Bought our '73-914-4 2.0 back in '99. I've been a member of this board for years. You guys rock!!! I have had more help from this board than from my Haynes manual!!!. Always appreciated. Sometimes funny... and more.

Anyway,
About a month ago we bought an '88 RX-7 for my wife to drive instead of drivin' our Suburban gas hog.
Seeing as I don't know dick about RX-7's - I found a RX7 bulletin board, posted a few questions and quickly - or actually not so quickly - found that the RX7 board is DEAD compared to the 914club. I'm wondering why??? It's a cool little car - rotary power. After reading the responses to my questions on the RX7 board, I have reached a conclusion:
1.) Mazda's are NOT porsches.
2.) 914 owners are a special breed of folks that CARE about their cars AND ALL 914's.
3.) RX7 owners mostly discuss paint jobs, flames decals and electric fans.
4.) They can't spell w-a-n-k-e-l
5.) My deodorant?

Just wanted to say thanks again for all of your help and humor over the years.

Cheers, Gary

I think you're going to quickly find your RX-7 is itself something of a gas hog. Rotaries have terrible thermal efficiency, and generally get awful gas mileage. 24mpg freeway is pretty common, and I've seen as little as 15mpg in mixed use driving with a '85 and an '87.

Yep. For only 1300cc's it's really thirsty!!! My wife only got 22 mpg from San Diego to O.C. and back. But it has a really fun, wide power band and she can shift the 7 much better than she GRINDS my 914.

I had a 1987 RX7 Turbo and know how you feel about the get up and go. Scary.
914 for most is a fun to drive car but some have their own bullet. Very few will get the power of an RX7 in the years mentioned.

An RX7 was my next option when I was shopping for a 914. Thought about looking for a rotary 914, since they were out there ... but damn, them w-a-n-k-e-l's are thirsty little buggers.

Not that a dual carb'd 914 isn't. <_<

One thing to watch for on 2nd gen RX-7s ('86 to '92), is that the electrical systems are uncharteristically flaky for a Japanese car. The main engine and lighting electrics seem to work OK, but the dash clusters frequently act up. The soldering jobs done on these panels (center clock, heat/air controls, and a panel behind the driver's kick panel that controls, amongst other things, the horn) were really substandard, and you'll find the idiot lights and clock not working, the heater controls not responding, and the horn not working. Nothing really major, but very aggravating.