An Introduction

[323LX]

Hello, I just thought I'd introduce myself so maybe you'd know a little bit about me. My name is Jason Blessing and my car is a 1988 Mazda 323 LX. They're not particularly common, but you would be surprised how much aftermarket support exists for the 323, if you know where to look. Right at the moment, the car is my daily driver. I will be graduating from college next week, and hope to get a new(er) daily driver later this year. So I'm looking at prepping my car next summer, and then attending some schools, and I'll go from there. So, thats about it...looking forward to my first race!!

[Silkworm]

As tempting as building your own car may sound.. As cheap as it sounds.. Don't do it. If you absolutely HAVE to get on track, (and I can't blame you) install a cage, and go open-tracking.. But don't go for a full blown racecar, buy it.

I'm 2+ years into my project, almost 8K spent, and it's only now coming to the point of being ready to race.

PaulC

[323LX]

Thanks for your advice, but I'm looking forward to the challenges of prepping the car. If you don't mind my asking, what (if any) problems have you run into??

[Silkworm]

The biggest challenge? The car was a mess, blown engine, burned wiring and rubber goods (left over from a small engine fire which prompted the racecar build up), interior was shot, trans was shot.

So I had to remove EVERYTHING. I painted the car's interior and engine bay, which mean that a lot of stuff sat, out side of the car, for several months. That made things tough when I went to put it back, many hours spent with the service manual and pictures.

So, my advice.. if you HAVE to do this, then start with a running car in decent shape, or this gets very difficult. Start with the interior, strip out all the stuff you don't need. Be careful, you may be able to re-use or sell some of this stuff. Depending on your choice of cage, you may need to remove the dash. Get your racing seat, mounts, and get the cage and seat installed at the same time. Whatever you do, don't mount one without the other, or you may end up with your head resting on the cage (not a good thing) or your seat not sitting far enough back.

Then move to engine/suspension.

PaulC

[AS-RACER]

I would try to find someone with the same car that you have and use them as a resource for building your car. When we built our ITS RX7 a friend of ours that has been racing one for years helped us out a lot. We also have had a lot of help from Tony and Luis Rivera whom are Mazda Gurus. Luis runs the Mazda/Honda shop out of Littleton Colorado and Tony has his own business called TR Rotorsports also in Colorado. They have both been racing and building Mazda Race Cars for years. They have built some killer cars and engines.

[323LX]

Again, thanks for the help and suggestions. I guess I didnt mention that even though my 323 has 137k miles on it, it is in very near mint condition. I realize this is rare...most 323s I've seen on the road are falling apart. The engine runs strong and there are no mechanical problems at all with the car. The only reason I won't be driving it on the street is because I want something newer. I love the car, even though it's underpowered, it's pretty light so it's faster than you would think. Also, it handles extremely well. It's a very balanced car...not that I would put it above the Miata's and RX7s...truth be told, I almost bought a 2nd Gen RX7 instead of the 323, but the guy selling it wanted about $2000 more than book, and wouldn't come down. I've been behind the wheel of this car for about 65,000 miles or so, so I know the car pretty well...not to mention knowing just about every nut and bolt on the car. So I figured it would be a good choice to race, rather than a new (old) car that I'm unfamiliar with. So, again, thanks for you advice, and I think I'll give it a run with the car I've got now