Mazda, it should come as no surprise, doesn’t make the RX-7 anymore. It may again soon, if our prayers are answered, but until then, the chances of getting a factory-fresh rotary sports car are practically nil.
That would be enough to make the proposition presented here very tempting, but that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
As you can see, this is no ordinary RX-7. This is a rally machine, based on the second FD-generation model, built to compete under the FIA’s celebrated Group B regulations. It was one of 20 that Mazda originally set out to make, but after Group B was shut down in 1987, only seven had been made.
To make it even more tempting, it’s never even been driven – at least not competitively, at any rate. After the program was shuttered, this vehicle sat in Mazda’s European racing facility in Belgium until the company’s Swiss importer bought it along with a number of RX-7 chassis and parts in the early 1990s. It then disappeared into the obscurity of a private collection, but now it’s heading to the auction block.
RM Sotheby’s isn’t saying how much it expects the RX-7 Evo – likely the last in existence – to sell for at its London auction next month. But whatever the unpublished estimate, we could easily see a bidding war unfold between Wankel and Group B fanatics to set some kind of new record. Just look at the thing in the gallery of photographs by Rowan Horncastle for RM Sotheby’s.
Photo Gallery
