hypothetical WRC potential?

[jay]

Saw that. I'll call em later this morning but I already know what the answer's gonna be.
(edit) Yep, the answer is as I expected. That PDF file is like 15 years old.

[SgtRauksauff]

yeah, I looked on the site for about 40 minutes last night after reading that, the only thing with 'rally' in it doing some searches turned out to be some clutches, and LSD parts for the FWD cars. no complete boxen anymore, that I could find.

--sarge

[EGTeric93]

Whoever has seen a LHD rally Cosworth Raise their hand!

**raises hand and smiles at the memories of Finland and those sweet, sweet cars....**

I miss suomi....

my hand is up... i saw the cossy at HIN idk if it was ever actually in a WRC but it looked just like it lol and everything was legit..

raise your hand if u have ever got to sit in the drivers seat of a escort cossy LHD???

typing with one hand in the air is hard..

[trailrider098]

Replacement parts for the following transmissions are also available.
Complete transmissions must be special ordered. Please call for information
and pricing.
1) 5-speed Competition Overdrive transmission for rotary applications
(complete transmission no longer available).
2) PBS GLC & 323 FWD (dog ring) transmission.
3) 323 GTX & GTR rally transmission.

bottom of t-3 it can be found ya just didnt look hard enough =P, duno what the box will be like im hopeing for something like a chromoly case, and adimantium inturnals lol

Haha, i actualy have seen that before too, and when i did i got all excited. however i also did the research and found out they dont exist, its just old parts/rebuild stuff

[mazstar]

okay back to square one for me then lol, saying that though theres a gtr with a gt4 conversion for sale atm i know the guy mite be able to get some sort of a deal....

[xtg323adzam]

Hell I've ridden in a LHD Cossie. $hit is Lunacy on wheels. Too bad they are still like 35k BEFORE you even speak the word importation.

[mazstar]

move to newzealand theres two cosworth's for sale for $5100 usd each lol not to mention being able to get the 323gtx (90) and the gtr, i dont see whay you guys dont sell up and pursue your passion for mazdas in the japanese car junk yard of the world nz

dont forget the euro cars too, however american vehicles are rare over here i.e pontiacs, cadilacs, etc etc , so a killing can be made if u took one with you the average good conditon one going for 20,000nzd!

[mechmunkee-j]

not a bad idea... lol head over with a ws6 tans am and come back with a tx3... i would hit that.

[jjmundt]

Jay,

Haven't read this entire thread, but I might add something (and hope to pete I'm not repeating)...

The late 80's (when Mazda ran Grp A) was also when Ford was becoming the leading stockholder in the company. Is it not true (or at least possible) that Ford put paid to Mazda's rallying ambitions because they didn't want interference with their own? The 1.8 BG platform was highly competitive in Grp N and it wouldn't have taken a stretch to believe that a 2.0 version BG, in the early 90's, would have spelled trouble for other teams.

Anyways, as for the gearboxes, I had heard that MRTE ran stock boxes in the early GTX's. They switched to the Xtrac because they got tired of the weight penalties caused by the scooper the car had to carry behind it to pick up all the gearbox parts as they were spit out.

Apparently I'm wrong on that...anyways...

Regards,
Joel

Nah. I see what you're getting at but you're going after not quite the right cause and effect. Trailrider pretty much nailed it but I'll nail it more, with much windbagginess.
None of the WRC cars used factory gearboxes. They all went aftermarket, xtrac or similar. So the gearbox thing is a nonissue then or now really. Main reason mazda didn't do well in wrc when they competed was that they were down on displacement, and power, to the other cars. With class weight minimums, it didn't matter if their car handled better if it couldn't torque its way outta the corners. It does rather beg the question as to why the hell they didn't put a 2.5l in the homologation cars so they could go to town, and if they had, you can speculate that that item would have forced them to design a decent gearbox for those homologation cars, and we'd all be very happy. My guess is they looked at the developement costs, and their then-current sales figures, and folded their hand. I say they lacked vision. They could have sold the awd protege with the BPT drivetrain in it here, like they did in the rest of the world, instead of that boringass singlecam 100hp slug they stuck it with here, and started the angry 4door sedan wars way ahead of sooby and dsm, and made a *killing* but they didn't. They figured that the US market for hot sedans was too small, but they totally underestimated the number of gearheads such as myself that have families but refuse to grow the hell up and stop playing with cars, or that otherwise see the utility of having 4 doors. Obviously I ain't alone, as there are a helluva lotta sti and evo here. Bueler? Beuler? Mazda? Mazda?
It is fun to contemplate the idea of the '90 awd protege being their version of an evoI, then the bpt familia the rest of the world got as being the mazda evoII, then a GTR version evoIII, then who knows whatall next such that in this alternate reality in the current day, Mazda would have something in the showrooms that'd be direct buttkicking competition to the evoX and STI...and the skyline gtr..
They lost their nerve, forgetting that they have more motorsports heritage than any car company this side of Porsche and Ferrari, and thus they screwed the pooch. They have the engineering talent, but they didn't use it. Their best excuse is (and it's a pretty damn good one really), that they already had 2 fullon sportscars in their lineup to concentrate on and the Miata was so full of win they didn't *need* to start, or even participate in, the angry 4door sedan wars.


But I bet we all wish they had!!

[808]

I read the same thing Joel... Stock boxes early... epic failures... then to x-trac.

[trailrider098]

They switched to the Xtrac because they got tired of the weight penalties caused by the scooper the car had to carry behind it to pick up all the gearbox parts as they were spit out.

Apparently I'm wrong on that...anyways...

Regards,
Joel

LOL, im picturing one of those bags attached to a horse that catches thier crap

[jay]

How appropos! lol, pooperbag..
I'd heard something about the early team efforts using the stock box but got the distinct impression that they were sorta kinda more like privateers with some backdoor factory help. In any case I don't think that counts for much...