(laughs loudly)
(upbeat music)
(car exhaust popping loudly)
(car engine revving)
- So you want an RX7.
Well I mean that's a really great idea,
I know they're exciting cars.
They look really nice,
I mean when you look into it and the modifying,
it's a really cool car everybody loves 'em.
Couple things you're probably gonna wanna
take into account before you go ahead
and just go pick one up.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
and don't forget to subscribe,
wheels, tires, suspension FitmentIndustries.com,
the whole plug thing.
Let's get into it.
So if you aren't familiar with modifying
a normal car with pistons and such,
you probably shouldn't just jump right in to an RX7.
Trust me, I had one.
They're a bit touchy, you know.
It seems like you're gonna run into some oil issues,
and then everybody's gonna make fun of you
for having oil issues.
And you're gonna have to rev it
a little bit more aggressively than everybody else.
And people are gonna judge you
because they think you're trying to show off
when you're not trying to show off in an FC RX7
'cause it's only like 87 horsepower.
But there's a lot of things that can go wrong with an RX7
and that's pretty much just how it is.
Because it's an RX7.
The RX7 got it's start way back in 1978
with it's first generation the FB.
The RX7 has always been a small,
lightweight and relatively pretty compact car.
They're just little guys, you know
they're just these little little guys.
They had all those small pop-up headlights
that everyone loves and they've always
been a fun, affordable car,
that you pretty much just couldn't really hate.
I mean if you look at the face,
you can't be really angry about it.
It's like a Miata they just look really nice.
And it's good, it's a good thing.
The RX7 had a second generation which was the FC,
which came around in 1986.
But it's most notable, classic,
the timeless,
the George Clooney of RX7s, the FDRX7,
which debuted in 1992 was like
the bomb RX7 that everybody loves.
You know the one that I'm talking about,
it's a Miata in the front,
Ford Taurus in the back,
Tokyo Drift looking (beep) thing but it's awesome.
And there's no denying that the FD is especially
a timeless classic and I know it sounds cliche,
but go ahead and try to find another person
that genuinely hates FDs.
Because you just can't,
because the moment you do bag on any FD,
or an RX7 in general,
you're pretty much just going to get shot.
Nobody really makes fun of RX7s because you really can't.
But don't worry because the community of RX7s
will probably just hate each other,
because you have this corner, the purists.
And in this corner, the swappers.
And you know what,
they sometimes, they just don't get along.
My opinion, if you wanna take
the Wankel engine out of your RX7,
you might as well (beep) toss Mickey Mouse
out of Disney World while you're at it,
because I mean you just don't do that.
I mean you can 'cause there are some
pretty good LS swaps our there I'm not gonna sorry,
not gonna judge,
Andy you've got a nice RX7 I'm sorry,
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
But it's perfect for a lot of people,
expect for those that just kinda
wanna watch the world burn.
And or want more reliability,
then they LS swap it.
Don't get mad at me I'm just the messenger.
But the amount of LS swapped RX7s
or just swapped RX7s out there,
is insane and it's undoubtedly one of the most
popular cars to swap an engine into.
No matter what kind of owner you are,
there's one thing that you can both relate to though.
The RX7 community which if you've
been in a community before,
like a certain four door Sedan Turbo 4-Cylinder,
sometimes it's not that good.
But the RX7 community on the other hand,
is without a doubt one of the most helpful communities
that you can be a part of
because they're going to want to help you
because it's kinda like them against the world
like you are running a car with an engine
that not a lot of people like,
and that a lot of people like to bag on.
So they kinda group together,
they join hands,
they Red Rover the automotive community
except they Red Rover with 350 pound dudes
that know everything about their car
and they probably know more about your car,
than their car which is insane
'cause you just can't argue with the guys.
You're just not gonna win.
The RX7 community is like one of your closest friends.
They're gonna be there for you when times are tough
and when things aren't going right,
they're also gonna be there
to slap you on the back of the head
and tell you that you're being an idiot
because they know a lot about their cars.
So what are some of the cons of an RX7.
(Alex clearing throat)
I don't wanna turn the comment section into a frenzy
so i'ma be very careful with what I say.
But, if you're looking for fuel efficiency,
you've come to the wrong place.
If you're looking for reliability,
in a general sense you probably also
have come to the wrong place.
Not saying that they're terrible,
they're just a little bit finicky,
they're just a little bit special.
And that's okay.
Apex seals have always been a huge issue
in the rotary engines because you know,
Dorito things which produces a (bleep) ton of heat,
and then wears down the seals
and you gotta deal with all of that,
which is where a lot of the general
reliability concerns come from,
but there are changes that you can do
such as pre-mixing things to make
the whole thing last longer.
There's a lot of technical stuff that you can do
to essentially elongate the longevity of your RX7 motor.
However you have to get comfortable with
the fact that you're gonna be tearing into it
a little bit more often than your buddy who just owns a WRX.
Basically the main faults in the car come along
with just owning a rotary in general.
So if you're already committed to that,
you're more than likely already prepared
and you've already done all your research
and joined all the forums,
and you're ready to rock and roll.
But if you haven't done that already
you're probably gonna wanna take
just a little bit more time to make sure
that this is the car that you actually want.
Because just a lot of old oil-cooled cars,
and things like that.
They're more owned because of the difficulty
it is to own one rather it just is for a driving experience.
It's something about just creating a memory
with something that is older than you,
and you get to enjoy something different
while everybody else is enjoying their
you know, super nice cars that are brand new
and completely stocked.
You can say you know what though, mines unique.
It may be broken but it's unique.
If you're looking for an FB it'll probably cost
right around $4000 dollars.
FCs are like eight to nine super clean,
and FDs probably right around 20 ish
depending on what type of FD you actually get.
Considering the price of supers nowadays
that actually isn't half bad
because RX7s are almost always
commonly compared to that car.
The RX7 was introduced in the massive spawn of the JDM
being introduced into the US,
which was a massive benefit to the car itself.
That was when most of us were kids
and our parents were also getting into
the RX7 Datsun Daze,
and they absolutely loved 'em
and then we started loving them too.
I mean we saw them in The Fast And The Furious movies
they were toys,
we saw 'em in magazines,
it became very apparent that they were
an extremely popular tuner car.
And a lot of people absolutely love them.
They're kinda like a really cool older brother
that moved away when we were young
and we got to see pictures of him on the beach on MySpace
and you're like wow I wanna go to the beach.
And now you're older and you can go on vacation
and take requests off as long as it's less than two weeks
and you've notified your supervisor six months in advance,
so that you can also go out and go on the beach
and take pictures and post them on Facebook now,
instead of MySpace.
All jokes aside the RX7 is a great car.
If you know what you're doing with a rotary
there easily modifiable and you can slap a turbo on 'em
the size of the moon and then just shoot fireballs
that make kids cry and people yell in parks
for no apparent reason.
And just do hoodrat (beep) the rest of your life
and it's gonna all good.
The engine can handle itself a lot stuff,
the rotary engine actually is an extremely unique,
interesting and very sweet motor,
as long as you're willing to work,
I know motor engine people get angry,
that you're just gonna have to put up with.
But if you can learn everything that there is to know
about the platform you're gonna have a ton of fun.
There's a bunch of supporting mods out there,
there's a ton of maintenance
that you're gonna have to put up with,
but the potential is there.
Something that you're gonna have to keep in mind with RX7s
as you go into it is you're gonna wanna
keep as much cooling as possible with RX7s.
Cooling is probably the biggest thing
that you could possibly do to help an RX7
just kinda stay alive.
But at the end of the day,
I got it, I said it, I'm sorry.
Okay, I'm sorry.
It's just a really good way to transition.
Judge my attempt at providing humor
and entertainment on YouTube, okay.
But at the end of the day the RX7 sounds (beep) spectacular.
There's just something about it that no matter what,
if you here one tuned with two-step,
you're just, your heart it just beats something different.
Right, like things get warm in odd places
because it just sounds so incredibly good.
The RX7s are by far one of the best sounding cars
that you can modify in JDM heritage out there.
And I mean, why wouldn't you wanna do it.
I mean it's an unreliable car,
it looks really good,
it sounds really good when you modify it,
it's super fast when you want it to be,
and really I mean (beep) cool.
And that's the coolest thing about RX7s
you can still see one roll by today
and be like damn, that's nice.
Because they are nice cars
and if you're willing to put up with the somewhat
temperamental attitude every once in a while,
you will always have at least a little bit of attention,
somebody will always be coming up to you at the gas station,
and everybody will always be asking
why you're buying so much oil.
It's gonna be a fun adventure.
So if you have an RX7
or you're thinking about buying an RX7,
drop a comment below.
Let us know what you want us to talk about next,
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
you can check our wheels,
tires and suspension at FitmentIndustries.com.
Don't forget we got all of it you know how it is.
We got the stuff like Tein and Eibach,
coilovers, air suspension,
air lift, AccuAir, wheels.
Anyway you get the point.
It's probably there.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
we will see you later, peace.
(upbeat music)