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    The $5000 rally(x) car

    The 1988 Mazda 323 GTX $5000 rally car

    Bought the car from a guy who was planning on making it a winter beater (so he told me). Car was rough but I knew the old girl had potential. Odo says 170,000km and the previous owner swapped in a jdm engine with “50,000km”.....I am suspicious but I’m building a replacement engine anyways. The car is all original (even original Ontario car), clean floor pan and frame rails. Typical rust issues are throughout the car.

    I will post pics throughout the build, right now the cage is just being wrapped up and new lines are being run.

    Body
    Rust repair, and lots of rust repair
    6 point cage built just to stay within the “grey” area of insurance laws
    APC seats (laugh but remember I have a $5000 budget!)
    Leaf harness’
    Fire suppression system
    Aluminum door panels
    Custom trunk to house the batter and fuel cell
    Front bull bar to mount the Hella 500ff’s and Hella 1000’s as well as to act as a skid plate
    A few “custom” modifications like a homemade hood scoop for the air filter and air vents for the cabin

    Engine
    Second engine is being built to run between 200-220hp
    Arias pistons
    New rods
    5th gear swap
    Oil catch can
    Oil cooler
    Trans cooler
    Tuned and turbo timer
    BIG ass intercooler upgrade
    VJ14 turbo
    Custom bent exhaust manifold
    Ported and polished intake
    Ac and power steering delete
    Corksport ss clutch line

    Brakes
    Gallant front upgrade with drilled rotors
    Hawk pads
    New rear pads, callipers and drilled rotors
    Corksport ss lines

    Suspension
    Stock springs
    Dirtra struts
    New bushings
    Mazdaspeed trailing arms
    New bearings

    Right now as it sits I will probably be over my $5000 budget, but if I smartly sell some parts I still might be able to make it. Regardless I will be driving this car for a lot less than what it would have cost me to buy a Subaru Impreza!

    Some cool stories about the car so far:
    -buying an extra set of rims (oops still havn't picked them up yet) I met the original owner of my car. What a small world we live in when sourcing parts
    -When driving out to get the ownership I almost died when a dumbass in a grad prix ran a stop sign at 70.
    -I was introduced to a guy who has 2 GTX's and is a good guy to know. Ends up the guy is Rod Millens old co-driver from the 80's and raced the orginal GTX's, he is an AWESOME guy to know....plus I might be buying his parts car from him!
    -I learned how to weld because of my gtx
    -And finally, these little cars are suprisingly fast!

    What it looked like the day I bought it




    Teaser of the cage



    Pic of the guy with the 2 GTX's in 1973 at the Rocky Mountain Rally



    More to come!
    sigpic
    The Beater and the Race Car....guess which is which!
    Little boys play in the street, real men play in the dirt"

    #2
    I would man up and buy used non-garbage seats, atleast for the drivers side.
    Beater=/= Sleeper

    Originally posted by kozzman555
    kitty, you are a hilarious woman
    Originally posted by HopelessCow
    there is one thing i dunno what is that call,a thing look like a gun, u press the button and stick to the metal and it makes firework, do i need that thing?and what s the philip head screw drivers?
    Using Linux for anything serious besides server or software dev is like using a tin can and a string for telecommunications.

    Comment


      #3
      Trust me, as soon as I scrape together enough pennies and nickels I'm putting my ass in Corbeau or Sparco.

      But from my research and friends experiences the APC's hold up well in a crash (that's basically all I'm worried about) they just blow in terms of wear and arn't the most comfortable seat.
      sigpic
      The Beater and the Race Car....guess which is which!
      Little boys play in the street, real men play in the dirt"

      Comment


        #4
        go join toprotege.com, there is a guy selling a set of factory recaros from a suzuki i think. they will be much better than apc and i there really cheap too. hes also from windsor

        Comment


          #5
          I know that car ..... i spotted it on craiglist or kijiji ... got it out by dunnville didnt ya . never got a chance to go see it , was it running when you looked @ it ?


          Comment


            #6
            That's the car!

            Ya it was running when I bought it....and then the fuel tank decided to rot out and spill it's guts. It ended up being the perfect candidate to turn into a rally car, ugly as stink but with a solid set of bones to build off of.
            sigpic
            The Beater and the Race Car....guess which is which!
            Little boys play in the street, real men play in the dirt"

            Comment


              #7
              I thought your seats had to be FIA certified to rally in them... and I'm about 99% sure that APC seats are not. If your just Xing your better rocking the stockers IMHO.

              94 Protege LX: HX-35, Megasquit, ect...
              98 Subaru Legacy GT-DD: 1 inch lift, and all the standard N/A stuff.

              Comment


                #8
                GTX recaros are actually real good seats to be using. If they arent torn up, keep em. Ive got them in my GT, and they do very well on aggresive driving.
                Mazda
                1988 Black 323 GT
                DOHC 16 VALVE TURBO

                2013 Velocity Red Mica Mazdaspeed3

                Comment


                  #9
                  I know APC is hated but damn! If APC were a person I think ya'll would be yelling "Witch!" and running with torches.

                  Yes to rally they have to be FIA approved...but I'm not doing true rally yet. This is my learning car and I'm rally crossing it. My car didn't come with the stock GTX seats, so that is out of the question. Right now the APC's are staying in until after she is running and driving. After that I will review my budget and bank account and look into new seats. For now all I wanted was a seat that was comfortable, DOT approved and cheap. The APC's do the job for now....but WILL be changed down the road.

                  Now the build:

                  As you can see my car is a smorguisboard of colours. 5 to be exact, 6 if you count primer as a colour.





                  And how the interior looked after I stripped the read seats, carpet, etc.... Lot's of Dynamat, a battery relocate not done properly (using 0 gauge stereo wire and stereo fittings) and non GTX seats.



                  Now the rust repair: The bad is the rear wheel arches, the rear shock towers and the drivers floorboard





                  Next onto stripping the tar from the floor....this is a lot of fun! BE CAREFUL of the fumes and be sure you don't get bored easily. It took me about 3 hours to strip it all out. It's all out now, used a air stripper to get the rest out.



                  Now the start of the fab for the cage:







                  And the much hated test fitting of the APC seat!



                  More to come, these pics are from about a month ago. Right now the cage is done, fuel cell is mounted, brake lines are done and fuel lines/pump/filter are a day away.
                  sigpic
                  The Beater and the Race Car....guess which is which!
                  Little boys play in the street, real men play in the dirt"

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by toronto323gtx View Post
                    I know APC is hated but damn! If APC were a person I think ya'll would be yelling "Witch!" and running with torches.

                    .
                    You can't spell crap with out APC.

                    Also are you sure APC seats are dot approved?
                    I can't find information proving/disproving it.
                    Beater=/= Sleeper

                    Originally posted by kozzman555
                    kitty, you are a hilarious woman
                    Originally posted by HopelessCow
                    there is one thing i dunno what is that call,a thing look like a gun, u press the button and stick to the metal and it makes firework, do i need that thing?and what s the philip head screw drivers?
                    Using Linux for anything serious besides server or software dev is like using a tin can and a string for telecommunications.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      i saw this car on a flatbed in toronto! haha thats awesome!

                      JACK.
                      -Jack

                      ONTARIO MAZDA CLUB! Join! https://www.facebook.com/groups/500055016671733/

                      91 626 LX - basically stock and pretty slow still
                      http://www.clubprotege.com/forum/sho...my-GD-626-LX-)

                      01 E53 3.0i - FOR SALE! pm if interested

                      91 USDM Protege LX - SOLD! turbo/manifold up for sale!
                      http://www.clubprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46606

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Yes, I have have more km on this car on a flatbed than actual road kms. Soon she will be done!

                        Anyways, just starting to button up the body work and get the fuel system primed so I can fire her up and destroy the brakes before i rebuild everything.

                        Found some more rust, seems late 80's Japanese cars like to decay:



                        Fuel cell is mounted. It's some really cool engineering that my shop did for the cage and cell. It's so strong back there, I feel safe each time I look at it.



                        I have an intresting X brace for the cage. The bar that mounts above the drivers head is braced along the main hoop and the bar that mounts to above the passanger head is mounted to the rear bar near the shock tower on the drivers side. Basically it was built so if in rally x I go off the track and smack a tree the passanger side will give a little and the driver side will stay very firm and protect me!



                        I'm at a stall in the build as I'm waiting on parts. I have all the upgrade goodies for brakes and suspention comming from corksport, new bearings and etc... comming from my local Mazda dealer and some good old junkyard engineering for the rest.

                        The good news is over the weekend I picked up a used TerraTrip computer, terraphone intercom system and I may have sourced a FIA approved Corbeau seat....so everyone should be happy with the fact the APC seats are up for sale now!
                        sigpic
                        The Beater and the Race Car....guess which is which!
                        Little boys play in the street, real men play in the dirt"

                        Comment


                          #13
                          why are you worried about fia spec seats if your cage isn't to spec which it doesn't look to be...

                          1988 White GTX - #1 parts
                          1988 Black GTX - #2 reliably broken touge monstar (294,000 miles no rebuilds) - dead
                          1988 Blue GTX - #3 in progress (view here)
                          1988 Blue GTX - #4 BPT swapped weekend warrior.
                          1988 White GTX - #5 Rally car

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I can upgrade your turbocharger so you can make a big time difference in the car.

                            Bryan

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I'm not really understanding the real purpose of the car.

                              Why you went through the trouble to build a cage that isn't for rally and that will never allow you to get logbooked in North America in any NASA or RA events so you actually can rally?

                              You're not going to anywhere near any trees in RallyX, so don't worry about that. You'd have a hard time rolling it, although it's been done, but at such slow speeds (1st and 2nd gear) you probably wouldn't get hurt.

                              If you're still in the build stage you should cut what you need to back out, salvage what you can and build it right. Talk with a cage builder or a North American rally tech guy like Gene over at RallyAnarchy.com and actually get the car logbooked.

                              You don't need FIA approved anything to rally X nor do you need a terratrip and you really don't need a cage. So if your intent is to rally the car at some point do it now while the car is down and apart.

                              just my $.02

                              Comment

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