Street Racing & Kill Stories - Ran a car I've never seen before: Mazda 323 GTX

The other night we were cruising in my friend's CTS-V and as we passed this little red hatch my friend pointed the car out and said he didn't remember much about the car, but he knew the owner and it was a pretty rare turbo Mazda that was based on a rally car. The guy got on it next to us and it looked like it moved out pretty good so I mentioned to my friend that it would be cool to run it in the G8 on motor.

Yesterday I get a text saying that the guy with the Mazda is down for some runs, so I meet up with him at the local hangout last night.

Real nice guy and he told me about the car before we ran:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu330/ScreaminRedZ/1988Mazda323GTX001.jpg

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu330/ScreaminRedZ/1988Mazda323GTX002.jpg

The car is a 1988 Mazda 323 GTX and they only made 1243 of them, which is probably why I've never seen one before. They are AWD and come turbo, but stock only make 132 hp. He said it's hard to find parts for them and most of what he's done to it he's had to convert from other cars. He's running a GT2871R turbo (not sure how much boost) and said it put down 249 awhp. I'm sure it could make more, but he said the transmission is the weak point and last time it broke, it took him 6 months to find a replacement.

My car makes 348 rwhp and 360 rwtq on motor.

He said he was down for some fun, so I told him to pick the starting speed. I would have loved to run him from a dig, but I didn't want him to break anything over a friendly race. He said 40 mph was good, and we headed.

No passengers in either car, we lined up at 40 and he motioned that he was ready. I honked it off and hit it, but it looked like I got a jump on him (he said after that he didn't hear the beeps). I slowly walked out and as the speeds came up I pulled a bit harder, probably getting him by 3-4 cars to 110 mph.

Knowing I got the hit I slowed up to see if he'd go again and we lined up at 40 again. Both ready, I honked it off and this time we hit it together. His car jumps hard when he gets on it and it was right next to me, or even slightly in front for a bit before I started creeping away. Once again, as we went faster I started pulling hard and probably got him by 2-3 cars up to 110 mph.

We pulled back in to the hangout and shook hands on a good run. I told him I really didn't care about the results, I just wanted to race a car I've never seen before, and thanked him for giving me the opportunity :cheers:

Nice friendly runs. That lil car sounds like it would be a blast to DD.

Nice car ! There's one for sale here in Cali for $3500. Did the owner happen to say how much it weighs ?

I didn't ask, but I found an article that had the curb weight listed as 2645 lbs.

Reminds me of the Ford Escort mkII rally cars. I do kinda like how it looks.

The other night we were cruising in my friend's CTS-V and as we passed this little red hatch my friend pointed the car out and said he didn't remember much about the car, but he knew the owner and it was a pretty rare turbo Mazda that was based on a rally car. The guy got on it next to us and it looked like it moved out pretty good so I mentioned to my friend that it would be cool to run it in the G8 on motor.

Yesterday I get a text saying that the guy with the Mazda is down for some runs, so I meet up with him at the local hangout last night.

Real nice guy and he told me about the car before we ran:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu330/ScreaminRedZ/1988Mazda323GTX001.jpg

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu330/ScreaminRedZ/1988Mazda323GTX002.jpg

The car is a 1988 Mazda 323 GTX and they only made 1243 of them, which is probably why I've never seen one before. They are AWD and come turbo, but stock only make 132 hp. He said it's hard to find parts for them and most of what he's done to it he's had to convert from other cars. He's running a GT2871R turbo (not sure how much boost) and said it put down 249 awhp. I'm sure it could make more, but he said the transmission is the weak point and last time it broke, it took him 6 months to find a replacement.

My car makes 348 rwhp and 360 rwtq on motor.

He said he was down for some fun, so I told him to pick the starting speed. I would have loved to run him from a dig, but I didn't want him to break anything over a friendly race. He said 40 mph was good, and we headed.

No passengers in either car, we lined up at 40 and he motioned that he was ready. I honked it off and hit it, but it looked like I got a jump on him (he said after that he didn't hear the beeps). I slowly walked out and as the speeds came up I pulled a bit harder, probably getting him by 3-4 cars to 110 mph.

Knowing I got the hit I slowed up to see if he'd go again and we lined up at 40 again. Both ready, I honked it off and this time we hit it together. His car jumps hard when he gets on it and it was right next to me, or even slightly in front for a bit before I started creeping away. Once again, as we went faster I started pulling hard and probably got him by 2-3 cars up to 110 mph.

We pulled back in to the hangout and shook hands on a good run. I told him I really didn't care about the results, I just wanted to race a car I've never seen before, and thanked him for giving me the opportunity :cheers:

knowing you and your descriptions of 3-4 cars, it was probably more like a solid city block lol

Wow haven't seen one of them in ages. I can't imagine modding one:(

That's a cool little car.

nice , good story , ive never heard of those cars either . pretty cool .

I'm running that same turbo on my 240. Tell him to turn the boost up, its good for 450whp, haha

knowing you and your descriptions of 3-4 cars, it was probably more like a solid city block lol

It's definitely easier to judge distance when someone it pulling away than if you're the one pulling away, unless the race is really close.

Wow haven't seen one of them in ages. I can't imagine modding one:(

In my opinion, when someone spends the money to buy the car and they can do with it as they like. I know alot of people hate to see rare cars get "cut up" but you have to enjoy your car :)

I'm running that same turbo on my 240. Tell him to turn the boost up, its good for 450whp, haha

I'm sure the turbo is, but I don't think the transmission is :jest:

good race no vid:(

Very cool cars! I used to see a couple at the street races about 10-12 years ago that had some stuff done. They were most likely stock turbo cars because they weren't quick, but they were very cool and apparently very fun to drive. Definitely don't see them very often anymore as there were less of those built than my Syclone.

+1 "street credit"

Nice run. I've never heard of those cars before, but admittedly, I've never been big on the imports.

good race no vid:(

I grab video whenever I can, but there were no passengers for his race.

Very cool cars! I used to see a couple at the street races about 10-12 years ago that had some stuff done. They were most likely stock turbo cars because they weren't quick, but they were very cool and apparently very fun to drive. Definitely don't see them very often anymore as there were less of those built than my Syclone.

I would love to run a Syclone. I've never seen one on the street that was willing to screw around, although I know there are some extremely fast ones out there.

+1 "street credit"

Lmao!

I would love to run a Syclone. I've never seen one on the street that was willing to screw around, although I know there are some extremely fast ones out there.

You would obliterate a stock one. I could probably get out on you til about 50 or so, but you would peel the shitty stock paint right off of it after that. Stock turbo sucks, the stock heads make a Fox 5.0s heads look like AFRs, and the cam they put in it is actually smaller than the cam in the Astro 4.3. It's an amazing feat that mine ran 13.5 at 99 bone stock. It's just brute torque. They dyno like 245 awhp and 400 lb ft of torque stock. Definitely underrated and they have tons of potential if you are willing to spend time on it though. I have been in a couple of them that have made 700-750 to the wheels. Pretty insane street trucks and those are slow compared to the fastest ones. If you do catch one that wants to race, get video.

very good run, Ana friendly run at that, As for the typhoon an syclones i love them trucks. My buddy has one. very neat for what they are. An you should hurt one pretty good up top. Down low be good but after prob 60-70 youll eat it up

Are there many mild to moderately built Syclones and Typhoons or are they generally stock or balls to the wall?

Screaminred pretty much what you just said lol

Are there many mild to moderately built Syclones and Typhoons or are they generally stock or balls to the wall?

Definitely many mild to moderately built and not a whole lot of balls to the wall builds compared to LSX platforms. At the age of these trucks, they start requiring upgrades because the original parts either aren't available or were too terrible to replace with the same thing so they get modified. They usually end up with a better turbo and a rebuilt bottom up with stock crank and forged rods/pistons. Nothing too crazy, but decently quick low 12/high 11 trucks. The only problem is you are dealing with a limited production run minus crashed trucks so the likelihood of seeing one in any capacity is slim. Plus they break a lot. :lol: They make a lot of torque with a weak 700R4. Even the strongest 700R4s won't last under a built truck for long because of the torque and traction. That brings the streetable number even lower. Still love em though. :D

Very cool cars! I used to see a couple at the street races about 10-12 years ago that had some stuff done. They were most likely stock turbo cars because they weren't quick, but they were very cool and apparently very fun to drive. Definitely don't see them very often anymore as there were less of those built than my Syclone.



Man, I love the Syclone, Typhoon was my favorite though. I'd gladly take either.



That's a cool little car OP.

I figured I'd update the thread since I just got the new issue of Modified Mag and the car I raced is one of the features.

May issue, page 24 if anyone is interested.