Okay, what’s wrong with this 1981 Mazda RX-7? Nothing’s jumping out at us as it looks clean.
Stock alloys, stock steering wheel, stock air cleaner. (Not sure about the seats, though.)
Five-speed and, according to the ad, converted to 134 and fitted with fresh tires.
Asking price is $10,500.
It does look pretty clean, and the asking price is pretty close to what Hagerty values an '81 RX-7 in No. 3 condition:
It's missing the air cleaner snorkel.
Seats appear OE to me. A/C looks like factory air, too, as opposed to port installed air. The only other non power steering FB that I've seen with factory air was also an '81.
I couldn’t recall if those were the OE seats but, yeah, looks rather original.
#GLWS
It's so rare to find a near-perfect, stock, unmolested car like this RX7. It takes my breath away by looking at such a beautiful, clean canvas to completely destroy with performance modifications.
That looks way nicer than mine.
In reply to DavyZ :
So, early taillights or the later ones? To be honest, I can’t decide.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Judging only the taillights, I like the early ones. I like the progression of red-orange-clear, even though it doesn't make sense to have the turn signals further inboard.
But the rear as a whole on the early car looks a little out of the place with the rest of the car, and I prefer the plate under the bumper.
In reply to j_tso :
But the SA has a much better looking front end, with the little chin lip.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Yeah, even though it's mostly a "modern" 80s car the metal bumpers keep one foot in the old skool 70s.
The green car is an SA and is thoroughly a 70s car. It was only made in 79 and 80.
The red car is an FB and ran through 1985.
The FB and SA share a lot of parts, but you'd be amazed how many differences there are. It's a bit more different than just a facelift.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
It's easier to say what they share than what is different, really. There are some pretty significant engine, chassis, and suspension differences over and above the change in thread pitch and rear brake design.
What's kind of interesting is that my 09/80 build FB (same red with black interior as the posted car, and black interiors are hard to find) has some SA parts like the steering box. Which suits me fine because I think it's a better unit.
Meanwhile, my 05/80 build SA had an FB type transmission with an SA tailhousing. Mazda changed the internal design of the trans in March, 1980. Then sort of left that alone until they stopped making it in 2005 
Back to the posted car. I think it's a unicorn among unicorns. The dashboard isn't cracked. The '79-83 ('79-85 everywhere else) dash pad cracked very easily when the skin shrank. I think most of them cracked before the first owner paid off the loan. I have never once seen one that wasn't cracked and I have been into these cars since they were just used cars and the FD was still in showrooms.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
I was referring to the styling of the FB's urethane bumpers compared to the squared off metal bumpers.
But it's not like they're totally different cars. SAs can be updated with the later suspension, brakes, and axle; all bolt in.
The '79 has funky calipers in the front but the '80 has the same as '81-85 aside from the hose pitch. (You can actually use FC front calipers, too, but not the other way around unless you have worn pads. I have an FC and an FB caliper on the front of my '84)
The '79-80 rear brakes are superior to '81-85 drums for many more reasons than I feel is worth getting into here but it should be noted that calipers, rear and front, are impossible to find remanufactured.
The rest of the "suspension" is the same, aside from the SA having different length strut inserts, so people used to swap in FB housings when all you could get were inserts made for FBs. Given that you can't really get anything for either flavor in 2024, it's kind of a wash. if it still has the stock wet struts, they're easy to rebuild and you can play with different oil viscosities. The SA did have the nice 18mm rear swaybar vs. the 15mm from the FBs, which is something I think Mazda did to curtail the snap oversteer effects when the rear axle tried to articulate too much. Can't do anything wrong if it can't move
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