If you think this car is "dead" below 6K RPM's, I just suggest you take one for a test drive. You will be sweating, breathing hard, and smiling uncontrollably - guaranteed. (Unless the salesman comes with and makes you slow it down.)

Car & Driver Magazine had one as a long-term test vehicle in the past several months. I do recall the excessive burning of oil being mentioned. You might search their website for articles or date if interested.

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raMBow

1999 E300DT Obsydian Black Metallic, Heated Full Leather Parchment options, E2, K2, 136,000+, best 36.5 mpg - GP's 12-04 & 11-12 Zero Stuck
2010 Honda Odyssey - The BrideMobile - best 26.5
(2) 2005 Honday Accord- (1 -Corporate 1 - Personal) - 110,000 4-cyl 30mpg
2000 VW Golf GLS TDI, Upsolute Chip (sold to Brother, now 300+k on it) 48.5 mpg like clock work
1987 Honda CRX HF - Sold 87,000 always over 50 mpg Max 67 mpg

Torque of a 4 banger with the gas mileage worse than a V8.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Perhaps low torque, but you're not going to be pulling a trailer with it. The light cabin it does pull gets pulled pretty darn quickly, I'll tell you that.

If you think this car is slow, test drive it. That's all I can say.

I had an RX-4 in college. A bit like any other Japanese 4-door econobox from the 70's except it could easily keep up with the gutless US musclecars of the late 70's - early 80's. I surprised a number of '79 Z28's with second and sometimes third gear rubber (in a completely stock car). I remember it had a 4 bbl carb and it redlined about 8000. It drank oil and got 15 mpg vs the 25 the Datsun B-210's of the day were getting. But it was a kick to drive. There was even a button on the dash that caused a red light to come on, but I never figured out what it was. Always impressed my dates though when I told them they could push it (and my foot went to the floor).

Another thing I remember is that the engine was impossible to lug. You could drive around all day in 4th gear - 900 to 8000 rpm and the engine was happy anywhere. I hit 110 once on the highway and I'm sure it had 10-15 mph more. Quite a sleeper.

The old Mazda ads went. "Piston engine goes boing boing boing, but the Mazda goes hmmmmmm.

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1984 300Sd 210k

Former cars:
1984 300D 445k (!!) (Strider) Original (and not rebuilt) engine and transmission. Currently running on V80 ( 80% vegetable oil, 20% petroleum products). Actually not, taking a WVO break.
1993 300d 2.5 275k. Current 120/day commuter
1981 300SD 188k (Hans) Killed by a deer

I worked for a Mazda/VW dealer in 92-93 and got to drive those years RX7's all the time. They were very light and with only 255hp they competed with Covettes, etc. It was a small car with a cocoon for a cockpit. You sort of wore the car rather than sat in it but this was a good thing.

Twin sequential turbos made damned sure it pulled very hard from any RPM. Slow? Hardly. They handled very well being light, I think about 2300lbs? Had a Torsen differential, sorta like limited slip but WAY better. The car would powerslide very easily. Driving through corners and steering with the throttle is very easy even in traffic. The Torsen was that predictable.

I think the downfall was the price and the fact that the cockpit was tight for American standards. Anyone over 6ft would feel cramped. I liked it. MPG sucked but that is not the point of that car anyway.

Regarding power and durability. The rotary is extremely simple to rebuild. There are only THREE moving parts in a two rotor engine. The vintage RX7's I am talking about can produce 600hp-900hp with bolt on parts. The import drag guys love them.

If you are looking for an RX7 from these years look for the "R1" package. Very rare, I had to special order a few back then. Special light bodywork, less sound insulation, reduced amenities, better brakes and significantly lighter than the regular "loaded" model. They are rockets.

RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K

Sure its quick. But there's really no reason to buy it instead of a Ford Mustang GT unless you really like the high revving relatively torqueless wonder ( it does rev pretty friggin smoothly and sounds like a sewing machine) You get so much more bang for the buck with the Mustang its not even funny. And don't start with the whole "but its Japanese craftsmanship!" because this thing isn't the most solidly built car around, I've ridden around in my friend's RX8 with something like 20K miles on it and it seemed that half of the interior was rattling around and loose. Plus the sun visors are perforated. Perforated, I repeat again, perforated. Plus he gets 14 mpg with mixed, not ridiculously hard driving.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I'd buy it because a 900hp RX7 would be cool. Mustangs are a different animal apples and oranges.

It is like argueing screw the cheap cars just buy an SL65 and whip almost anything out their in total quality and luxury.

I like technology and the Mustang is lacking in that area, however some people don't.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

A 900HP anything would be cool.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I remember the 92-93 Rx-7, I'm not young. It wasn't exactly a paragon of reliability. In fact, it made any GM car of the time look flawless.

Lemme see. Car and Driver had one for a long term test. If memory serves they gave up trying to complete the test because of how much time the car spent in the shop. Their comment was that Mazda released the car to the public before completing development.

You could dent the fenders by leaning against the car.

There were three of them at my office. At one point in time two of the owners were pursuing litigation against Mazda.

Yeah, I realize that eventually fixes were available for all the bugs, either from Mazda or the aftermarket. But it wasn't the kind of car your average ignorant owner could drive and keep on the road.

Wasn't it about that time Mazda went into receivership and Ford took control?

- JimY

There is some great information here

to rotary engine in miata. i didnt think that it was ever offered with anything but a four cyl., was it?

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

The way we added hp to the early ones was to change the intake port you open it up so that it when the rotor comes around it is open longer just like a bigger lift cam would do. It also kills more of the bottom end. If you really want more power go to a peripheral port. This puts the intake on the opposite side of the rotor housing from the exhaust so you have two big holes...... one dumping in fuel and air and one exhaust. I had a friend who was running a 3 rotor supercharged peripheral port dragster.

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89 Ford F3504x4CC 7.3 IDI turboed Intercooler and running on wvo now powered by a 1997 Cumins
87 300SDL on bio and wvo killed by chevy truck 5-24-06
1999 E300TD black with gray int.

Anyone here own one?

My son has a 10th aniversary model. He loves it. The engine was totally rebuilt and all emissions came off. It is controlled by an aftermarket Microtech engine controller.

The Renesis version of the rotary that you find in the RX-8 is a refined version. Better economy and better cooling.

I will be putting one of these into the plane I am building. Insert better o-rings and apex seals and you will last a long time. With only 3 moving parts, there's not a lot that can go wrong.

The engine will take a licking and keep going though. I've know of people that have busted apex seals therefore losing compression and kept flying all the way to the airport. Let's see a piston engine do that. Rebuilds are cheap too.

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)