R33 Gtr Or Series 8 Rx7?

[jetblack]

hi guys,

I've previously had 32/33/34 gtt, soarer tt also a supra tt,

they have all been great reliable daily cars, my recent couple of rides have been euro (a4 turbo & c200k) which are nice have started to get bored of them also maintenance is pretty pricey

so im looking at getting back into a jap import again.

with my budget ive narrowed it down between r33 gtr or a series 8 rx7, both cars will be left pretty stock as it will used as my everyday car to get to work.

im leaning towards the r33 gtr because of the reliabilty/fuel consumption, but are the rx7's as bad as all the stories ive heard? can they be driven daily? i know the 13b will never be as bulletproof as the rb26, but can it be used reliably if kept stock?

is there someone out there that has owned these two cars give any advice?

thanks

[marc280]

I can't say I've actually owned both of these cars, so don't know how much help I can be, but I have driven both... To me it would be more of a question of a difference in driving style and your preferences. If you've already owned a Supra, Soarer and gtt then you'll obviously be fairly used to a powerful and torquey (spelling?) engine. I found for me that the rotary just didn't 'feel' right in the way it drove to me. My main suggestion would be to try to go and test drive each one and see what you think...

[gurumaster22]

If you plan to keep the car fairly stock, there is no reason either would not be reliable as a daily.

I'm personally not the biggest rotary fan, so my choice would be the R33.

But as marc280 said, it has abit to do with the driving style of each too. I do prefer the low down power a piston engine gives.

I do enjoy driving the RX-7 (friend of mine has a series 6), but I love my skylines more.

When it comes down to choosing a daily driver, you have to look at it from a few angles. Obviously it has to be comfortable to drive no matter what the traffic conditions. Also fuel consumption can play a factor.... You are driving it everyday, and the costs can add up.

The bottom line is you need to be happy stepping into it day in, day out.

Cheers,

Alex

[paulR32gtr]

^ as with any car that is well maintained both will be reliable cars in stock form - you would want to make sure you pick a good example of either hey to avoid problems.

What sort of roads / traffic do you have to contend with on the way to/from work?

Back when I was driving my GTR to work every day I felt like I was killing the poor thing in stop start traffic for no good reason - when it should have been saved for the open road or a racetrack. Fuel consumption is pretty heavy as well.

Couldn't comment on the Rx7 but my philosophy these days is something a little more pedestrian for a daily driver, and if you have the space and the budget a GTR in the garage for the weekend / racetrack!

[jetblack]

i have driven both cars, and love them both as much as each other.

i love the looks and the handling of the rx7 but have heard they have reliablity isssues and suck down a lot more fuel than a piston engine. thats why im leaning towards the r33 gtr.

i used to use my supra everyday and that was one of the most reliable and relatively economical to run for the power it had 230rwkw and got 550kms per tank if driven nicely.

i dont have the parking space to have 2 cars, so i need to choose just one

my drive to work is a mix of freeway and city driving,

thanks for your input guys

Edited September 5, 2009 by jetblack

[Brandon]

Theres f all fuel economy if you cant control your right foot well. When I drive sensibly, I'll get around 450km per full tank but on average around 100km per bar on the fuel gauge. Having said that, my fuel economy didnt drop much after tuning from 165awkw to 255awkw which I'm very impressed. Get the 33 unless you 've got the money to rebuild the rotary when the time comes.

[R33_NICK]

no matter how sensible you drive on a rotary, you'll still struggle to get more than 20mpg. plus, the RB26DETT is more reliable than the 13B and the moment you get above 50,000kms on a rotary, you've got to put some money aside for a rebuild just in case it lets go plus again, you wouldnt know whats the history of its 50,000km life. the R33 GTR is still better no matter how you look at it: 4WD, twin turbos as well, bigger space in the boot, has back seats and if your worried about the authorities or you prefer sleeper mods, the R33 GTR attracts less attention compared to the RX7 (seeing as how some people thinks the R33 styling is bland but functional). oh and you have the bragging rights as well: the R33 GTR is the first production car to go round the Nurburgring in under 8 minutes back then.

Edited September 5, 2009 by R33_NICK

[ARTZ]

This should be in my stupid question thread, anything with an RB series engine all the way ... good power great reliability reasonable/good petrol economy and any half arsed backyard mechanic can fix em...rotaries are a pain in the preverbial butthole. Not to mention bloody expensive. Can be great when and if they work but are rubbish when they dont most sound horrible, and they drink more petrol than most v8s ..Id rather drive a busted VL anyday...

Plus if you have to ask your on the wrong website i do believe this is SAU

Useless facts>>> how many have seen this b4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Roadpacer

Who woulda thunk it

[GTR-N1]

You must be still interested in performance then, looking at these two?

When I had my R33 GT-R (and a smile that I couldn't get off my face) for exactly one week, I'd come up behind a late RX7 at the lights. We went gently down the mountain till after the Valley Hts speed camera, and then he took off. I was still a noob with GTRs, so I just tailed him (-made him sweat). His tail came out on the left hand sweeper just before the Warrimoo bridge - and went backwards onto the divider. But with my adrenalin pumping, I cannot remember if he took a tight line or not. Never mind.

Daily in peak hour traffic?

I think it depends on clutch operation too. If they're both stock, I wouldn't mind either car.

Fuel?

I'd choose the GT-R.

Maintenance?

I don't know sorry...

[Whoneedstherapy]

I just went through the a similar decision, although the Series 8 was only one of the contenders in the field. I had to get a daily driver that can cop some of the major traffic laden sydney roads day in day out without being a pain in the ass in any way and most importantly considering the hours im going to spend in it, i have to want to get in it and spend time in it.

At the end of the day i'm a Nissan lad at heart so i may have been a tad biased but the slightly bigger interior in the whale, bigger boot and my experience with them before won the day over. I had a friend of mine that clocked up 300,000kms on his lightly modded GTR before there were any issue's with it engine wise.

I'd reccomend testing both before you pull the trigger, get comfy in them because for me personally, i know there will be days where i'm pissed off with a great number of things let alone traffic and having a vehicle that add's to it is just ludicrous.

For something completely irrelevant i looked at about 20-30 different vehicles and my top 5 ended up as the following: R33 GTR, FPV F6, E46 M3, STI, R34 GTT 4 door.

[Brandon]

You must be still interested in performance then, looking at these two?

When I had my R33 GT-R (and a smile that I couldn't get off my face) for exactly one week, I'd come up behind a late RX7 at the lights. We went gently down the mountain till after the Valley Hts speed camera, and then he took off. I was still a noob with GTRs, so I just tailed him (-made him sweat). His tail came out on the left hand sweeper just before the Warrimoo bridge - and went backwards onto the divider. But with my adrenalin pumping, I cannot remember if he took a tight line or not. Never mind.

Daily in peak hour traffic?

I think it depends on clutch operation too. If they're both stock, I wouldn't mind either car.

Fuel?

I'd choose the GT-R.

Maintenance?

I don't know sorry...

I love my 33 too but wasnt overly impressed by it when I 1st bought it. After owning it for a few months, I suppose the good thing about rb26 is they're great for mods and has higher potential that other engines (stronger?). But yes I'm very happy with it now after tuning.

[KezR33]

Get the rotary. They're sexy on wheels, something different and still RWD which it looks like you're used to.

[GUN_METAL_GTR32]

ur comparing a boat to a jet fighter here buddy

the rx7 is a perfect sports car light and nimble, go kart style handling and a 50/50 weight ratio. plus there r far and few between in comparison to the r33.

in terms of maintainance it could go either way with 33' s having oil problems leading to needing rebuilds and 13b have apex seal (amongst other) problems which would require a rebuild. if u were to leave it standard there are basic preventative maintainance mods that u could do with both to make them more reliable.

looks wise the rx7 has it all the way. it has a sex appeal that the 33 will never be able to achieve lol

[BASHO]

Had a Ser5 FC3C Rx7 with 50000klms, stocky, drank fuel like a drunken sailor, cost me an engine rebuild $7500.00 + a shit load of other stuff because of piss ant 2 bob o seals & corroded rotor housings to say nothing of a warranty court battle that went on till god was an octiginarian (I won but still lost) was nice-ish when it was going, never had a rotary before, never will again.

Got a R334GTT stocky except exhy and 25mm lowering, suites me perfectly good fuel, good get up, may tickle it a little.

Had a couple of 00 WRX's obvously AWD point and shoot , the 34 is more fun to drive, if you're thinking AWD why not give a couple of WRX STI's a belt and see what you think, the price would be maybe about what you're looking at and you can belt the crap out of them without them breaking, go for the 2ltr ones prior 05/06 they have forgy guts in them OE. stock 0-100 about 5.4 from memory around 180/190kws AAF.

[heller44]

Oil problems? My motor is approximately 20yrs old this year, no oil mods to be found and still with the narrow crank drive. Maybe if you are bashing the thing or racing it may be an issue, but the '26 isn't as fragile as it is made out to be.

Edited September 6, 2009 by heller44

[R33_NICK]

its true that RB26DETTs have oil problems like too much oil gets to the head and drains pretty slow to the sump but that only becomes an issue when you are making big power which by then you would be doing a rebuild but when you are doing moderate modifications, thats not an issue at all. the RB26 is stronger than the 13B even as it gets old and its easier to replace an oil pump( you can also DIY) than to take a rotary apart (not so DIY unless you know what your doing) to replace the apex seals and pay too much(as BASHO said $7500 or more).

[CARSICK]

"...reliable if kept stock?"

Yep, not a hint of trouble. Just try to not over-rev it at max throttle.

Can get arond the 'Ring quicker than the RX-7 too.

[brodie7]

asking a question like this is on a skyline forum was always going to be a bit dodgey.

i bet if you asked the same question on a rx7 forum their wouldnt be one person who said grab the r33.

im not sure why their are so many people against the rx7? we are currently running a series 6 as a race car atm, and so far its been great. Only needs a rebuild once every 2 years and this is pushing out 320kilowatts at the wheels and its still using standard gearbox. Our last rebuild we got only cost about 3 grand and this was with pts seals and some slight porting.

sounds pretty damn reasonble to me since all of the skylines we are racing atm are needing a rebuild a year and its pretty damn pricey since they are all needing forged shizz to keep their power output anywhere near ours.

although im a nissan fan so it definatly makes it hard, for around town i dont think you could go past the rx7, slightly sharper handling perfectly balanced, very light and also being so small will making parking easier.

r33 will be a bit better on fuel, will be alot more resonsive, but it is going to twice as big a car.

[brodie7]

asking a question like this is on a skyline forum was always going to be a bit dodgey.

i bet if you asked the same question on a rx7 forum their wouldnt be one person who said grab the r33.

im not sure why their are so many people against the rx7? we are currently running a series 6 as a race car atm, and so far its been great. Only needs a rebuild once every 2 years and this is pushing out 320kilowatts at the wheels and its still using standard gearbox. Our last rebuild we got only cost about 3 grand and this was with pts seals and some slight porting.

sounds pretty damn reasonble to me since all of the skylines we are racing atm are needing a rebuild a year and its pretty damn pricey since they are all needing forged shizz to keep their power output anywhere near ours.

although im a nissan fan so it definatly makes it hard, for around town i dont think you could go past the rx7, slightly sharper handling perfectly balanced, very light and also being so small will making parking easier.

r33 will be a bit better on fuel, will be alot more resonsive, but it is going to twice as big a car.

[SexycanI]

i have a rx7 s8 its as long as you take care of the rotary then it will not let down on you

make sure its always kept cool and it should be fine, I myself am thinking of a GTR34 but im still inlove with the rx7 cause it just feels like a gokart, but fuel is sometimes a issue