Hello from Maryland

[ian65]

My take on option list vs market.

I reckon you're bang on the money there Dave although I do think they could have sold the 12a turbo overseas as it proved to be a durable variant.... worries about reliability at the time put paid to that though... shame.
It's understandable that the US market requirements dominated Mazdas thinking in terms of marketing at the time.....out of 470,000 1st gens built, approx 360,000 went to the US, UK total sales were only around 3800 so the Uk market never really took off and cars were never really tuned to the UK market. It does, however, make the car easy to tune and improve to release it's true potential, which is what many of us try to do these days.

Interesting thread on sales figures here...

http://rx7fb.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=263

SE Survivor,
you're right about tuning houses taking the cars and modifying them..... back in the day in the UK, we only got the 3 official Mazda variants, the S1, S2 and finally S3...... to our long standing bitter disappointment, we were never offered the US market only GLS-SE ....... I for one have often read about the GLS-SE in road tests and on forums and cursed Mazda under my breath
A few tuners saw the car potential and started modifying them, one of them being ELfords, a Mazda dealership.... their turbo conversion was so good and professional that Mazda UK officially approved it and agreed to honour factory warranty on converted cars.

The full story is here...

http://rx7fb.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=35

There is absolutely tons of info and all 1st gens, road tests, brochure etc here in a free E-book that we put together a few years back..... great reading...

http://rx7fb.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=37

.

[A7RXY]

Well done Gents, that's what I really like about this forum, all the info on these cars is out there and as it grows bigger and extends to other countries it is all coming to light.

Dibs

[spirit r]

spirit r,has same wheels as my SE. Was your car originally a 12A,do you know what your 5th gear in trans is numerically ?

5 Gear= 0,858

IMG_0047.jpg (1.69 MiB) Viewed 3561 times

[SE Survivor]

ian65,thanks for the links

[SE Survivor]

spirit r,very cool sales brochure. Of course can't read some of it,will show it to my girl and she can translate for me. Look close at the pic in the brochure,think they could have done a better job of aligning the right headlight door on that car as it was being photographed for sales literature. Does your car have the 12A engine? That od number seems a bit off,unless there were different gearsets for different markets, don't think likely though. In US 81-83 got.825,84-85 12A got .758 and SEs got.807 .

[SE Survivor]

Noticed in several pics of european RXs they have what appear to be headlight washers mounted top of bumper. Are these government mandated,do they work in conjunction with wiper,windshield washers?

[ian65]

Noticed in several pics of european RXs they have what appear to be headlight washers mounted top of bumper. Are these government mandated,do they work in conjunction with wiper,windshield washers?

no, not government mandated, just a Mazda fitment for certain markets... they have a dedicated switch on the centre console to operate them so not linked to the wipers or screen washers...... very few still work these days... the pump is low down in the front of the righhand fender and is difficult to access so gets no maintenance.
Interestingly, the pump is huge and Elfords offered an option where they adapted this reservoir and pump to operate the windshield washers instead of the stock screen pump for extra pressure/ cleaning.

[SE Survivor]

ian65,some good reading,a quick education and history of these cars as sold in your country. I had no idea your units sold were that low. It's quite rare for me to see a 1st gen while driving around where i live, has to be even rarer for you folks to happen on one on a drive. My girl,who is a closet gearhead,doesn't recall ever seeing one when she still lived in Germany and she traveled extensively through europe when she was younger. Sometimes when gassing up(by the way a gallon of regular here currently goes for 2.65,curious to what you pay) i get comments from people, i had one like that, or i miss that car, had to sell it when got married and had kids. Most can't get over the fact that it's 30 yrs. old. Young kids today don't even know what it is, they think their hoopdy Honda cicic with the add on fast and furious crap and fartcan muffler is the shi*!

[ian65]

we use the imperial gallon which is about 20% bigger tan the US gallon but we are currently paying approx $8.24 ( or £5.30 ) for an imperial gallon of regular unleaded.
As for the last time I saw a 1st gen on the road, I don't think I've seen one for about 20 years in general use...... most people I come across have never seen one...... Codge has got the latest figures but I think there's probably only a couple of hundred left in a roadworthy condition in the UK and maybe another hundred or so laid up somewhere.

[DKWW2000]

It's quite rare for me to see a 1st gen while driving around where i live, has to be even rarer for you folks to happen on one on a drive. !

Dave (Codge) our resident Expert Statistician knows best but I believe there is about 55 ish currently being driven on the roads, so unless there's an eclipse it is unlikely to see another except at pe-arranged meet
Regarding fuel (£1.15 per litre x 4.5) £5.17 per gallon of unleaded petrol!! (Just seen duplication in answer)

Probably why they did not sell in great numbers here
regards Pete