This month's ROTM winner is Jay. Jay has a rare and powerful, but yet it's not a garage masterpiece. He's not scared to drive this thing, and drive it hard. His car has been overlooked many times, but now has officially earned it's place in ROTM history.
Congrats Jay!!
So I had a 323 GTX rallycar as my daily driver. I bought it 10 years ago when my commute involved late nights over a couple of the most dangerous roads in the state and I wanted something with a cage, that I could compete in occasionally. That GTX was my introduction to awd Mazdas. Later I wanted to rally it more, which meant getting another DD. I hate car payments so no evo for me, but then one day someone put this 323 GTR swapped Protege project on the market and I drove up the next day and bought it. He'd done a lot of the work but never got it running properly, so between the previous owner and myself it has:
Complete 323 GTR drivetrain swap from lugnuts to valve cover:Hubs, uprights, brakes, rotors, trans (viscous centerdiff), engine, turbo, etc.
Factory GpA plate rear LSD
Custom intake plumbing, Spearco FMIC w/homebrew waterspray
Turbo XS BOV
2.5" turboback exhaust, Magnaflow muffler
MiataLink standalone ECU, RC 550 injectors
AEM WBO2, Miata ignitor and CAS, HKS coils,Magnacore wires
93 TT RX7 fuel pump
Fidanza flywheel, ACT clutch
Braided steel brakelines
Whiteline swaybars, B&G springs, Tokico struts, Mazdaspeed bushings, Enkei wheels, GTR strut tower brace
Porterfield made me some sets of custom pads for the GTR calipers, since no one makes performance pads for those brakes anymore.
E36 M3 projector headlamps with HID's
Passive belts have been replaced with Canadian-spec belts
Aftermarket Sparco lookalike front seats
2700lb, ~320whp@22psi, not bad at all.
I like this car so damn much that, after I crashed the GTX while competing in the Oregon Trail rally, when someone told me that a guy in Portland used to rally an AWD Protege, I dug around and found his number, called him up and said "hey I wanna buy your car will ya sell it to me?" and he said "well, um, OK" and so that's how I ended up with two of these little monsters, one for the street and one for rally.
Congrats Jay!!
So I had a 323 GTX rallycar as my daily driver. I bought it 10 years ago when my commute involved late nights over a couple of the most dangerous roads in the state and I wanted something with a cage, that I could compete in occasionally. That GTX was my introduction to awd Mazdas. Later I wanted to rally it more, which meant getting another DD. I hate car payments so no evo for me, but then one day someone put this 323 GTR swapped Protege project on the market and I drove up the next day and bought it. He'd done a lot of the work but never got it running properly, so between the previous owner and myself it has:
Complete 323 GTR drivetrain swap from lugnuts to valve cover:Hubs, uprights, brakes, rotors, trans (viscous centerdiff), engine, turbo, etc.
Factory GpA plate rear LSD
Custom intake plumbing, Spearco FMIC w/homebrew waterspray
Turbo XS BOV
2.5" turboback exhaust, Magnaflow muffler
MiataLink standalone ECU, RC 550 injectors
AEM WBO2, Miata ignitor and CAS, HKS coils,Magnacore wires
93 TT RX7 fuel pump
Fidanza flywheel, ACT clutch
Braided steel brakelines
Whiteline swaybars, B&G springs, Tokico struts, Mazdaspeed bushings, Enkei wheels, GTR strut tower brace
Porterfield made me some sets of custom pads for the GTR calipers, since no one makes performance pads for those brakes anymore.
E36 M3 projector headlamps with HID's
Passive belts have been replaced with Canadian-spec belts
Aftermarket Sparco lookalike front seats
2700lb, ~320whp@22psi, not bad at all.
I like this car so damn much that, after I crashed the GTX while competing in the Oregon Trail rally, when someone told me that a guy in Portland used to rally an AWD Protege, I dug around and found his number, called him up and said "hey I wanna buy your car will ya sell it to me?" and he said "well, um, OK" and so that's how I ended up with two of these little monsters, one for the street and one for rally.
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