| Author |
 Topic  |
|
MaTT869911
USA
243 Posts |
 Posted - February 01 2003 : 12:24:06 AM
humm.. weird idea.. i was driving down the road today and i saw a really nice 3rd gen Mazda RX-7... and then i saw a really ugly Mint green Ford probe (no offense to anyone out ther ewho might own a mint green probe)... then it hit me... could there be a kit for the probe to turn it into the RX style, there would be a ton of advantages...
1) REALLY easy to work on ... dont have to worry about finding a Mazda Rotory engine expert
2) RX-7s expected life is only 50-100k miles until ya have to rebuild or buy a new engine
3) insurance
4) about 10-15k between the carsI always wanted a RX-7... but the more i looked into them the more unattractive it was under the hood... mazda even admited it was supose to be a street-legal race car... and not to be driven but on weekends, not by teenagers every day at school. granted you wouldnt get the HP and less weight like you would with a REAL RX but still, take of the probe body and add a fiberglass kit body, its got to be soem change...
anyway what do you guys think? has it been done? or anyone willing to try? thanks
Matt "can we build it? yes we can!" "when in trouble, when in doubt... run in circles scream and shout" |
wedgedriver
USA
72 Posts |
Posted - February 01 2003 : 08:45:50 AM
it would cost less to buy a used rx7. by the time you had built the probe to be anything close to the rx7 it would need $10-15k
ha!
|
stephenbl
64 Posts |
Posted - February 01 2003 : 09:22:59 AM
Original third gen RX-7's are easy to find in the low teens...I had a chance to buy one for 13K last year. The biggest problems with the cars are reliability, and not from the engines...I had a second gen for years, and stacked up 175,000 miles on the original engine, and never had to open the engine. It wasn't a turbo, though. The engines in the 3rd gen are the same as the second, so the same reliability should be expected. The problem with the 3rd gen rx-7's is mainly the turbos. The turbos from Mazda are junk, and are VERY expensive to repair/replace (about 5k). Most people, when their turbos go out, replace them with aftermarket turbos...Garret turbos, etc. Going this route does away with the turbo problem...the aftermarket turbos are much more reliable, and produce more hp.Basically, there wouldn't any gain...you'd have more money in a replica, and wouldn't have the performance. BTW, I also owned a Probe, and that car was a piece of junk...I bought it with 30,000 miles, owned it for a a little over a year. After repairing it constantly, I sold it with 50,000 miles, and it needed an engine. It was smoking horribly, and I never abused the car, and maintained it religiously. So, in my opinion, you wouldn't be gaining any reliability either. If you're dead set on owning one, and don't want the rotary, buy a 3rd gen with a blown engine, and transplant another engine into it...it'd be a LOT easier than making a kit of one. Just my opinion.
|
|
(19 views)
Mazda RX-7 - Ford Probe
