There was a first-gen Mazda RX-7 on Bring A Trailer recently. It had only 16,000 miles, a rare automatic transmission — and was located fewer than 15 miles from SCM World Headquarters in Portland, OR. I’ve always been attracted to these cars. Their lines are period-interesting, and the rotary engine is intriguing. It sold for $9,500. As much as I wanted to bid, buy and drive it home, voices of reason in the SCM offices prevailed. First of all, it was a two-seat sports coupe, and we have plenty of those. Second — and even more compelling — was that RX-7 […]
Keith’s Blog: Why I Didn’t Buy an RX-7
Keith Martin
Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 40 years, and is the founder and publisher of this magazine. Keith has also written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, has been an emcee for numerous concours, and had his own show, “What’s My Car Worth,” shown on Velocity. He has received many honors, including the Lee Iacocca Award, the Edward Herrmann Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame, and more. He has served on the board of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar’s Award. Learn more about Keith here.
3 responses to “Keith’s Blog: Why I Didn’t Buy an RX-7”
Well, I was super interested in your comment, as I was the actual buyer of the car.. 🙂 Our motivations were a little different.. This was one of the few new cars I wanted in High School.. and have been looking for years.. I’ll drive it 45 min to work, so Automatic is perfect.. No worries, I’ll likely put a couple hundred miles on it per year. If you are in Houston, I’ll be happy to share. – CandyMan Jim
Your Mazda comments reminded me of my late father-in-law. He was quite a character, retired career air force who started flying in 1933. When I first met my wife to be the family fleet consisted of 4 vws. Shortly thereafter he became interested in Mazdas and rotary engines. He owned the first Mazda to be licensed in Illinois and had a difficult time getting it titled as they based the licensing on engine displacement and couldn’t believe it only had 11 cubic inches. His last Mazda was a ’79 Fly yellow RX7. He was a believer in Italian tune-ups and was stopped by an Illinois Trooper for driving 80 mph. He said the trooper lectured him about driving that fast at his age. He told me it was a good thing the trooper hadn’t stopped him a mile or so before as he was doing 110. Glad your recovery is progressing.
I was a first owner of a 1982 RX-7 GS first-gen for 28 1/2 years and drove 118,550 miles on it mostly with a smile. I had a lot of positive comments while I owned her. Two years later, I bought my first Corvette.