Hey all,

I've been browsing this forum for a long time, infact I think years ago I may have joined and posted some pics of my car already lol.

Anyways I have a 1972 616, bought locally off Ebay with only 30,xxx miles on the odo and it shows! Here it is the day I got it to my shop







I immediately swapped out the tired old 1.6L 4 banger for a half brigded 13B and very quickly found that the stock 616 rad just wasnt up to keeping the Rotary cool. It ended up overheating really bad one very hot day which blew the coolant seals in the motor, so the car was parked.

It has sat in my parents barn for almost 4 years now. Which is terrible as it has some rust bubbles starting under the windsheild and has developed a few dings in the passenger door...hmmm.
So this winter I finally decided I'm going to put it back together and get it back on the road.

I sent the car to Sam at Re-Speed in London to use for mocking up the front lower control arms for RX-2's and while it is there, I'm getting a bunch of Re-Speed suspension parts installed.

The front end will have Re-Speed lower control arms which uses cheap and easy to find Miata balljoints, which will use modified FB RX-7 steering arms, which will then allow me to use FB shocks and spindles, which will let me use Re-Speed's 4 piston caliper conversion and 5 bolt FC hubs! Also Sam hooked me up with the RX-2 upper camber plates.
I bought Tokico Illumina shocks for the FB spindles and will be using Re-speed's weld on Coil-over sleeve....whooo hoooo height adjustable suspension in the 616!!

So my front end will be taken care of, the rear I'm going to try figuring something out with once the car is back at my shop in a few weeks.

And once its back, I'll be installing a Miata 1.6L engine and 5speed transmission along with a Haltech Sprint 500. Since I'm getting older, loud high powered cars are almost not fun anymore on the street so I opted to go with the Miata engine because they are plentyful, cheap to repair, cheap on fuel, low HP (keep me outta trouble) and keeps the orignal displacement with all the reliabilities of EFI.

Keep checking back for waaaaayy more pics in the next few weeks when I get my car back from Re-Speed!

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1969 Sno-Fury 303 Sachs
1971 Arctic Cat Panther 303 Sachs
1971 Mazda R100
1972 Mazda 616
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE

Nice car! Glad to hear it is going to get some love and attention! Rust around the windscreens is a problem with all these early Mazdas and usually turns out to be much worse once the windscreen is removed to fix it..

As for the rear end the Toyota Hilux (4x4) LSD diff is a common conversion down under for Rotary conversions but now you are going back to a piston maybe the existing diff would still work?
Then all you need to do is reset the rear leaf springs..

I look forward to seeing more pictures!!!!

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Looks fantastic. Great that it is going piston powered again - Miata engine is a nice choice.

No leaf springs here, RX-2's and 616's had a 4 link.

Here is a pic of the KYB shocks and King lowering springs I imported from Aus just after I swapped the 13B into it

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1969 Sno-Fury 303 Sachs
1971 Arctic Cat Panther 303 Sachs
1971 Mazda R100
1972 Mazda 616
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE

Holllly, its been a while. I hardly have time to work on my own cars.

Anyways, I finally have the full 5 bolt swap done with T2 FC brakes all around, I also fitted my Work Ewing rims.

16x8 fronts and 16x9.5 rears! All fitting under stock sheetmetal.

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1969 Sno-Fury 303 Sachs
1971 Arctic Cat Panther 303 Sachs
1971 Mazda R100
1972 Mazda 616
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE

chubby rim choice. dam those 616 rear 1/4 badges are cool campared to the regular capella and rx2.

More pic's please! The stance looks great!
How about pic's of engine and efi conversion?

any updates with this?

how does it ride on the coilovers upfront?

i'm looking to do something similar in the coming months

Sorry, its along way from running and driving yet.

I just moved to a new 1250sq/ft shop to keep all my projects, work will begin on the driveline very soon!

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1969 Sno-Fury 303 Sachs
1971 Arctic Cat Panther 303 Sachs
1971 Mazda R100
1972 Mazda 616
1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE

Capella diff will be more then adequate.

Looks good with those rims to.

I look forward to seeing more progress on this Capella. Out of curiosity, can you recommend a Canadian wrecker who may be able to help me source a pair of 616 badges and tail lights? Thanks in advance.

your best chance is ebay

Hey Joe could you post a picture of the plate in the door jam that says the production date of your car? I thought only 71s were supposed to have the vented hood, seeing as how yours is a 72 I'd like to get a general idea of how far into the year they made it with the vented hood