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August 3rd, 2004

Hey all, and welcome to another SRS car of the Week. I know, I know--some of you have been wondering why there was no update last week. It's been awhile since the feature on the EVO 7 went up, and you wonder what the hold up is.

Well I'll tell you. I finally got my Evo 8 RS (Cue sinister laughter) and took a little time off last week to enjoy it. Can you blame me?! The car is SICK! I had to baby it for the first 600 miles (no revving over 5000 is hard to do in an Evo) but now it's broken in and ready to go. I've had a stupid grin on my face ever since. No matter, I'll just put the blame on Ty. Somehow, this has to be his fault.

But this week we're not talking about EVO's. No, this week belongs to the RX-7. And this SRS car of the Week is not just any RX-7, but the ultimate RX-7. It is the final limited production series of the FD3S Chassis. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 2002 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A!

When Mazda decided to retire the JDM RX-7 in 2002, it wanted the car to go out with a bang. But how? How do you improve on a car many consider the perfect sports car? The Spirit R series was born to answer this question. Mazda wanted to make something special with the Spirit R, and as such, it was to be produced in extremely limited numbers. For those who had the means, the Spirit R could be ordered in one of three flavors.

The "Type A" was a lightweight, two-seat, five-speed close ratio manual. The purist's Type. The "Type B" was a roomier 4-seater that shared the transmission from the "Type A". The "Type C" was a slightly less potent Automatic version. (Both the Type A and Type B are drivable in SRS).

Powered by a version of Mazda's signature Wankel Double Rotary 13B power plant (13B R-EW R2) the Type A built on established engineering. It's longitudinally mounted engine was force fed air by intercooled-sequential twin turbo's that pushed up to 13 PSI of boost. That could get the rotors spinning up past the 8,000 rpm redline incredibly quickly and generated peak power of 280 PS @ 6,500 rpm. Torque was smooth and usable with 231.6 lb-ft peaking @ 5,000 rpm.

This rocketed the Type A from zero to sixty in just 4.5 seconds! The Quarter mile could be covered 14 seconds flat, and max speed was over 155 mph!! Mazda then added a Limited Slip Differential to the drive train to make the most of this power in the corners.

Like all JDM spec RX-7's the Spirit R's were right hand drive with an FR layout, but Mazda made quite a few special additions to the Spirit R Type A that improved it over previous RX-7's.

First off, the suspension was upgraded to more easily accommodate the power from the 13B, with Bilstein dampers and a custom front strut tower brace reinforcing the double wish bone set up, coil springs, and anti-roll bars. The brakes were improved as well with stainless mesh braided brake lines and massive drilled discs, gripped by powerful 4 piston front calipers that were painted red and proudly emblazoned with the MAZDA logo (a detail that can be seen in SRS).

Lightweight aluminum BBS RG-R, 17 inch, gun metal colored Rims featuring custom Mazda center caps replaced the standard RX-7 alloys, and were wrapped in sticky 235/45 ZR-17 tires up front and 255/40 ZR 17 at the rear. And to keep you from bouncing around the interior during hard cornering, 2 Exclusive Racing Seats were custom made for the Type A by Recaro in matching red fabric. In addition to support during hard driving, these lightweight seats also reduced the overall chassis weight of the Type A by 22 pounds. And to keep it all under control, exclusive Spirit R meters and gauges were added.

To complete the package, the brand new "Titanium Gray Metallic" Color was made available ONLY for Spirit R's, Optional custom Fog Lights were featured, and a never before seen ornamental badge featuring the Spirit R logo was added just aft of the side indicators. For 3,998,000 yen (about 40 grand at the time), the fortunate few got all this and the prestige of owning the Ultimate RX-7.

Since the Spirit R, the RX-7 has discontinued production, being replaced by the modern RX-8. If you've read the previous SRS Car of the Week coverage on the RX-8, you know that it's innovative, fast, and incredibly stylish while somehow remaining affordable. Not an easy feat. Still, many RX-7 enthusiasts felt that as superb as the RX-8 is, it's somehow not *quite* worthy to continue the legacy begun by the RX-7.

Well rumor has it that Mazda may be listening. There are whispers of the RX-7 returning to production in some form in the future. But rumors are just talk until the production line starts rolling. What you can be sure of, is that we love the RX-7 as much as you do. It shows in every detail we worked to get right in SRS, and I'll tell you this.

If Mazda does return with a new RX-7 in the future, we'll make sure to do everything we can to have it in future versions of SRS. Until then, enjoy the R1, Type R Bathurst, and Spirit R's in SRS. We do.