The Mazda RX7 vs The Nurburgring
A digital test drive...
I recently wrote a lengthy article extolling the virtues of the Mazda RX7. It was something of a 40th birthday present for the car and it pretty much went viral! Within a week I'd had nearly 45,000 views!
The thing is though. Despite being a huge fan of the RX7, I have never actually been in one, let alone driven one!
This is in mind, I decided I HAD to experience the magic for myself. I had to take an RX7 for a spin. Unfortunately, getting hold of an unmodified RX7 is tough. They are about as rare as episodes of Top Gear where Clarkson doesn't offend anyone. Yes, they exist - but there are NOT many!
There are currently just 3 RX7's on the Autotrader!
Image source:- https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertising-location=at_cars&search-target=usedcars&is-quick-search=true&radius=&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&make=MAZDA&model=RX-7&price-search-type=total-price&price-from=&price-to=
You can check them out here.
I actually like the UK car with 56k on it - I could almost be tempted!
Ultimately though, I'm not in the market for a car at the moment, and if I was, my wife would probably make me get a 4 seater. So what do I do?
Well continuing my series of Nurburgring themed posts, I thought - why not buy a digital one and take it for a spin around the 'Green Hell'?
Now my previous exploits on this track didn't go so well. I made my first attempts to conquer 'The Ring' in a ridiculously modified Jaguar, which I now refer to as either 'The Widowmaker' or 'Satan's D-Type'. If you like watching crash footage you can check that out here:-
In the interest of deciding if I really DO fancy getting a 911, as Mr. James May suggested I should - I decided to repeat this with a lap of the Nordschlieffe in a 911. That didn't go well either. During both of these laps, I ended up Hammonding off multiple times and eventually Hammonding into a barrier at 200 mph in the 911!
So when I decided to attempt a lap in a 237 bhp Mazda RX7, expectations weren't too high. I'll admit, the first attempt didn't go great. I ended up having a couple of minor Hammonds during the first few kilometres, then Hammonding into the gravel really badly towards the mid-point. However, I did feel like the car was really balanced and controllable. I honestly felt that the RX7 was a car I could put a really good lap in with. So I had another go. Here's how it went:-
My 9:46 Lap of the Nordschlieffe in an RX7
I appreciate there were a couple of times when I nearly hammonded off there. I was pushing it though! All in all, I was actually pretty pleased with this lap. I put in a clean 9:46 in a car which I'm not all that familiar with.
I say not all that familiar with, because it DOES feel a lot like an MX5, but made even more MX5'ee. It's light, it's agile, it turns in sharply. It just feels like a really controllable car. (Unlike Satan's D-Type which feels more, UNCONTROLLABLE!) I can see why the RX7 is such a popular drift car. It almost drifts itself.
At several points during the lap, I found my tail slowly kicking out. A little blip of the throttle and a touch of counter-steer and it's back though.
The bottom line is, I managed to lap the Nordschlieffe in 9:46, in a stock RX7. That's not a bridge to gantry time, that's a lap time. I couldn't achieve that time in the 1350 BHP Monster that is Satan's D-Type. It just goes to show, a light car with good brakes, grip and handling can be faster than a fire breathing monster with five times the horsepower!
So what do you think? Could you beat my Nordschlieffe lap time in a stock RX7?
Martyn Stanley
#Nurburgring #Story #Gaming #Mazda #MazdaRX7 #RX7 #Forza #ForzaMotorSport
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Comments (5)
I set a Nordschleife lap with a stock automatic RX7 with 251 hp and got 8:43.588 despite messing up a few
times and weighing 1300kg
Well done! That's impressive.
Thank You.
Hi congratulations - your post has been selected by DriveTribe Gaming Ambassador for promotion on the DriveTribe homepage.
Thanks I appreciate it! :)