MX 3 V6

[Dave]

Drove one of these on saturday night, quick little car.

[Myfeckin FTO]

Drove one of these on saturday night, quick little car.

Quite like them too - 1.8litre V6 engine - though I doubt it has more than 150BHP. The V6's seem pretty thin on the ground - mostly 1.5's.
It was a strange choice of an engine to put in a MX3 when you consider Mazda could have used the existing MX5's 1.6 litre (120BHP) or 1.8litre (148BHP) engines.

THe 323F (Astina) also came with that v6 engine - One of the first cars I had - sounded absolutely gorgeous.

[Dave]

i think it's only 130 or something, but it does feel pretty quick.

[CJ]

The smallest V6 in the world if I'm not mistaken, the 1.5 lump is a bit on the side in the performance stakes mind you...

CJ

[Myfeckin FTO]

The smallest V6 in the world if I'm not mistaken, the 1.5 lump is a bit on the side in the performance stakes mind you...

CJ

Maybe the Irish version of that 1.5 litre (85-90BHP) engine is weedy - however the Jap version - on the Astina and a few imported MX3's - had a 1.5 litre DOHC 16v engine - and 115BHP - it could be distinguished by the twin exhaust as opposed to the single exhaust on the basic models. Drove a couple of the Astina's in my time and they weren't slow. They also had better brakes and suspension than the Irish models (Rear ARB's etc) and a nice recaro interior as per the 323FGT's.

Jeez - I think I'm an anorak. Nobody should know (or care) about the vagaries of a 89-94 323F.

[CJ]

Maybe the Irish version of that 1.5 litre (85-90BHP) engine is weedy - however the Jap version - on the Astina and a few imported MX3's - had a 1.5 litre DOHC 16v engine - and 115BHP - it could be distinguished by the twin exhaust as opposed to the single exhaust on the basic models.

I owned a Jap MX-3 (aka Autozam AZ-3) a few years back, I have to say, it was a dog in comparison to the 1.6 323F (Irish car) I owned beforehand, the 1.5 DOHC lump just didn't do the biz for me at all.

CJ

[Myfeckin FTO]

I owned a Jap MX-3 (aka Autozam AZ-3) a few years back, I have to say, it was a dog in comparison to the 1.6 323F (Irish car) I owned beforehand, the 1.5 DOHC lump just didn't do the biz for me at all.

CJ

Sounds like you had a bad experience with that one - The DOHC 1.5 should have a good bit more power than the Irish 1.6 323F.

I thought that "Autozam" was just a Jap car supermarket - cause my Astina also had that whole "Autozam" thing going on. Even had (still have) an "Autozam" keyring with the supermarkets address'. The MX3 was known as an AZ-3 alright.

[CJ]

I thought that "Autozam" was just a Jap car supermarket

Yeah, of sorts, just some silly rebranding by Mazda if you ask me:

http://www.mazda.com/mnl/9808/autozum_e.html

CJ

[Myfeckin FTO]

Well - you learn something new every day.

Theres another useless bit of Jap car trivia put to bed.
You often see guys on Jap car forums describing their Mazda as an "Autozam AZ-3/Roadster/Astina etc" - bet they wouldn't be so keen if they knew it was just a Mazda shop.

Now "Mazdaspeed" - thats a different story - My GF's RS Roadster is a mazdaspeed version - an extreme little car - just the job for the upcoming karting day.