97-99 Mitsubishi GSX vs. 93-95 RX-7 TT Which one to buy?

[ademarco6]

Hello,
I am down to two cars and which to make a reliable, yet track ready daily driver. I want to make the car a economy car when daily driven, yet be able to turn up the boost and at least hit 13.5's in the 1/4 or just be able to spank s2000's, and the v8 crowd. Can you please give me opinions or advice on which one would be easier and less costly to build up and which has the most potential. The GSX is AWD like the WRX, but it is so freakin heavy 3300lbs. and the RX-7 has reliability issues by the twin turbo setup and apex seals always getting blown and also the heat under the hood. Thanks and hope to get one of these fine cars in the future and I hope you guys give me some good pro's con's on each car and I know most have biased tastes. Also would it be best to just skip the RX-7 and GSX thing and go straight for a Supra? Supra's range 20k-26k used and a used Rx-7 13k-18k used with a new motor, and a GSX 14k-20k with a 16G and loads of mods. Thanks again

[revelation609]

for daily driving, the 7 isnt that great on gas, but if u want 13's then the 7 already does it stock. about the apex seals and turbos make sure u get a 7 thats been taken care of with a healthy engine or buy one wit a blown engine for cheap and put in a new engine and take care of that. about the heat under the hood a simple down-pipe takes care of that plus a nice 20HP gain. and a nice vented hood should keep temps down.

about the GSX, no clue, very heavy almost 3500lbs and wit 210HP and AWD thats about it, though cheaper will not run 13's without a bunch of mods. and i dont really know that much about the platform anyways.

the supra, overrrated. yea its a good car, but it takes chunks out of ur wallet, if u can buy it the mods are gonna take a long time unless u got the money to spend on it. the suspension isnt all that great too.

hope i helped

[Holyterror]

For me, there's no contest: the RX-7 wins by a mile. You already mentioned the car's main problems, and that's about all you have to worry about. Now, there are a few reasons that this might not be the car for you, such as:

1. You're big on "low maintenance" cars
2. You won't dish out for octane boost
3. You can't afford to spend time and money in the shop
4. You really need good gas mileage

Remember the basic rules of modding for any car, and apply those to the RX-7: intake, exhaust, and engine management.

The twin turbo 13B gives you a lot of bang for your buck, but you really need to work it over. Some not-too-radical porting is where you should start. Next, get over the cost and buy ceramic apex seals. You need them if you plan on using this car competitively, that's including street racing. The fact is, the RX-7 runs really hot, and unfortunately, one ping will destroy a rotary. The ceramic seals will make it a little more detonation resistant, and generally increase the lifespan of the engine as well. If you're lucky enough to find an R1, you'll already have twin oil coolers, but otherwise that should be your next investment. Underdrive pulleys make cheap (almost free) power, and they're not very expensive either. Finally, a single, ball-bearing turbo is the best solution for power, efficiency, and reliability. You can hold off on this until you have problems with the stock TTs, or until you're ready for all the extra power.

Now, if all you're interested in is straightline performance, then you can throw the 50:50 weight balance out the window and drop a triple-rotor 20B in. I think the advantage to this is self-explanatory.

Of course, you may have a thing for AWD or something, in which case this is all irrelevant. However, I suspect that you'll find the RX-7 a lot more fun than the GSX, which is what really matters in the end.

[ls1mazda93rx7]

13b is high maintenance if hes not carefull and most mazda tech haven't worked on one in a while or if the new guy is nwe hell %$#@! it up!!! just watch who works on your car!!

[TatII]

the FD is a beautiful car. without a doubt. i have a friend that has one and hes in a crew of RX-7's. the typical guy there including him is on their 2nd engine. and some of them is even on their third. not exactly a very reliable sounding.

there are soo many things that can go wrong with them. their engines flood easily, you can't rev them when the engine isn't fully warmed up etc. the engine is just too tempermental. also running higher boost without a power FC or some kind of chip, and you can kiss your engine good bye. its even server to the point where you put bolt ons, and your driving in the winter and you get boost creep and you knock and your engine is finished.

this is becasue the fuel management system on the FD are crap. it will not know if your flowing more air in from running higher boost. thats why most people run Power FC's or have their Rex's chiped.

edit: also if you bring your rx-7 to a dealer, they won't even touch it cause when my friend needed it serviced they turned down the job. luckily there is a very reputatable rotary guru named KD rotary about 100 miles away. and thats where my friend takes it to get major work done. however you have a waiting list of weeks casue their so busy there.

now for GSX's. it depends on which year you get. the first gen boxy ones comes with a 14B turbo. those turbos with bolt ons will run a low 13 in the 1/4 miles. the 14B is also proven to go as low as a high 11. but thats with proffessional tuning. but the typical guy can hit 13's with just bolt ons running the 14B turbo.

i know a guy who has a 1st gen Eagel Talon AWD Tsi. and he has over 180K on his engine and hes running a 20B turbo with Nitrous and hes making atleast 400hp and there is no problem with his car at all. he always dows AWD power slides around corners and everything. those cars are bulit proof. ugly but bullet proof. they are very very very fsat cars with very little invested.

the 2nd gen's are iffy becasue the head doesn t' flow as well and it comes with a small T25 turbo. the engine also has crank walkin issues.

so if you want a car that looks great and has potential thats reliable as all hell why not get a 2nd 93+ MR2 turbo?