Do we have anybody in the (North) Houston/Conroe area who could check out a race car for me?

Now that I've got my SCCA full comp license I'm on the hunt for a race car and an interesting looking GT-3/GT-S 1st gen RX7 has come up in Conroe, TX. I spoke to the owner and it sounded like it's a decent entry level GT class car at a good price. I'm rather interested but I can't get to Houston for 2-3 weeks so I was wondering if there's anybody in the vicinity who could check the car out for me in the meantime? Nothing too specific, more of a once-over to see if it's overall in good shape or if there is damage and issues that might not show in the pictures. It's really more a case of getting a go/no go signal if it's worth the time and money to fly out there in person.

Obviously I'd be happy to compensate you for your time and buy you lunch/dinner if/when I get to Houston to check it out in person.

Oh, and here's a link to the Racingjunk ad.

I'll be in Magnolia Thursday for work. Could possibly take a look then if nothing else works out. I'm pretty sure we have some other people here more local though.

I don't know anything about rotarys though.

I'm in Conroe every damn day to drive my kid to school. 20 minutes from my house. Drop me a message. I have free time this week.

I can tell you a little about it. It's a solid runner. I've never seen it wrecked or DNF at any of the races I've worked and he ran at.

Consistently fast but hard to really compare as the class is really underpopulated locally.

I'm a little far away to go put eyes on it since I'm in Austin but that should be close to mazdaduece's place if I'm thinking right.

In reply to bmw88rider:

Thanks, that sounds like it matches what the seller told me. Always a good sign, that.

What he did mention is that it did manage to break the rear axle once, plus he's had some gearbox issues but they went away when he got an uprated gearset from Speedsource. It sounded like he's taken good care of it, too.

@mazdeuce, you should have a PM.

In reply to mazdeuce:

How can you possibly have any free time?

That seems like a great price, I see 3k worth of shocks...

In reply to Woody: when the chillrenz are in schull is when MazD is free to create mayhem/chaos.....as far as I can tell, it's simply a matter of priorities

I live about as close as MazD does but I'd be awed to see a real race car up close and forget why I was there in the first place, though I can spot crap presented as legitimate. I'm the 'well he coulda done it that way' guy, but I do appreciate well executed fabrication....and I've time on my hands.....just sayin'

Clearly I need to drag 759 along, second set of eyes and all that.

And yes, I have all sorts of free time between school drop off and pick up. There is a huge difference between having enough time to finish the drywall and having enough to go look at a racecar.

mazdeuce wrote: There is a huge difference between having enough time to finish the drywall and having enough to go look at a racecar.

That's "say what" material right there.

FYI - You can find his race results here: http://www.sowdivscca.com/index.php/club-racing/race-results/2016-race-results

Looks like he is a bit off pace given his lap times compared to Miatas and other RX7s. The class is indeed sparsely populated in that region. Here in SFR, a friend of mine races GT3 in one of the old 7's Only tube frame cars. He's pretty quick. There are some decent cars in that class.

His wheel size choice is odd. I wonder what tires he runs to use 15x7.

That car has some very nice racy parts on it. :)

Good luck.

Yeah, I did notice that the wheels and arches look like they don't quite belong on the same car at the same time. I suspect the original builder wanted to put much wider wheels on it.

I don't know how competitive a driver the current owner is, but he told me he bought it expressly to make the jump from a car with DOT tires to slicks. I'm at the bottom of the learning curve so I doubt that right now I need a car to be capable of running with the best of the class...