24 cars blue sky: Junkyard Find: 1979 Mazda RX-7

06 - 1979 Mazda RX-7 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin First-gen Mazda RX-7s aren't difficult to find in self-service wrecking yards (we just saw this '80 with Flashdance-grade custom paint and this fairly solid '85), and so most of them don't make it into this series. During my recent trip to California for the biggest 24 Hours of LeMons race in history, I stopped at one of my favorite East Bay wrecking yards and found this utterly rust-free example of one of the few bright spots of the Malaise Era.
02 - 1979 Mazda RX-7 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Somebody has grabbed the complete dash, but the no-doubt-Quaalude-saturated driver's seat is still present.
09 - 1979 Mazda RX-7 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin The 12A engine made just 100 horsepower in '79, but that was pretty serious stuff at the time (keep in mind that the most powerful engine you could get in the '79 Corvette made just 225 horsepower, and that the RX-7 of this period weighed less than 2,500 pounds). Sure, your grandma's 11-year-old four-cylinder Camry will beat a '79 RX-7 in a drag race, but the Malaise Era had different standards for cars.
07 - 1979 Mazda RX-7 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin You don't often see gas struts on junkyard cars that still work— someone will buy these for sure!