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Readers’ Rides:
Mazda RX-7
Added on Nov. 27 by Acesanugal

‘Sabine’ is a 1988 Mazda RX-7 GXL sporting Arctic Silver on a blue ultra-velour interior. I bought this car as an automatic, and it wasn’t running. After a long - very long - trailer ride home, I began hunting down the parts I would need to complete a conversion. Through a friend I sourced the transmission, driveshaft, clutch hydraulics , pedal assembly and a clutch/pressure plate combo. Another friend sourced me a flywheel of the correct series to use and provided me with loaner air tools. It took a few weeks to get everything together, but then the swap started happening.

Happily, thanks to some help from my local rotary community, Sabine is now a running and driving manual car.

My only gripes with the setup are that the motor (I knew this) is very low compression. 75psi front, 65psi rear rotors respectively. The fuel injectors (Which I need cleaned) leak very badly and overall do not perform to spec. This may be why higher up in the rev range the motor feels anemic and vibrates with a high frequency. My other gripe is the differential…which is the automatic-spec 3.90 LSD.

Specs:

1988 Mazda RX-7 GXL

• Arctic Silver

• Blue interior

• Convertible model BBS aluminum wheels

• 77,000 chassis miles

• Unknown mileage on motor, low compression (Non-original motor)

• S5 manual gearbox, 189,000 miles

• 3.90 LSD rear

Future upgrades are donors from my other RX-7.

• Complete Racing Beat exhaust system

• KYB AGX shocks/struts, Racing Beat springs

• Full Pioneer stereo system, bazook 8” sub tube.

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