A rotary engine in trouble
A rotary (Wankel) engine has no pistons moving up and down. Triangular rotors spin inside an oval shaped housing, which makes the engine small, light and smooth for its power. Mazda had built its name on the idea in the 1960s, but after the oil crisis of 1973 to 1974 the thirsty rotaries looked like a bad bet, and Mazda dropped them from most of its models.
Kenichi Yamamoto, then head of research and development, pushed back against abandoning the engine altogether. His team reworked the existing 12A twin rotor engine for better fuel economy, more durable apex seals (the seals at the tips of each rotor) and better lubrication. What the engine needed now was a car that played to its strengths.
1978: the first generation (SA and FB)
The RX-7 went on sale in Japan in March 1978, replacing the Savanna RX-3. Under lead designer Matasaburo Maeda it took the shape of a low, wedge nosed coupe with a wraparound glass hatch, designed around the compact rotary engine. It weighed under 1,100 kg (about 2,425 lb), the lightest RX-7 of all.
North American cars used the 1.1 liter 12A rated at 100 hp. Later a fuel injected 13B engine with 135 hp arrived in the GSL-SE. The first generation ran until 1985 in three series, and Mazda built 471,018 of them. Most went to the United States: Wikipedia estimates US sales at 70 to 80 percent of production.
Winning on the track
The RX-7 quickly proved itself in racing. Cars prepared by Tom Walkinshaw Racing won the British Saloon Car Championship (today the British Touring Car Championship) in 1980 and 1981, and in 1981 an RX-7 won the Spa 24 Hours, the first Japanese car to do so. In the United States it won the IMSA GTU championship seven years in a row from 1979 and the GTO championship ten years in a row from 1982. Mazda says the RX-7 won more than 100 IMSA races, more than any other model.
1985: the second generation (FC)
The second RX-7 arrived in late 1985 under chief project engineer Akio Uchiyama. It was more of a grand tourer: about 800 lb heavier than the original, with a 1.3 liter 13B engine. In North America the naturally aspirated version made 146 hp and the Turbo II made 182 hp, rising to 160 hp and 200 hp in the later Series 5 cars. A convertible joined in 1987. Motor Trend named it Import Car of the Year for 1986, and Mazda built 272,027 FCs before the coupe ended in December 1991.
1991: the third generation (FD)
The third RX-7 was announced in October 1991. Its curvy shape came from a winning design by Wu-Huang Chin, with help from Tom Matano, refined for production by chief designer Yoichi Sato. Power came from the 13B-REW, a sequential twin turbo rotary rated at 255 PS (252 hp) in 1992, rising to 280 PS (276 hp) by the end of production.
The FD made Car and Driver’s Ten Best list from 1993 to 1995 and was Motor Trend’s Import Car of the Year for 1993. Yet it sold slowly in the United States and Canada, where it was offered only from 1993 to 1995. Production continued in Japan until 2002, for a total of 68,589 FDs.
The legacy
Over 24 years Mazda built more than 800,000 RX-7s (811,634 by Wikipedia’s count). The rotary story continued in the RX-8, designed by Ikuo Maeda, son of the first RX-7’s designer. Today the RX-7, especially the twin turbo FD, is one of the most sought after Japanese sports cars of its era.
Owning an older sports car
Even the newest RX-7 is now more than 20 years old, so its value depends heavily on how it was looked after. Buyers of any older enthusiast car ask for receipts, and a documented service history is one of the strongest arguments a seller has. Badger keeps every service with its date and mileage, and the maintenance schedule reminds you by both miles and time, which matters for cars that sit in a garage most of the year. Read more about how service history affects resale value.
