Uh ... yeah ... no thanks.

Yes, $5K seems like a lot of money. I’m a little more philosophical about this amount - partly because there are practical limits to how much “wrenching time” I have available. If this was a vehicle I still enjoyed owning, then I’d probably be willing to spend it.

Uh ... no ... as in the Datsun F10 ... one of their odder creations in the late 70s.  Almost as awful to drive as they looked. 

This thing was a mistake from the day someone took a sawzall to a Murano and presented the result to the Nissan board.

That isn’t so much a century-old engine starting up as the gates of hades being opened ... 

It’s a very reasonable response to the fact that the shape of a fuel tank being what it is, the last 1/4 of the tank is actually a much smaller volume than the first 3/4.  

On trips to South America in the 90s, I saw tons of these rolling around - although slightly newer versions - I’ve only ever seen one or two with the round headlights at all.

This doesn’t even achieve “No Dice” levels of consideration.

Happy to hear it.

The price is steep for a car with a questionable reliability history in general.

The first gen RX-7s were only slightly more common here than the Opel GTs. It was the car that saved Mazda’s ass after a gruelling series of near-bankruptcy experiences.

NP - the price might be a little high, but *shrug* - it’s a nice specimen in good shape with no seeming surprises lurking in the way. 

Oh man ... so many aspects to this that I want to address.

Drive it until it drops territory. When it does fail catastrophically, sell it off as parts.

My favourite laugh on this one will always be the Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen, where a sizable % came out of the factory with the lenses mounted backwards, so the amber lens was the brake ...

The “go kart” looks like a 4 wheel death trap. I wouldn’t trust the cage welding or design any further than I can toss it.

Probably.  I haven’t looked at them in some decades - the ones I’m talking about were common in the 80s, I don’t know what the tech looks like today. 

IIRC, this got regulated out of existence once it became known that raising the rear of the car played havoc with steering geometry. Pretty much restricted to drag racing now, I think.  

Glass Packs were (are) basically a tube filled with fibreglass.  On paper they’re a legitimate muffler, in practice, the exhaust pressure eventually bores a hole through the fibreglass (or blows the fibreglass right out), making a straight through exhaust.  Popular in the 70s and 80s to sidestep prohibitions on…

Re: 3rd Gear