 model where they changed the tail lights to look exactly like your drawing.
There have been a few on B.A.T. over the last few years. Seems like you can get a pretty clean one for +/- 10K. I think they would still be a hoot to hoon.
I always thought of the RX7 as a rather narrow car, that is until I saw your pic of it parked next to the TR4 — the Triumph makes it look like an Imperial!
Love the white color and red stripes. You have great taste.
You can count me as a fan of the first generation Rx-7 – I’ve owned two. Like you mention they are incredibly satisfying to drive. Well beyond what their modest specifications would lead you to believe.
Your morning non-start issues were caused by a flooded engine the night before. You cannot just turn on then off a rotary engine. It floods. You would need to drive around the bock a couple times then be ok to turn off.
I had heard once that they used to offer tours at that little plant near Kincardine, but that either is no longer the case or is practically limited. Would certainly have been an interesting place to work. I had a buddy who worked at Pickering for some time, and also LePreau. The worst time he had was when they sent him to Lubljana.