OK, here's the low-down. Listed below is the basic information on the car, as I've got it typed up to put up for sale locally. It's far from a perfect car, but it's also quite solid, drives well, and has a lot of potential either as a fun, peppy convertible to do some paint work on and drive or to use as the platform for a challenge car. I've put a lot of work into this car over the last 4 years or so and hate to part with it, but sentimental as I may be about it I just don't have the time or the space for it any more with my other cars and projects.
If you're looking to use it as the base for Challenge car, the included extra parts have a fair bit of potential for sell-offs either to other RX-7 owners or to those wanting to build cars like Locosts. The wheels it comes with are STUPID light BBS wheels and fairly well regarded as racing wheels- and if you're looking to use it for racing of any kind and don't care as much about the appearance, you'll find no shortage of RX-7 owners chomping at the bit to buy the center caps to them. The leather cover for the convertible top is another piece that is generally rather sought after by other FC 'Vert owners, and you could probably sell the custom sub box and sub for a modest bit too to another 'Vert owner.
One rather special/unique thing I'm doing for having it listed up here on GRM- though I'm very solidly a rotary enthusiast, I realize that those looking to race FCs tend to look toward doing an engine swap on them and replacing the rotary powerplant with something with a tad bit more displacement. With this in mind, the recently rebuilt 13B longblock, transmission, and engine harness are being sold for $500, and the everything else including all the parts are $1500. If you want to do an engine swap, I will pull the longblock & transmission out before you pick up the car- or we can work out your driving the car back to your place and we could figure out pulling it and my getting it back home to my place (may involve some negotiations for storage as it will be some time before my hauling vehicle will be in condition to bring an engine+tranny back...). Or, you could pull it and sell it yourself, though I'm not sure how the challenge rules would address that (whether it would count against your budget or not).
Or, you could buy both ($2K total) and with some paint work have a good, fun convertible to blast around in. Or even ignore the mismatched colors and just have fun driving it around.
The car is located in Lexington, KY. If you're located relatively nearby and are serious about buying it, I may be willing to drive it out so you can look at it- you will have to bring a truck (and a decent-sized one at that...) to pick up the parts though- I don't readily have the capacity to do that, and if you needed me to I'd be renting a U-Haul van and would have to charge for delivery.
Pictures of it can be found here: http://gallery.me.com/rbabcock#100157&bgcolor=black&view=grid
(normal posting for it:)
Arctic Silver (mostly...) 1988 Mazda RX-7 convertible with blue interior. Normally aspirated essentially stock 13B rotary powerplant, non-turbo 5-speed manual transmission hooked up to a limited-slip differential, high-flow cat & upgraded exhuast, adjustable shocks, lowering springs, and BBS alloy wheels. Could use some love paint-wise and does have some rust (it's lived on the edge of the rust belt all its life near as I can tell), but is a load of fun to drive with the top down and a great little sports car. Has rather high mileage, but the engine has been rebuilt several times along the way (at least once before I bought it, and I rebuilt it a year ago) and most of its miles were from the original owner commuting 50 miles each way to and from work.
Included with the car are a number of extra/spare parts- and that's putting it lightly. I bought another wrecked '88 convertible that provided a number of the parts needed for fixing this car up and stripped everything that could be removed from it off before scrapping the wrecked frame. Almost all of the parts from that are included with this car, including but not limited to the rear subframe and differential, A/C and P/S components, a seat, interior pieces (including a full dash), and lots and lots of smaller random parts. The car for sale's original door is included, as is the passenger door from the parts car- the windshield is also included, surrounded by the frame from the parts car- we weren't confident that we could extract it intact, so simply cut the frame around it (as we were cutting up the frame to scrap it anyway). The convertible top mechanism is included, but the top is trashed- however it does come with the parts car's targa section. If you take the time to go through and sort it all out, there's likely a lot that could be sold to offset the price of the car. I don't have the time, so it's all going with the car.
I also have a set of Konig wheels with good tires for sale for $400 that fit on the car perfectly.
Engine/Drivetrain/Exhaust: -Rebuilt the engine roughly a year ago using an Atkins Rotary rebuild kit with 3rd gen corner seals, and has driven less than a thousand miles since -A center iron from a 89-91 13B was used in the rebuild, which means it has no EGR (they eliminated them in 89), and a block-off plate covers the extra exhaust port on the center iron -Oil-metering system has been removed so you must premix oil with the gasoline when you fill it up- the allows you to run newer synthetic oils that don't work as well when injected into the combustion chamber. A machined block-off plate blocks off the OMP location, and metering injectors have been replaced with bolts/set screws. The original OMP system parts are included, but I believe the fragile oil lines mostly broke when I took the system off... -Alternator replaced with the higher-output 89-91 alternator (wiring still in place to use original) -Power steering and Air Conditioning bracket and associated P/S and A/C hardware removed, original P/S rack modified to function unassisted (original P/S and A/C hardware included with car as well as a spare, unmodified P/S rack) -Banzai Racing oil pan reinforcement bracket -Other than the EGR, all emissions equipment is in place -Stock exhaust manifold, but stock cats & exhaust have been replaced by a high-flow cat and upgraded cat-back. -Stock 5-speed transmission -Limited-slip differential rear end from one of the higher-performance coupes is installed -At the moment, one of the oil lines from the engine to the oil cooler leaks at an integral fitting until the engine reaches operating temperature and the metal expands and seals it up. The oil cooler line from the parts car is included and it should not take you too long to swap it in. For that matter, if the weather behaves I may get the chance to swap the lines myself (since I am trying to sell the car elsewhere too, and many others are more squeamish about things like this...)
Body/Frame -Convertible top is in great shape, no rips or tears, mechanism works perfectly and seals tight. Glass rear window has a slight nick, but it's not noticeable unless you're looking at the window up close -Includes blue leather cover for when the top is down (this is hard to come by these days from what I hear) -Body could use some work- damage to the driver's door required replacing it with the one from my parts car, and the driver's fender was banged back as good as I could get it and the damaged area primered. Original door is included if you want it. -Spoiler from a early 2000's Mustang has been fitted to the trunk lid. See the pics- paint aside, it looks GREAT on the car. I put a lot of research into finding what spoiler would look best on it, and I was not disappointed at all in my choice. -Paint on the hood is fading, and the paint on the rear bumper and spoiler is starting to wear off (bumper and spoiler were rattle-canned with Arctic Silver when I originally fixed the car up). -There is some rust on the body, and a modest bit on the underside. It will need some work done reinforcing it for the longer term at some point, but it does not impact it being driven now at all and is still solid.
Suspension/wheels -Tokiko Illumina 5-way adjustable shocks -Lowering springs (eibach?) -Energy Suspension polyurethane bushing kit installed -Adjustible link on rear suspension to allow proper alignment with lowered rear end -Brand new parking brake cable -Front shock strut brace -Includes original BBS wheels with the center caps, good tires with little wear on all four corners, and the tool for removing the caps -Original spare tire is included and fits in its stock, original position under the rear deck
Interior -Original, complete blue interior, a bit worn from 20 years of use but overall in good shape -Leather seats are in good condition, a bit worn but no tears or major issues. I believe they were re-covered at some point. -All trim pieces are present, including the triangle vents -S5 (stronger, rubberish) radio surround -EL-Glow gauge cluster with silver gauge surround -JVC Stereo head unit with iPod cable to control an iPod from the head unit (will not work with iPod Touch/iPhone, its interface is too old- works with iPod Classic, Nano, and older iPods, does require an adapter to charge newer iPods as it still uses the Firewire pins for charging) -All speakers except the headrest speakers have been upgraded -Headrest speakers function properly with stock center console controls- since there are no 'rear' speakers in the convertible, the headrests for the seats have a pair of small (3 1/2", I believe) speakers in them that help fill out the sound and also help a LOT when you're driving with the top down at highway speeds -10" subwoofer with amp in a custom-built box under the back deck- you'd never know it was there until you feel it kick. The amp and sub fit such that they don't interfere with either the top mechanism or the spare. They are, of course, wired in to the head unit.
