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RX-7 FD3S… What were Mazda on when they designed this car! Even today after well over a decade of production the FD3S still looks like it should belong on a drawing board under development making it hard to contemplate how long it's been about for now. |
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| Factory Specification |
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The Mazda RX-7 concept is over 20 years old, and with it Mazda proved that a production car with a rotary engine was more than just a pipe dream.
This particular RX-7 was manufactured in 1995 in Japanese R1 spec with a 13B-REW turbo engine and coloured in red. The beautiful and distinctive styling of the RX-7 is unmistakeable, and makes extensive use of aluminium and thermoplastics to create the unique, almost sculpted look of the car. |
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| Curb Weight |
2800lb |
| Engine |
1.3-litre, twin turbo, 2 rotor wankel rotary |
| Comp. Ratio |
9.0:1 |
| Redline |
8000rpm |
| Max. Power |
255bhp @ 6500rpm |
| Max. Torque |
217 lb/ft @ 5000rpm |
| Transmission |
Rear wheel drive, 5 speed manual |
| 0 - 60 mph |
5.3 secs |
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This already impressive vehicle was purchased with an exhaust and induction upgrade. The specification of a standard RX-7 is impressive enough to start with, but there are no plans for keeping this RX-7 standard – for from in fact! |
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| Project Aims |
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This RX-7 was supplied to us by Fast Car magazine as a project car that is to be featured every month during the build process, illustrating the complete transformation of the car from its original unmodified imported state to completion.
The car will then be used to promote the release of the computer game ‘Juiced'.
When the car is completed having undergone extensive body modifications, the car will be entered into a competition for one lucky reader to WIN! |
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| Nemesis UK Mazda RX-7 FD3S |
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It is not every day you get to own your very own Mazda RX-7 FD3S, the third generation of the long running and legendary car, but that is exactly what one lucky reader of Fast Car magazine is going to win.
As previously mentioned, this RX-7 when completed is going to use to promote the launch of the new up and coming ‘Juiced' video game and will carry the full livery down both sides to compliment the chosen ‘House of Kolor' Kandy two tone paint scheme.
The car arrived to us finished in a standard RX-7 red showing signs of a repaint to several panels probably due to light sustained knocks during its life out on the streets of Japan . The general condition of the car was good with the engine having covered 80k miles, with no modifications added since it left the factory – A good clear sign that the car has not lead a hard life!
With our attention first set on repainting the car, our body shop soon got to work on stripping the entire car of all its trim panels before we could start prepping the bodywork for its new coat of paint.
With the car fully striped, we noticed some blistering under the paint on several panels so work started striping the top coat of paint back. After having removed the top coat of paint from various panels, it became clear that the previous paint application the car had received was covering several areas of light filler work. To make matters worse, the filler had been applied straight on top of the original paint meaning that there was not a good key surface to hold the filler to.
We decided that the best root would be to take the entire car back to bare metal and start from scratch. This also meant that we could ensure that the new paint would not react with the previous thinners used.
With the car now completely stripped to bare metal, ‘Fast Car' opted to have a complete VeilSide D1 GT body kit fitted. To help make the bodykit look flawless in appearance with smooth flowing lines we choose to bond the side skirts to the car and then extensively smooth them with filler to create a clean visual finish.
Whilst fitting the VeilSide bodykit, ‘Fast Car' also chose our own in-house manufactured headlight conversion kit to replace the pop-up lights originally fitted to the RX-7 to help bring the car up-to-date and provide an aggressive street look.
Once all the new panels where fitted in place, work then began ensuring that all the panel gaps were equal around the whole car before the first coats of primer were applied.
The car was now taking shape and ready for primer, the last thing to do to the body was to fill the original rear wing mounting holes and replace the old wing with a new carbon fibre VeilSide option mounted on aluminium pillars. Once the rear wing was in place with new holes drilled, we then removed all of the panels again to undertake the task of applying primer and then flatting down to provide a perfectly smooth basis so we could start adding the new paint.
After 4 coats of white primer, we then had to apply 2 coats of ‘House of Kolor' Silver Surfacer followed by 2 more coats of ‘House of Kolor' Silver Base Coat. The silver provides the key for the final ‘House of Kolor' Kandy coats to be applied which ensures a deep, glass like appearance.
Next we masked of the area down the side of the car which then received two coats of ‘House of Kolor' Pavo Violet.
After the violet paint application had dried in our spray bake oven we then removed all the masking and sprayed the entire car including over the top of the Pavo Violet coat with five coats of ‘House of Kolor' Tangerine Kandy.
By this point the RX-7 was being to look incredible and it was becoming easy to envisage how the completed job would look, but there was still a lot of painting to do before completion of the bodywork. ‘Fast Car' wanted a thin 5mm white pinstripe following the contours of the violet running down each side of the car so we lightly flattered the whole car and masked the 5mm pinstripe and used an airbrush to create the finished hard edged line.
After leaving for several hours to dry, all of the masking was removed and the freshly painted white line was lightly flattered down to soften the edges before the final application of clear lacquer could be sprayed over the entire car.
6 coats of clear lacquer were then applied in successions of 2 coats at a time with a break period for each one to settle to help prevent any runs in the lacquer.
To finish the paintwork, the whole car was then lightly flatted to remove any air contaminated debris that had fallen on the car during the lacquering process before finally buffing the paintwork to a brilliant shine with a compressed air compound mopping.
The engine bay area has also not escaped the spray gun and in the end we opted to gloss black the entire engine bay to show off the engine and contrasting exterior paintwork.
With the exterior nearing completed and only now requiring the addition of the ‘Juiced' graphics, we then had to find a set of wheels and tyres which would fully compliment the cars new lease of life. In the end a decision was made to fit 19” VeilSide Evolution 5 split rims shod in Yokahoma Parada Spec-2'S. 225/35ZR/19's on the front and 245/35ZR/19's respectively on the rear.
Please check back soon as we continue the rebuild and finishing of this project RX-7… More information to follow soon! |
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