The FD3S is the RX-7 most people picture: a rounded, low, pop-up-headlight coupé launched in October 1991 around the 13B-REW, the first mass-produced sequential twin-turbo engine exported from Japan.[1] Mazda sold it in North America for only four model years, 1993 to 1995, before weak demand and a strong yen ended US imports; production continued in Japan, progressively lighter and more powerful in its final Series 8 Type RS form, until 2002.
Japanese-market output was effectively capped at 280 PS across the industry’s self-imposed 206 kW (280 PS) gentlemen’s agreement, which is why the car’s peak figures barely moved across a decade of otherwise continuous development; later cars got lighter and better cooled instead of outright more powerful. The limited-edition “Spirit R” of 2000–2002, the very last cars built, is not broken out as its own trim here because the source does not give it a separate power figure from the Type RS it was based on.
