(upbeat music)
- I'm standing next to one of the cleanest,
lowest mileage second gen Mazda RX-7's known in existence.
Now, Mazda made the second gen
or FC RX-7 from 1985 to 1992
and during that time the built only 1,500
10th anniversary additions which this one is right here.
This is an 80's time capsule and today,
we're gonna crack it open
and we're gonna show you five things
even the most die hard fans might not know about this car.
We're going bumper to bumper on the FC RX-7.
(imitates motor rumbling)
It's rotary time.
(upbeat music)
Thanks to Ring
for sponsoring this episode of Bumper to Bumper.
If you want to feel safer at home
and know what's going on when you're not there,
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and even hear or speak to whoever's there
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It's good for adding some security to my place
and my mailman and I have kindled up the beginnings
of a fresh new friendship.
He doesn't get frightened when I yell, "Thanks baby!"
anymore so I'd say we're freakin' bros now.
And because you're part of the Donut fam,
you have a special offer on a Ring Welcome Kit
that includes a Video Doorbell and a Chime Pro.
Go to http://www.ring.com/wheelhouse.
That's http://www.ring.com/wheelhouse.
Thanks for supporting the companies that support Donut.
(electronic music)
So before we get into this,
we gotta appreciate what we have before us.
This car, this 1988 10th anniversary RX-7
has only 1,803 miles.
If you do the math, that's (modem screeches)
56 miles a year.
(electronic music)
Now today, we're gonna use this example
to dish out some of the interesting details
on one of the most beloved cars to ever leave Japan,
starting with the looks.
(electronic music)
Now if you take a look at it, you might think
"This looks kinda similar to maybe a Porsche 924 or 944"
and if it looks similar, well you'd be right
because it's almost modeled exactly like it.
See Mazda knew how popular the 944 was in American market
and America is where
the majority of all the first gen RX-7's were sold.
So they had this idea.
They were like, "hey, why don't we use the 944 to
"help style the car and become a rival
of that German brand."
Now there's a big misconception out there
that the designer of the 924 also designed this car.
Harm Lagaay, he didn't do it, that's not true, that's false.
This car was just copied by Mazda engineers.
So I hope that answers your questions
because you guys asked us on the community page.
Which speaking of,
start using that community page on YouTube.
We're gonna be asking a lot more questions
and we wanna give you some answers
when we shoot Bumper to Bumper.
(electronic music)
Now while the cars might look very similar,
they're very different animals.
The engines are different, inside the car is very different.
The suspension set up, all that stuff
is all very unique to each one.
But to add insult to injury,
this car copied the Porsche's looks
and then went on to beat it
in Car and Driver's Best List in 1986 and 1987.
It was also Motor Trend's Import Car of the Year in 1986
and it beat out Porsche's 924, 928
and they're flagship 911.
So the Porsche boards were a little pissed
cause you could get a similar looking
and slightly better performing car
for $10,000.00 less money.
(electronic music)
So when you look at this car, your first thing is,
"Yeah, they stole Porsche's design"
but you also look at it and think,
"Man, that thing screams freakin' '80's"
and this thing has got some sweet pop up headlights.
Max, pop me on over there.
(upbeat music)
So let's talk about pop up headlights for a second.
You guys know the song.
We made a slappin' beat all about these engineering marvels.
Pop up headlights were at a peak in the '80's
and they even made them all the way up
into the early 2000's.
The Corvette C5 actually had them on 'em
but they were taken away from us
because of more strict regulations
involving pedestrian safety.
Once a lot of manufacturers started using pop up headlights
they used some shotty electronics
and so they would sometimes open, sometimes not,
and they'd get stuck, they'd go up and down.
You've probably seen a lot of winking faces,
winking eyes with pop up headlights.
They're not as safe
as you would probably want headlights to be.
(upbeat music)
Which brings us to our second fact about the FC RX-7
and that's this clear lens right here.
Say, you're driving your car during the day time
and you wanted to flash your lights.
You got pop up headlights.
You don't want to have to pop them up, flash the light,
and then bring them back down, that's way to much work.
And so, the Mazda engineers
designed this clear lens right here
and so when you flash the bright lights
you can see it through this clear lens.
Pretty cool little touch.
You don't need a dedicated
bright light flashers during the day.
(upbeat music)
Another thing that makes these pop up headlights
even sweeter, is that they're squirters.
(jets whirring)
So apparently, you want to clean your lights,
you can squirt some juice on them and
that's the way to clean them.
They don't wipe, they don't do anything,
they just squirt juice and it really squirts ya.
And just to clarify, by juice,
I mean windshield washer fluid.
So how about we go to the inside
and see what other tasty little treats
are in this cool '80's mobile.
(smooch) (giggles)
(car door squeak)
(upbeat music)
Now the first thing when you get in this car,
it's super comfortable.
Now this was built as a touring car,
it wasn't a strictly sports car
so it actually is pretty roomy.
This leather is freakin' nice man, so soft, super soft
and everything in here is all original.
The head unit which has all these
kind of like Space Mountainy looks digital but's all analog.
In terms of being
the most tricked out cassette player you could ever have
in factory car, this car has it.
First of all you can select your tape type.
So back in the day,
depending on the type of tape you recorded to,
you could optimize your settings for that.
You could also optimize your EQ.
This has one, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine
different EQ adjustment tabs.
(electronic music)
Has these twisty knobs for all your important functions
like your windshield wipers, your pop up headlights,
your pop up headlight mister in case you wanna get squirted.
Now aside from all the features in this car
that are standard in RX-7, this is a 10th anniversary
and it got a couple different upgrades.
It got a MOMO steering wheel, a MOMO shifter,
and it's got 10th anniversary embossed right on the front
which is really really cool.
Which brings me to my third fact about this car
and that is that they made three special edition RX-7's
from the factory.
The Infini which was a JDM only model
and they made the GTUs which was the Turbo II platform
which didn't have a turbo in it which was kinda weird
and then they made the all white 10th Anniversary Editions.
Now companies, all the time
go hog wild with special editions
and this is one of those editions that they built
just to sell more cars.
There's nothing particularly different about this car
except for a couple different added things.
It has bronze tint on it,
like I said it has different steering wheels,
but from a performance standpoint
it's the exact same car as the Turbo II.
It's more of an aesthetics package but you know
gotta sell cars somehow.
(electronic music)
Okay so I'm gonna take a good ole fricken' whiff.
The smells like a brand new car would.
You can smell the leather, it's new leather.
That's the overbearing scent when you get in this car.
It is just new car smell, new leather smell.
It doesn't smell old and musty,
it literally smells like a brand new car,
and again, this car is 32 years old.
Go into your dads closet and sniff his leather jacket.
That's what this smells like.
(upbeat music)
So you guys wanna hear what a 1,800 mile 13 BT sounds like?
(car beeping)
(car engine revving)
I want to give her the berries.
(car engine revving)
It's really smooth.
There's like no vibration in this car.
Alright.
(car beeping)
Now, we didn't hit red line there but if we did,
you woulda heard something, you woulda heard a little
(shift buzzing)
and that's because, this RX-7 has a shift buzzer.
You might of heard of a shift light,
a light that illuminates
when it tells you it's time to shift when you hit red line.
Instead of having a shift light,
this car has a shift buzzer.
That's a rotary thing that Mazda developed
and it's all because
of what's going on under that hood right there.
(electronic music)
Now the whole reason that this car has a shift buzzer
is cause of this little puppy right here.
The 13B Turbo II rotary engine.
So rotary engines are known to be high revving.
They're not like a reciprocating engine
where you got a lot of moving parts going up and down.
Everything is rotational.
So a couple benefits to that.
One, there's no vibration.
This car, when I started it before,
you can barely feel anything moving at all.
There are some people who think
that there are reliability issues with these motors.
Because it's rotary, it can over rev
and it can go too high in the rev range and blow up.
So they have a reputation for being somewhat unreliable
but that's really not all that fair.
If you keep oil in this motor and you don't over rev it
these things are very, very reliable
and that's not to say that you should baby it.
No, no, don't do that, don't baby a rotary.
You gotta get it up in the high RPM's every now and then
or else it'll just build up carbon deposits
and you don't want that.
So if you do have a rotary,
give her the beans every now and then
and get her up there to 7,000.
(electronic music)
Now this is a 1.3 Liter rotary engine.
It makes 182 horsepower and 183 foot pounds of torque
and because this engine is so small,
they can put it more towards the center of the car.
Now this car has a perfect 50-50 front and rear balance
which makes it really, really good
under the hands of professional racers.
Where my RedSuns at?
(electronic music)
And speaking of racing, this car was really, really good
in the IMSA series in competed in.
So good, that we're gonna go to the back
and show you another fun fact about this FC RX-7.
(feet shuffling)
(electronic music)
Now this car came ordered with factory louvers.
Some people don't like them, some people do,
but we're gonna pop 'em open
'cause what I really want to show you
is what's underneath these louvers.
(upbeat music)
These things, they feel like I could rip them off.
They're pretty fragile and you gotta hold it
so washing your rear window is a two person job.
But the thing that I wanna show you specifically
is this little sticker right here,
which is our 5th fact
and that is that the RX-7 won the IMSA GTU Championship
from 1980 to 1987
and they have special stickers put on the car
from the dealers and they change
depending on the year of the car.
This one, since it's an '88 says
IMSA GTU RX-7 Mazda Manufacturers Championship 1987.
You don't see these on a lot of RX-7's
one, because certain dealers didn't put them on
and two, they probably got removed over the years,
but this one has it, it's original from the factory
and it's pretty sweet.
(electronic music)
You wanna know how
a 1,800 mile mint condition FC RX-7 came about,
the story is actually really super interesting.
The person who found this low mileage car was Cody Walker.
His wife's grandfather
went in to the dealership to buy a truck
and walked out with a truck and this car.
It sat for 20 years under a cover until Cody discovered it
and then he sold it to my man Sean Lee
who brought it all the way down from Oregon
to the streets of Southern California.
Sean has only put about 600 miles on this car
over the last five or six years.
So he's saving this car
by driving it around a little bit each year.
- [Cody] So I was at JCCS
and somebody made me an offer I couldn't refuse
so I sold RX-7.
- [Sean] Yeah I couldn't resist.
Proud owner of the lowest model FC in the world.
- James did not buy this car from Sean Lee.
It's part of Sean Lee's collection of cars.
It's not James, James likes it,
I like it, but Sean won't sell it so we're busting myths.
Bye for now.