Over the weekend, a Mazda RX-7 hoarder’s treasure trove was unearthed and shown to the world. Owned by an FD3S enthusiast from Kansas who’d recently passed away, the collection was purchased by an Oklahoma man named Lucas Fletcher who began posting photos of the stash on Facebook and blowing the minds of many a Mazdafarian.
According to Jalopnik, Fletcher himself is not an RX-7 fan. Instead, he’s an avid collector of the FD’s contemporary rival, the Z32 Nissan 300ZX (he purchased no less than nine Z32s in 2020). However, when he heard through the grapevine that there was an interesting collection of FD cars and parts for sale, he had to take a look.
After driving to Derby, Kansas he saw the two cars and storage unit for himself. Though the cars were complete, they showed signs of years-long neglect. But what was even more spectacular was the storage unit of parts, which contained a stockpile of JDM parts. Though Fletcher wasn’t as familiar with RX-7s as he was with Zs, he recognized that it was an arsenal of hard to obtain bits. He immediately bought the whole shebang for $15,000, cars and all.
After posting photos on social media, Fletcher caught the attention of RX-7 enthusiasts, and realized that the collection was worth anywhere from $50,000 to $85,000. Now he’s carefully cataloging all the parts and taking a breather before deciding what and how to sell what’s left.
From what we can see from images, the cache contains a slew of rarities — everything from steering wheels to entire body kits for just about every high end trim level of FD from Japan. It includes sought-after bits from the Type RZ, Spirit R, Mazdaspeed, and RE Amemiya. There are several sets of wheels from Mazdaspeed, Rays, and Work, and multiple pairs of racing seats, including a set of Spirit R Recaros that Fletcher has already sold for $7,000.
It’s an amazing collection to be sure, but our feelings on it are a bit mixed. Hoarding is a sickness, and it’s sad that someone with a compulsive obsession to accumulate rare parts was never able to enjoy them before passing away. Fletcher told Jalopnik that one receipt showed the collector spent $9,000 to ship over a full Amemiya body kit a couple of months before he died. It’s also sad that his family would fire sale his life’s work for peanuts (though we want to be clear we aren’t blaming Fletcher for anything. Who among us wouldn’t do the same in his shoes?).
On the other side of the coin, what’s the endgame for these parts once they’re sold off? A US-spec RX-7 with the entire Mazdaspeed A-spec or GT-C kit is certainly impressive but it almost seems pointless to convert several USDM RX-7s into partial Spirit R or Type RZ clones, especially when the supply of good-condition FDs here is already scarce and early RZs eligible for import.
In any case, these parts were already pretty much unobtainium even before FD prices began shooting skyward in recent years. We hope the parts find good homes, just as we hope the remaining well-kept RX-7s out there do as well. If you’re interested in the parts, take a look at the Facebook group Fletcher has created about the find, called RX-7 FD and Honey Hole Sale.
Images: Facebook/Lucas Fletcher
Nice find, get it on eBay, share the love, stop hoarding.
Sorry for the family, they should’ve been smarter about the sale. 15k covers the freight bill for one body kit and a few parts and the rest they gave away.
One of those third party Yahoo Japan auctions companies just lost a really good customer.
Put yourself in their shoes, they have to deal with the probably sudden passing of the owner and nobody would have the time & mood to handle all these car parts especially if they aren’t car people. They might be looking to sell the house so they need to clear the storage as soon as they can. They probably know these stuff ain’t cheap unless the guy went total silence about his collection, but the house or other estate he left behind are probably worth more (they assume). $15000 for all the parts plus 2 complete FD is a daylight robbery and it’s definitely worth more than $80k.
I assume he only had 2 FDs, and the part i felt disappointed is the parts weren’t used on these 2 cars. Maybe the owner did not have the energy or strength to work on the car, or maybe he just enjoy collecting the parts?
Anyway kudos for Fletcher, if it wasn’t him, it’d probably be someone else.
Personally the endgame does not matter. I just want the parts to be used and enjoyed.
Tons of cool parts.
When I saw the F/S posts on FB… I couldn’t believe it.
I figured that most of the stuff was gotten from JDM cars that were imported and parted out.
Condolences to a fallen Mazda Rotor head.
I think different people have different ways of expressing their love of a particular car. Some people become expert tuners and create ever wilder mechanical variations (Rob Dahm), others take as much pride in restoring their car to exact factory spec. Some people take to the circuit or drag strip, others want to go to shows or meets. Some people end up with a collection of different examples of the same brand (Walter Frey), others collect rare and special parts, as here. As others have said, as long as the parts are put to good use now, it’s all good to me.
I love my FD, and I feel the focus on rare parts or models is mainly for show value. Mazda didn’t really build any ‘weak’ or ‘soft’ FDs; every one packs the sequential turbo rotary, the forged wishbones, the perfectly poised balance that makes it such a fantastic drivers’ car. From there you just want a few well-judged mods to ensure it keeps its cool when pushed, optionally a map to get the punchiest response – and then make sure everything else is well-maintained – bushes, turbo control hoses etc.
If you want to mod further there’s plenty of widely available parts, whether it’s bigger wheels/brakes, coilovers, body kits, single turbo etc. I don’t think there’s one single definitive ‘look’ for the FD, since they weren’t really raced officially, just lots of varied flavours. Rare parts may win internet points, but they won’t make your car drive any better than many of the more readily available alternatives.
I’m glad the finder is co-ordinating advertising these and selling them, should ensure they go to good homes and get put to good use. Personally I’d recommend Lucas take this opportunity to get himself into a good condition FD and drive it for a few months, he may enjoy the feel of the ~250kg weight saving over his Z32s 🙂