I owned one in Canada. A few thousand bucks worth of HKS goodies brought the horsepower over the 200 mark. In summer I'd autocross it on shaved sticky tires. In winter I'd install four skinny steel wheels with super knobby tires and could run circles around the SUVs in deep snow. It never gave me a moment's trouble and I miss it to this day.
+John Techwriter I bought one of these for $300 when I was 16 (In 1999)... out of a scrapyard. Swapped an alternator from another 323 onto it, and drove it home, not really knowing what I had purchased but I thought it looked cool and had nice seats. Was I ever pleasantly surprised... what a blast to drive, even in stock form with over 300,000 km on the clock!
I wished that more American people would appreciate the presence of Mazdas and their designs. Mazda is one of the most underrated car companies in my opinion. They have made some of the best cars to come out of Japan and have even won Le Mans in 1991. Never forget your Mazdas.
@@fread51 Always so many Mazda fans in the comments, yet this company is seeking $4 billion in loans. Same with Mitsubishi fans in comments. Their dealers are empty of foot traffic and they are on life support.
@@tedschmitt178 Personally I love both. Though analog looks SLIGHTLY better in SOME cars. My fear is what it'll cost to Fix a digital display. I heard nightmares about it from mechanics AND car owners.🧐😕
I think the complaints about the radio being too low and/or not being easy to use while driving has brought us to where we are today: HUGE tablets tacked onto the dash. Automakers are like, "Are ya happy now???"
It's probably because we are looking at it in modern days. The nostalgia undoubtedly adds quite a lot of extra points. I'd be very happy to have that digital gauge if I owned a GTX. But I think the car itself is hard to find, not to mention that digital cluster.
wow, this video brought back memories of the GTX I had. I loved that little car with its turbo engine. Sadly, it was destroyed in a house fire. It was a great car.
....only 330.000 miles?!? Anything broken under 500.000 miles for that particular model is because of abuse and neglect. My dad had one, (1.5 engine) 900.000 miles today under the third owner.
+dfissell Good to know, as it seems that there are multiple variants (SOHC, DOHC, 8 v, 16 v) of the B6 that go back to 1985. But for clarification I was referring to the fact that the DOHC 1.6 L B6ZE used in the 1990 Miata included a few remnants that were also found in the turbocharged DOHC 1.6 B6T, (which was introduced in 1985), such as the cooling oil spray found at the bottom of the pistons.
I saw a girl driving this around my school in 2019! Was shocked to see something like it still being used as a commuter. Testement to the engineers that designed it.
There was a Rallye Golf built in the late 80's that never made it to the U.S. market for street driving, but did make it to competition. There were only 5,000 Rallye Golfs built and sold, they are now very rare cars. There were no 3rd generation Golfs with all wheel drive until the R32 (4th generation).
@@x-man4702 My comment was about the handling of the AWD Golfs, not the class-leading FWD Golfs. The AWD Golfs were not considered, for the price and performance, to have the more neutral handling sometime associated with good AWD cars like the 323GTX and the Lancer Evo.
@@snowrocket The Lancer Evo was not produced until 1992, that's years later after the GTX and the Rallye Golf were built and raced. The GTX did have a "better" AWD system than the Rallye Golf, but it was significally underpowered compared to the competition. The Rallye Golf was no better, even though it had an additional 26 bhp over the GTX.
Growing up in South America, I always enjoyed watching rally cars. As a result, I wanted a Mazda GTX or a Golf GTI. I stuck with VW's for years until one year I bought a Protege5! That is as close I got to owning a GTX. Those Mazdas are probably very rare now if you can find one. Love these retro reviews, please keep them coming...
My best buddy had this exact car in non turbo for many many years, we always dreamed of the ellusive and rare GTX and ooohed and ahhed we we did see one on occasion!
Wow, this was the dream car for me back in high school. My first car was a 1.5 litre FWD version, but it had the same spoiler kit as the GTX! Quite rare to find now, most of them were ruined by boy racers. It didn't help that the gearboxes were notoriously weak.
great little car. here in europe it was the "affordable" japanese turbo 4x4. both nissan sunny and toyota celica were much more expensive. i loved the GTR with the bigger bumpers and bigger turbo
Starting in winter 1988/89, Motorweek would begin braking tests from 60 mph, rather than 55 mph. Also, the interior sound level would be tested at 60 mph. Rural interstate speed limits had been raised to 65 mph almost two years earlier, in most US states.
An unique feature is the hydraulic E-brake. It gives the car the ability to lock up the rear wheels with much less effort. On the analog gauge cluster it has A green turbo light that turns on while under boost. A similar light can be found on the Suzuki Cappuccino Ect. as they were both designed by A freelance designer that is still unknown to this day. He also designed all RX-7s, RX-8, Mazdaspeed cars, Skyactiv vehicles Ect. His brother has A modified 1988 626 GT that can burn rubber in three gears and has beaten Corvettes, M5 Ect...
with an exhaust, a tune, an intercooler and a manual boost controller, my 323 GT front wheel drive sedan with the same engine ended up running a 13.5 in thr quarter mile. while this awd version ran a 16.3. Point being, with minimal bolt ons and some decent tuning, these cars can wake up and run really good times as well as putting really good power to the ground.
@@trekinseattle super cool little car! I loved mine. The awd hatches were prone to synchros going in the trans. Mine was beaten up but held up nicely. Just head gaskets were my only issue
Mazdas have long been hidden gems, even the Miata to some degree. They make good cars and parts; my 88 Ford Ranger had a Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) 5 speed transmission and it worked like a charm.
My first car was a 1988 Mazda 323. Black paint, nylon gray seats. No power windows, no power locks, no power antennae, no power steering, no AC and no tachometer. But to me it was the bees knees! Only $7700 brand new.
I bought a well-loved example of one of these as my first car in 1995. Tremendously expensive to maintain, but I loved it regardless. I wish I didn't have to sell it.
I really like this GTX - in some ways, it is better than the same period GTI and it is certainly more rare than any GTI today. The interior looks just like any Mazda 323 from the period, albeit with the optional digital gauges and different seat patterns. I think I'd prefer the analog package, but otherwise this car is straightforward, pure and simple, which is definitely in keeping with the GTI tradition. 132hp in a small, light car means this car is zippy, even by today's standards, and that's not something you can always say about these Retro Reviews. A well-made, well-engineered little hot hatch...I wish this had been my first car (or second car or third car!)
I had this car and remember it being a disappointment at SCCA autocrosses in SE Michigan. The understeer was incredible the review mentions it. Sold it after one year.
i once pulled one of those digital dashes out of a junkyard car. didnt have the car but i figured someone would want it. sold on ebay for much more than i paid for it.
With the longest small car name in the business. I almost bought one. Quick little squirt of a car in the day. When I test drove it, I dusted a GTi no problem at all!
We also had the Mazdas, I still have one in perfect condition I purchased new in 89. The Ford Lasers were copies built on the same design but nowhere close in quality! ;)
I'm daily driving an 89 Sydney assembled Ford Laser sedan in 2021. Bought in 2010 with only 115K kilometres. Just reached 190K and still running like a clock. It has EFI 1.6 8v B6f engine with the four speed overdrive auto. Managed to achieve 6.7l/100km with 80% freeway driving by not exceeding 100km/h and sitting (safely!) behind trucks to cut wind resistance. Best I've achieved with this car.
I dearly miss mine. Should have never sold it, or my Milano Verde, 400 HP 1st gen SHO, Contour SVT or 1st gen Civic Si... So many automotive regrets. However, the GTX was my favorite to drive, but the Verde was my favorite sounding, but then again the Busso V6 is one of the best sounding engines ever put in road cars.
OMG!!!!! You sold a First Gen. Taurus SHO?!?!? Dude!!! You're gonna Hate me. According to last June's Motor Trend "Back to the 90's" edition, First and Second Gen. Taurus SHO's in excellent condition are going for...Sit Down Now...$20,000.00 American!!😎😎
I had money and waited for a used one. Never happened. Lost my job, one popped up for sale , mint with adjustable suspension and digital dash. 5 miles away. Kept my 89 323, Limited production run for the GTX. Approximately 1200 Cars int the US and Canada over 2 years. A weird collectible. The four door version , 10 or so in North America. All numbers are close based on what I remember. Or check out RoadRace Engineering.
+Skyline Fever, the 1st gen (or would've gone to the Jeep dealer to get the similar Eagle Talon TSi w/either (~195hp T-2.0L) FWD or AWD) ). Also a couple of steps more expensive (the base Eclipse and Talon were in the GTX's price neighborhood) than the GTX.
I'm really surprised that the gas mileage is so poor, especially how light the car is and how small the engine it. My first car was an 88 mercury tracer 3 door hatchback. It had the 1.6 OHV engine with only 80 hp, no ac, no power steering & a 5 spd. The way it was geared it was quite peppy around town. But on the highway it got amazing gas mileage. The car only weighed about 2,200 lbs. The best I ever averaged on a tank of gas was 44 mpg! Granted that was only driving 65 mph, the car was geared to drive from 55-65 on the highway. At 70 or more the mileage would plummet because the rpms were so high. In fact at 85 it was at 4k rpms!
I'm surprised, too! I have a 1991 Escort Pony 3 door based on this car with a 1.9 and 4 speed auto overdrive. Though I drove like a madman, I consistently got no worse than 25 m.p.g.
The extra weight of the Awd system and being a turbo probably really hurt the mpgs. I'm surprised this sport version had such tall gearing, maybe for improved mpg on the highway. My 88 Tracer had a very aggressive 3.86 final drive ratio. It made for very fun acceleration, but you had to keep the speed down on the highway or the mpgs would plummet
@@BrownBomber92181 The AWD hardware! Duh. Of course! And I know for a fact that fuel economy drops; as one expert put it, exponentially; over 60 m.p.h. At least with 4 speed automatics it does. I don't know about todays' 6 and 8 speed automatics.🧐
I had one of these..a set of Koni shocks and a set of Nexen all seasons made it handle like it should.I got way faster 0-60 times vs what they had here. 7 -7.5 second 0-60 times. I don't think they were really giving it the beans.
Yeah I agree a gd driver should get this car to maybee 15.9 16 second quarter mile my 1983 ford Telstar 2.0 non turbo lol carb not injected only mods were exhaust and extractors and a reasonable driver 16.1 quarter mile so this 4wd shd be quicker than this
Did the "boy racers" tear 'em up?? I hear this is why you shouldn't buy a used Charger/Challenger with Any v8 because They've been drifted into the ground!
Learned to drive fast in the base model 323 hatch with SOHC 1.6 4-spd manual and 4:10.5 final gear ratio. Not a highway fighter but plenty of get-up for such a basic car. That engine revved pretty high but no idea how high because the base model had no tach.
dudeeee, I have one!!! not a gtx of course, but its a 323, got it last year from the 2nd owner, only complaint is that the front struts never last, that's it, nothing else
It's just an 87/88 Mazda 323/Mercury Tracer hatchback but with alloy wheels and turbo DOHC. easy oil change, easy to reach spark plugs, 13" tires. A very reliable 1.6 engine when 10W-40 conventional oil used. Synthetic is too thin. You'll never find a more simple car to maintain ever again.
Absolutely right. My first car was an 88 Tracer 3 door hatchback. When I sold it it had 160k miles, and they were a lot of hard miles. When my dad had the car, he drove the shit out of it and rarely services it. I got it with 125k miles and I checked the oil and it didn't even register, and the oil pan was only a 3.5 qt pan!!! You're right about synthetic oil being too slick, I changed the oil and put in synthetic the first time and it sounded like marbles were in the engine, lol. I immediately dumped it and put in conventional oil
Never knew they had a gtx version of the 323 until I saw one for sale a couple years ago. I was surprised of the low hp rating with it being 16 valve dohc. Must was a very small turbo.
Yeah, the horsepower numbers were disappointing, but when you look back on that era, all the horsepower figures tend to pale in comparison to today's performers.
It means it stops in a straight line with no fishtailing. The problem with small, hot, FWD cars of that era was a tendency to spin out on hard braking.
