Skip to main content

Mazda 323 Project

I purchased the below 1980 Mazda 323 with the plan to customise it to create a Drag/Street car running a rotary engine and capable of 9-10sec 1/4 mile times.

Here is an example of the setup from the Green Brothers racing 323 Wagon from NZ that does high 8sec 1/4s with a manual gearbox.


Example
Mazda 323 5 door Wagon S1 Bug Eye "Road Worthy - Green brothers prove Rust is lighter than Carbon Fibre" car gives appearance white with rust and marks ...and its 100% road legal fitted RX7 Series 5 13B and Series 5 Rx-7 rotars ; dwelled cleaned up stock parts ...Factory series 5 intake...Borg Warner S475 Turbo and Synapse 50mm waste gate ..via Tremec TKO 500 H Pattern; Green brothers Racing steel behh housing... power 420kw (563hp) at rear wheel ons BP Ultimate ' 0-400 min 9.07 at 243kph -words and photos by Marcus Gibson



Here I plan to brainstorm and gather information for the modifications.

Braking System

I would link to use Series 4/5 RX-7 four spot callipers on the front and either RX-7 brakes  or maybe Toyota brakes on the rear as I plan to run a Toyota Hilux rear end.

Here are some images I was thinking for front brakes


Wheels
To clear the calipers and discs I've been thinking about finding some steel 15' rims from a mazda econovan and getting them widened on the rear to 8'. Sourcing the steel bands to increase the width seems to be an issue as the local wheel place advised they could not get them anymore.

10/03/2014
It looks like the Mazda Van rims are very hard to find and wheels in general with a 4X100 PCD are not common. If I go with the Mazda disc conversion most likely i'll stick with 114.3X5 as its much more common and easier to find wheels. To keep things low key I'm thinking that sunrasia or D-max rims might be a good solution as they are cheap and not fancy.

Bodywork
The bodywork on the car is in good conditions apart from the rear hatch which is completely rusted through along the back edge, another hatch has been sourced to replace it.

interior
I've purchased carpet for the car and would like to construct a centre console, the technique in the video below seems simple and produces a good result. I don't really want a show car just some thing that is neat and functional.






 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shortening the Diff

I have a Ford 8.8 inch diff from a EF/EB Ford Falcon with a Limited Slip Differential. I want to shorten it down to suit the 323. Due to the RX7 LCA in the front, the front tyres(205X50X15) now protrude from the front guards by 65mm. Making the overall front track width 1,675mm. With 225X50X15 tyres on the rear and the standard diff the rear is 1,610mm. Meaning that the rear track width is 32.5mm narrower on each side. To widen the rear when I shorten it, I'll make the rear axle 65mm wider than the standard rear axle. The standard 323 Diff width is 1,338mm and the Ford 8.8 is 1,547mm for a total difference of  209mm. So the Diff needs to be shortened by 209mm - 65 =  144mm or 72mm per side.
Post a Comment
Read more

Suspension Design Solid works

To assist with integrating the Mazda RX7 S4 FC front suspension into my Mazda 323, I've decided to see if I can create a solid works model for the suspension and then one for the Mazda chassis to see what fabrication work is need to integrate it. Looking online into engineering tutorials I found a site called Grab CAD community and a tutorial on there around spring design in solid works which looks fairly strait forward. https://grabcad.com/tutorials/tutorial-how-to-model-a-suspension-spring-in-solidworks-and-show-design-intent The main issue I have is the Lower Control Arms (LCA's) are a rather complex shape and will require me to up-skill in SolidWorks to be able to reproduce them. I'm in the process of sandblasting the part and taking some better images from which to model it. *UPDATE -- 1FEB17 nearly finished sketching the LCA and spindles
Post a Comment
Read more

Mazda_323

Mazda_323 The above link is for a suspension model I measured from the stock Mazda 323 suspension and setup in  the model creating tool at Racing ASP to assist in mapping the stock Roll Center and predicting the new roll center with the RX7 FC Suspension.
Post a Comment
Read more