Rx7 is an extremely fast and well made race car. The flaw in the design was relibility of the car for everyday drivers. Yes some people can push them for over 150k miles but it takes a lot to keep them in good shape.

calpilot, my friend has a 350 whp rx7, he kills me in my 03 s2k. Nothing surprising, but his rx7 is on jacks right now being fixed.

s2k = good fast car, but not godly it can be beat.

A few stat facts:

S2000
Weight: 2850
HP: about 200 at the wheel
Torque: about 125-130 at wheel

RX7
Weight: 2789
HP: 255 at crank, I approximate about 225 at wheel (Correct me if I'm wrong Rx7 owners?)
Torque: 217 @ crank, approx 180-190 at wheel.

Nothing wrong in admitting its a well built car, I still prefer the s2k over it for reliability reasons and the fact that its a convertible that can handle twisties. And no, s2k's dont get advantage on twisties vs rx7's either.

S2k = Good car for what its built for
Rx7 = good car for what its built for

End of story. I'm amazed how much arguement there is on this thread for something so straight forward o_O

 

I use my rx7 as a daily driver. Its reliable and has been. In my opinion there are differences between maintenance and reliability. For example, after about 60-80K miles you need to redo the "rats nest". If you dont the hoses get cracked and leak air and you have boost problems. Is that reliablity or a maintenance issue? I say its maintenance. Sure its a result of the design of the car, but the sequential turbos are the only reason the car has any torque and has really good low end.

My car has never let me down, never broke down and never failed to start on me. YES my engine died on the dyno one day. IT was drivable but I cracked 2 apex seals (Even with broken apex seals I dynoed at 250 rwhp on a mustang dyno).

So to sum it up, the rx7 in my opinion is reliable as a daily driver if maintained correctly. And yes, its engine life is substantially shorter than a n/a rotary or a boinger engine.

Any questions?

 

Stock vs Stock, you won't find any unboosted 4 banger out there that can outdo the F20C... so that puts the S2000 at the top of the N/A foodchain for the 4 cylinders, but it's no match for the boosted family of cars for obvious reasons.

I have to agree with the above posting. The hose issues with the RX7 are no different from most boosted cars. Heat + rubber = hardening and will require replacement down the line. This is maintenance just like changing your oil.

This isn't to day that all RX7's have these defects but with 1 particular dealership here (where my best friend has worked for over 11 years), the FC turbo and FD has come through their shop for an alarming amount of problems varying from overheating, A/C problems, boost issues at 4500rpm and ignition problems. He told me that these have been identified as legit problems and could be resolved under warranty after a diagnosis but Mazda didn't appear to do a good job informing their customers about these, well at least this 1 particular dealership didn't.

I have to admit that I miss my FC, it was my first experience of working with a rotary and I blew the Apex seals at the local drag strip when I found out later that my gf put 89 octane in my car after I increased the boost. The car drove great nonetheless and what I really liked was the handling more than the power. Even with boost, I thought it felt anemic but it cornered remarkably. I only wish I had the time and money to have finished my FD project... that would've been a monster.

 

I can't believe this thread is still goin on......

Look both are great cars and many people would like to have BOTH of them.

Stop all the crap talking....and grow up....