FD3S is less than 5 seconds and reliable according to Canadian Driver

[raceready68]

They are very simple. Change your oil, change your plugs, do not over heat it and you will be in good shape.

The only people that seem to have issues are people that cheeped out and bought a shit bagged car that was never cared for or people that have no common sence. I sold this kid one of the first FDs that came in years ago. He calls me asking me what this buzzing noise is. I say what your temp gauge at he says its pinned and flashing and the greddy temp gauge is pinned and flashing I am like what the hell are you doing he says sitting in rush hour traffic with the a/c on. My reply was crank your fucking heater and pray you did not fuck your engine. Turns out it was fine but what the hell. I told him to watch his temp gauges. Who the hell uses A/C in a Rotary

[Braden]

Haha, wow. I think it's people like that that gives them a bad name, then he goes online and says he was just sitting in traffic and his engine blew up (luckily it didn't) then all the people that read it think "yeah rx7's like to blow up for no reason" then yadda yadda yadda.

Don't the factory temperature gauges really only say three things? Needle bottomed out is "Your engine is cold, don't rev me", middle is "your engine is warmed up" then when the buzzer goes and the needle moves a little bit from the middle is "your engine is dead". After market coolant temp gauge is useful I think.

[Pacman]

The problem with rotary is every time you keep modding it, the car needs tunning attention. It's not a honda, that you just slap on any mods and you're good to go. You have to monitor your oil more frequent than any other cars. The rebuilt is more like from 3500-55500, it all depends if you want stock rebuilt or a bit more aggressive rebuilt like porting jobs, unless the seals don't chew any of these, housings, rotors, or turbos. Then it's a nigtmare, you should start chopping your arms, legs, or sell crack for a new rebuilt and turbo!

Has any body seen this video: http://www.vimeo.com/5319487

[Kingsoup]

I have read a lot on FD3s, of course who hasn't? so wonderful...it all says that if you leave it nearly stock it will be reliable, but mod it even a little bit and KABOOM! 1000$ for just the parts to rebuild it, just PARTS!
Although that was a few years back.. looks like its still the same!
So good looking, so balanced!

[raceready68]

Modding it does not make it any less reliable you just have to make sure you have the proper suporting mods and your tune is good.

[FtGF]

These are nice cars and yes can live long healthy lives but not matter what anyone says these are not like any other Japanese car maintenance wise. Anyone can kid themselves and say "my friends lasted for 10000000000000000000km before anything went wrong" Well he is the only one. No one who tracks these or drives them hard will every say anything other then you have to baby it like your first born and you will not beat on it even close to a Subaru,Nissan,Toyota,Honda out there with out some serious maintenance and repairs. I was thinking of one of these badboys for the track they are actually cheaper then ITRs at auction. I was steered away by everyone possible even FD owners. You really have to love these cars to put in the time and money. They are amazing but you can build great cars with out the worries else where. You want to drive it nice and easy sure it might be reliable but then what is the point? The reputation might be overblown sure I don't own one but then again it didn't spring out of no where and a lot of performance shops do not recommend for track cars unless you have a lot of money to throw down so who knows. Someone buy one beat the shit of it and report back.

[Braden]

These are nice cars and yes can live long healthy lives but not matter what anyone says these are not like any other Japanese car maintenance wise. Anyone can kid themselves and say "my friends lasted for 10000000000000000000km before anything went wrong" Well he is the only one. No one who tracks these or drives them hard will every say anything other then you have to baby it like your first born and you will not beat on it even close to a Subaru,Nissan,Toyota,Honda out there with out some serious maintenance and repairs. I was thinking of one of these badboys for the track they are actually cheaper then ITRs at auction. I was steered away by everyone possible even FD owners. You really have to love these cars to put in the time and money. They are amazing but you can build great cars with out the worries else where.
You want to drive it nice and easy sure it might be reliable but then what is the point? The reputation might be overblown sure I don't own one but then again it didn't spring out of no where and a lot of performance shops do not recommend for track cars unless you have a lot of money to throw down so who knows. Someone buy one beat the shit of it and report back.

I agree with you on the first part, but you keep forgetting, hardly anyone tracks their cars on this board, I can probably count on one hand, the rest use them for fun cars to get from point a to b and to baby them/hardpark Definitely not a car for someone that wants to use the cars what they are meant for and doesn't want to spend a LOT on maintenance and repairs however. A lot of other suitable track cars out there. A backup car is probably smart when you own one too.

[thebisnac]

Modding it does not make it any less reliable you just have to make sure you have the proper suporting mods and your tune is good.

You sir, are wrong 100%

My Rx7 is well over 500 whp, I have not cheaped out on one thing. At this point my reciepts are over 60k for what I've put into it. No matter what, they still are not reliable. There are just catastrophic failures that can happen, even if you are tuned amazingly. I have a dyno around the corner from me, so I get out there a few times a year, always making sure things are exactly as they should be.
Being that my first engine lasted 6k. This second engine lasted 14k. Now I'm onto my 3rd.
Keeping it stock will be as reliable as you can get. As soon as you switch up to a large single, reliability starts going out the window, unless you are running like 7psi and 300whp.
With my last engine the seals let go in the turbo, basically making all the oil blow by, in turn making the oil pressure in my engine go to nothing, thus dropping a bearing and screwing my engine, and my turbo. First engine i cracked an apex seal at the track. 100% tuned, never had an issue before.

Someone buy one beat the shit of it and report back.

Mine gets a fair beating, and every day you just hope things don't let go. If it does, oh well, thats what I have come to expect with the 7. Have to always have a good chunk of change in the bank account ready to put back into the car.

Like someone already said, You have to baby these cars, they are not your hondas and nissans that you think are your red headed step child that you can just beat on all day.

[koalorka]

Wow, I never realize the Wankel engine was that volatile, this thread is an eye-opener.

I guess that's to be expected in an engineering niche high performance product.

[Brodie69]

Drop a V8 in it... Seems to be the common solution for these cars haha