A beautiful but abandoned Mazda RX-7 sports car, seen inside a compound in Shunyi District in north Beijing in 2016, not far from a Saturn SL sedan. The Mazda was sadly in a pretty bad shape, loaded with dust and dirt and with lots of damage to the bodywork. The old blue 辽·A license plate of of northeastern Liaoning Province.
The third generation ‘FD’ Mazda RX-7 was manufactured from 1991 until 2002 with various updates in between. Our Beijing car is a so called “Series 6” example, which is actually the earliest variant of the FD RX7, made from 1991 until 1995.
The 3d generation Mazda RX7 was not officially sold in China, but some cars arrived via the gray market, smuggle, and other misty channels. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s it was pretty common for car owners to leave their subsequent insurance stickers on their windshield. I did that too with my Beijing-Jeep. The insurance stickers on the RX-7 date back to 1997, indicating is was first registered in that year.
The interior was in a sad shape too, although not as bad as the outside. Beige leather seats look classy, especially in combination with the black leather detailing on and around the center tunnel.
The Mazda RX-7 was powered by a somewhat bizarre twin-turbocharged 1.3 liter rotary engine. Output during the Series 6 production run was 252 hp and 294 Nm. The engine was mated to a 4-speed automatic, as in this car, or a 5-speed manual.
I have a thing for window stickers related to alarm systems of any kind. Most stickers refer either to a alarm system protecting the entire car or to an alarm system protecting the stereo. The image on this sticker falls in the second category, clearly showing a radio.
Like in many other cities, including Beijing, blue A license plates were issued to the earliest privately registered cars. In China, private ownership of vehicles of any kind only took off in the early 1990’s. The numbering started with A·0001 and then further, so this RX-7 was one of the very early ones. The license plate area is too large for the Chinese plate, a typical sign of an unofficially imported car.
Even at the time in 2016 it looked like the Mazda RX-7 was beyond salvation, so I fear it ain’t around anymore today. Too bad, as it was a special car, and certainly so in China where these Japanse sports cars are very rare.