I was very lucky to stumble on a house that was 1) within walking distance of work, 2) next door to my best friends, and 3) had a four car garage. I took a tour of the house the day it went on the market, and made an offer on the house before nightfall. Soon afterwards, I was the proud owner of a small little house with a big garage, one that could fit my Miata, my Focus ST, and my Mustang with room for one more car.
And because the house was cheap and I didn’t spend money on anything but cars, I decided that it would be a great idea to fill that hole in the garage. But what to get?
I had always liked the FC Mazda RX-7. I thought it was one of the most beautiful and purposeful designs to come out of the 1980s, and that it was a better looker than the Porsche 944. I especially liked how the glass on the car was perfectly segmented by the A and B pillars, with no quarter glass like the Porsche 944 had to the rear of its doors. Plus, I thought rotary engines were super cool.
So I set my sights on finding a nice FC RX-7 coupe. Now, Mazda had built a lot of these cars, but they’re extremely difficult to find these days, especially unmodified coupes. (It seems to me that the overwhelming majority of survivor RX-7s are the convertibles.) So many of these cars were turned into race cars and drift cars and disposed of after meeting their fates with jersey barriers and trees.
The RX-7, tucked in the garage with the Miata, the Focus ST, and the Mustang.
I found this red 1988 Mazda RX-7 down in Ohio. It was listed for sale on Craigslist, and unbelievably, the college student who owned it hadn’t modified the car at all. He had found the car at a dealership, traded in by its original owner, and took it home and kept it nice. We worked out a deal, and I took the car home with me back to Michigan.
The curse of Merely Good
The car had all the right boxes ticked. It had a rotary engine backed by a five speed manual transmission. It was a GXL model, which meant it had the five lug wheels and a limited slip differential. The interior was completely stock and very well kept. Even the electronic shocks were original to the car, and they still worked. (Well, sort of. Stiffening the electronic shocks felt like the equivalent of turning the rebound knob on a Koni Yellow all the way to firm. It made the car “feel” sportier, but it wasn’t any faster than the comfort setting.)
The car had absolutely no rust and no needs. It was a perfect time capsule car.
And that perhaps was the problem.
You see, I couldn’t help but compare the RX-7 to another turn-of-the-nineties sports car, my old 1991 Mazda Miata. I was surprised to find that there wasn’t that much more people space in the RX-7 than my old NA Miata. In the RX-7, you sit nearly on the floor, and yet the top of my head was right there at the roof; it reminded me of driving around in the Miata with the top up. In terms of speed, the car felt very similar on the road to the Miata, just with a smooth humming rotary whir instead of a buzzy little four banger.
Stock for stock, the RX-7 and Miata were about equal handling-wise on the street.
Taking the RX-7 out for some errands.
To my senses, the RX-7 drove like a hardtop, hatchback Miata. But I had already owned a Miata before. And the driving experience of the RX-7 didn’t bring anything new to the table.
Owning the RX-7 made me realize why there are so few of them around today. It’s the curse of a car that is Merely Good. The first generation RX-7, the SA/FB chassis, was Okay; not bad as a street car, but not all that great as a race car, so comparatively few of them were ruined in the name of motorsports competition. The third generation RX-7, the FD, was Great; the engine was legendary, the shape was beautiful, and the suspension was a modern design that makes the car great in both street and race trim. And because the FD is great, almost any complete example is worth saving.
The second generation FC falls into a no-mans land of Merely Good. Stock, the car is fine, but most deem it not worth saving in stock form. The racers and the drifters really latched on to this car, churning through examples until the numbers dwindled to minuscule figures. After all, crash one FC and you just go get another. They’re not great enough in modified form to inspire rescue rebuilds like you might find with FDs.
In short, terrible cars survive because few people want to mess around with them. Great cars survive because they are great and people value them. Good cars don’t survive because people want to mess around with them, but they aren’t deemed worth saving.
Hence, it’s now nearly impossible to find FC RX-7 coupes with the five lug wheels and the limited slip diff. Nearly all of the cars you might easily find for sale these days are typically base model four lug coupes or the convertibles.
Driving the car around town
The RX-7 was so nice that I was too scared to really do anything with it. I never got a chance to take it to an autocross to dodge cones (though it did make an appearance at an event as a support vehicle), and I was too protective of the car to take it on one of the very rough Detroit Region SCCA road rallies.
The Mazda plays a support role at a local Detroit Region SCCA autocross. Pictured here is my old Focus SE; the new owner came out to one autocross, and I never saw that Focus again.
Another unexpected problem: I lived too close to work to even drive my RX-7 to the office. The sub-three minute drive to work would risk flooding the motor.
Collecting cones with the hatch of the RX-7.
I drove the car around on weekends, and occasionally road tripped the car to and from Illinois to see my folks. But eventually, I decided that if I wasn’t really going to use the car, it was time to get rid of it and let someone else enjoy it.
Selling the car
I decided that I’d give the brand new Bring a Trailer auctions a try with this particular car. It was super clean, and I thought that by going through Bring a Trailer, I’d get a buyer that would appreciate the car for what it was rather than some dumb teenager off Craigslist who would immediately ruin the car by dumping it onto the ground with cheap coilovers and go drifting.
I took a whole bunch of pictures, sent them along with a description of my car, and waited for the auction to go live.
When the auction concluded, I reached out to the buyer of the car to make arrangements. As we were going back and forth via email, the buyer remarked that his son was super stoked to have this car.
My heart dropped. Oh no. Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust started playing in my head.
Resigned to the car’s unfortunate fate, I bid the car farewell when the transport truck showed up.
Maybe the car is still living a happy life as a stock (or at least mostly stock) classic car, sheltering in a garage when it’s not out and about and enjoying perhaps another two decades on the road. The cynic in me is convinced the car, five years on, already has dents in the rear quarters and its bumper covers held on with rivets and zip ties, or maybe is already rotting away in a junk yard.
Of all the cars I’ve owned, the RX-7 is one of the few where I never got an update on its fate. Frankly, I prefer it that way…
2 points:
I am not sure that I agree with your assessment of the styling of this generation of RX7. Compared to the 1st generation it is a pretty good leap forward, but compared to the 924/944 Porsche….well, the 7 always struck me as a bit bland. I could almost imagine Porsche management being presented with both cars, and rejecting the 7 on the grounds it just doesn’t excite the emotions. (Another instance where the car was merely good?)
I am kind of disappointed to learn these cars haven’t much more headroom than the car that they replaced. I have considered a convertible many times and cursed myself when I waited too long to contact a seller.
Walking to work? In Detroit? When working for Ford? Is that even allowed?
That’s an unfortunate outcome for your car. I can’t even imagine the level of spoiled that involves parents buying a collector’s car for someone who is super stoked. It is definitely a level far above parents who ask their kids what kind of new cars they want for their sixteenth birthday. At least those purchases can be rationalized by a desire to have their precious whelp in the safest possible vehicle. This is pure indulgence with no involvement or judgement.
I must say that I wish ‘The Fast and the Furious’ had never seen the light of day. Sure, street racing and car shows were common in debased cities. It took ‘The Fast and the Furious’ to make it a national waste of young lives and potentially durable imported cars. What was the benefit? The cars they promoted all vanished from the market even as the movies took off. Very few people who wanted them could insure them once they were associated with an trend driven by chopping stolen cars and high speed crashes.
“Kids hate cars, they always have their heads buried in their smartphones. Get off my lawn”
“A kid is stoked about a car, he’s going to trash it! Get off my lawn!”
“American Graffiti was a coming of age classic”
“Fast and the furious is a travesty glorifying teenagers street racing!”
+1
+2
I absolutely love the Fast and the Furious series. As someone who was in high school during that scene, it brings me great joy to have a series that captures that moment in time (I’m speaking particularly of F&FI, II, and Tokyo Drift).
I rarely comment on other people’s opinions online, especially on Curbsideclassic, but this comment comes off as ridiculously cynical and bitter.
Warning, you have stated your opinion which differs from the elder statesmen here. Prepare to be mocked for it.
Everyone knows the Fast And Fugliest is a cultural icon, and sacred. How dare you.
But “Polish Peterbilt” is okay because, you know, reasons.
😀
The emoticon means its meant in good spirits, right?
The issue here is jumping to massive conclusions, and judging people on the basis of them. Nobody knows what the guys kid has in mind for the car, right? Maybe he’s like Ed Snitkoff, and wants to preserve a relatively rare specimen? or?
The point is, it’s a freaking used car, and what the next owner does with it is hardly a basis for condemning both the father and the kid.
How many hundreds of thousands of lovely old Fords and Chevys were cut up into hot rods in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s ’80s, ’90s, and in the 21st century? Are you going to condemn them all?
if you want to see a pristine Rx-7, there’s probably one in a Mazda museum.
And what’s “Polish Peterbilt” got to do with this? Did I not say “I hope nobody’s offended” by repeating the name that it was known by for decades. Are you offended by it? If so, you might have mentioned a bit earlier.
I appreciate that you took the time to reply, Paul.
Let me clarify the point a bit further: what CJ did, in making a condemnation of this father and other parents who do what he accused them of doing, is a violation of our commenting rule. We do not allow disparaging of others or groups, especially when there’s no known basis, but just pure and utter speculation.
So just what was your point about the “Polish Peterbilts”?
I thought CJ was being ganged up on because of the Fast ‘N’ Furious part of the comment. I was just doing some blocking.
I don’t actually care what someone does with their own car. That wasn’t the part of the comment I was focused on. I never even saw American Graffiti and actually enjoyed a couple of the F&F movies. I don’t know the history of the whole “Carmine” thing but I took comparing him to CJ as an insult to CJ, further feeding my impression of CJ being unfairly picked on. So by then I was in defense mode and pushing back. Upon reading the comments again I guess I misread the situation.
I mentioned the Polish Peterbilt thing while I was under that impression. Like attacking F&F was not okay while tolerating what is an unfortunate nickname for a truck seemed to be okay. It may be comparing apples to oranges. But in my mind I was putting up a hasty defense and went for where there might be a soft spot in the armor, so to speak. Pushing back was my priority, so it wasn’t the most intellectual and nuanced response I could have made. Cheap shot is what I guess it was. Sorry about that.
I wouldn’t say I was offended by the Polish Peterbilt thing so much as annoyed. I am part Polish, but what I think of when I hear things like that I am reminded of my friend’s Grandpa when I was a kid. He was of German descent, and collected WW2 Nazi items like uniform inssignias and the like. He was married to a Polish woman and didn’t seem to treat her all that well. I remember he had a fancy case containing a handgun replica, that said “Made In Poland”, the barrel of which curved and pointed back at the user. We laughed at that as kids, not realizing that it was probably made during Hitler’s time and all that. If it wasn’t for the whole atrocity/death/despair Hitler stuff it may have been objectively funny. So I’m not a “snowflake” with that stuff. But I guess it hit an old nerve.
As a middle aged white guy I don’t often have the opportunity to get annoyed by racial stuff. At 6 feet/240 pounds I’m rarely the first target for picking on either. But I was a small child, had a mean stepdad and a rough upbringing. So I’m a little sensitive to bullying and sometimes react too quickly if I think I see it. (and not just in print; its not been easy being me)
I’m not trying to be self-righteous. I think I need to give the big picture so I can put my comment in the proper context.
I respect that you didn’t let me get off with the half-assed reply. I imagine you reading it and thinking something like “Oh no, M-F’r, it ain’t that easy. Defend your position.”
So I did my best.
With lots and lots and lots of words.
😀(that’s a sincere one)
I rescued it. 🙂
And I understand.
And I would not pick on CJ except for the fact tht he has a very long history of shooting from the hip with often unfortunate results. I try hard to give folks some leeway; I have better things to do than play comment police all day long.
But I’ve also found out the hard way that there’s some commenters that seem to have an axe to grind, and I’m not going to let them do it here. he’s been given plenty of pushback before, but it keeps happening.
It’s possible the kid worked up part of the purchase price because they had a deal with the family. Too young to register for an auction on BAT dad did the bidding.
Possible. I’m not saying how likely it is.
The “Fast and the Furious” series helped kick-start younger people’s interest in cars again AND as the series progressed it went from all FWD tuners to a more diverse selection of rides.
I’M cool with it, although I’m a few flicks behind in the series…
The other problem with this car was the Miata – everyone loved it, everyone wanted it and this one sort of sat there going “hey, I’m over here!” I remember these kind of being invisible, but for being a place for Mazda to keep using the rotary.
And yes, when selling in this situation you just have to kind of close your eyes, grit your teeth and hope as you take the money.
This generation RX-7 was in its fifth model year when the Miata arrived. Someone once said you can sell 100,000 sports cars, but you have to sell them all on the first day. The Miata certainly made the RX-7 convertible a niche product, considering it was every bit as quick, much more efficient, and cheaper.
Part of the RX-7’s invisibility issue may have been that seemingly three-quarters of them were painted in subdued colors like silver, light blue, or beige. Even most of the RX-7’s ads in those days favored those colors. Maybe it was part of a strategy to attract a more mature crowd, but it didn’t help the cars stand out.
I like this RX-7 generation a lot, probably my favorite RX-7s of all time.
My heart sank when I got to the end of this piece and learned this car’s fate, but I’ve been in that position too… several times. Sadly, it’s unavoidable.
As long as you get what you’re asking, you can’t have regrets about selling any car. You also can’t save every car. Something else will tickle your fancy and you’ll forget the Mazda.
One question, did you ever get hassled by the local cops using the historical plates around town? Legally, you’re only supposed to drive to car events.
I’m right next door in Ontario. I have historic plates on my 1980 Camaro for the last 10 years. The cost is $18.00 a year versus $120.00 a year for regular plates. I don’t abuse the privilege and do not drive the car to work or to the mall. It averages around 250 miles of use a year. The police have never looked twice at the car and that is the way I like it.
Historic plate restrictions do vary from state to state. In mine you certain can use it for things other than going to car shows, you just aren’t supposed to use it as a daily driver, or to “carry a load” if it is a pickup.
Illinois has a mileage restriction but the details are pretty vague and enforcement is pretty lax from what I hear. I have a friend who full on daily drives a 30 year old car with historic plates to work and travel in the summer, but only drives it about 4 months/year so technically it qualifies.
Michigan charges $30 for a 10 year plate. I pay $27 per year for the regular plate. I may switch to the historic plate this year and take my chances with the law. There were three other reasons why I bought the yearly plate, but last year’s change to plate transfer rules have made those reasons obsolete.
The RX-7 and RX-8 are great homes for LS V8 transplants.(And I say that as someone who likes Mazda.)
I watched Doug DeMuro review an RX-8 and whine on about all the weirdness in the interior and exterior blah blah blah… But my only thoughts were about it being a fairly practical car as sports cars go, just seeking a great engine to back up its looks.
Heh “This 1988 Mazda has an ashtray and a cigarette lighter plugged into the 12V socket, how quirky and weird!. That’ll bring it down to a 5 on the interior dougscore”
I agree if there were ever a car that those swaps work perfectly well it is RX7s. Rotarys are cool interesting little engines but hideously finicky.
Nowhere near as sporty is the old Dodge Avenger, of which I had a 1996 bought new. A big, comfy coupe that looked like nothing else in 1996. The ride was sorted but not too sporty and the backseat was amazing: generous and elevated above the front seats. Good luck finding one at all, much less I’ve that’s been cared for. A forgotten good-enough car with space and style.
Carfax could tell you if anything major has happened to the car, but you probably don’t want to know!
A fixed roof Miata with a dash more luggage space behind a hatch – just what i lust for. My 2m are quite leggy, so head room is not an issue. If it wasn’t for that iffy, gutless elephant in the engine bay, whose power:fuel ratio makes even less sense here in europe. Too bad about a really nice chassis.
Whoa, you took me for a loop when you mentioned that the first generation Rx-7 is not a good race car. On it’s debut season it took 1st and 2nd at Daytona 24hr in GTU class, then carried the title for seven consecutive years. It also took a victory at 24hrs at Spa in 1981. Not to mention a victory and several podiums in the ATCC and the Bathurst 1000. There manages to be enough of them around today because they sold so well in North America.
This generation of RX-7 was released right around when I got my driver’s license and took over the family 626 Coupe, we had a Mazda dealer nearby in Woodland Hills and frequently stopped by to check out the newest offerings. The 7 was a big deal, and looked extremely modern even with the comparos to the 924/944 which was almost a decade old shape by then.
The Turbo took it up another level while being extremely subtle visually compared to the normal versions, but the 7 did hang around perhaps a few years too long, by the time the GTU etc version came around the majority of consumer interest had moved on with seemingly the convertibles being the main remaining movers. An early-ish GXL like yours would be quite a find nowadays.
The electronic shocks were used in 87-88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupes and SCs as well, and the feel but not real effect of sporty handling in firm is apt. Really the system works the opposite of how most would think it does, the shocks are tuned to match the springs in “firm”, in “regular” mode it softens them a little to make bumps more cushy. It’s not so much like turning Konis up to max firmness but turning Konis down from the ideal firmness you had dialed in. I always wondered if or how much this system impacted shock life, in the Tbirds they certainly didn’t seem to last as long, and because those cars are so niche there aren’t any replacements to keep the system working.
Another similarity to Ford’s 80s PLCs is the shape of the FC taillight panel is nearly the same as the MN12 Cougar. I noticed it one day when I came out to see a FC parked next to mine. Also the round lights in the later FC panels remind me of the ones used in the 87-88 Thunderbird taillights.
While a perfectly good-looking car, this generation RX-7 was never quite as attractive as the 944, IMHO; it never got past its aspirational image, which was a shame for the model as a whole. The FB was a distinctively different car in its own right, while the FC came across as a wannabe.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better smiley face on a car than in the Miata in your second photo.