Hey guys this is my first car, a 1981 626...

Getting it registered very soon.

I'll be using this car as a daily driver but have some ideas for it.
Before I go on I should mention that I love Japanese racing cars of the 70's and early 80's and love classic rally cars too. Any type of historic racing car turns me on in fact.
This is the type of stuff I like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCJiZhH__E.

Cosmetically I want to leave the car as it is besides getting some wheels like those Epsilons or similar, Gloss black mesh with chrome rim. Hoping to find something on the cheap side.
To go with those wheels I want to find some racing tires, preferably reproductions of 70's racing crossply or radials. If anyone can suggest some tires I'd appreciate that, Dunlop does some but their information is vague. The reason I want these is just for use on weekends when I'm out driving for fun, maybe the odd track day. The rest of the time I'll just bolt the stock wheels on with road tires. It might sound silly but If I want to get into racing I think driving on race tires every chance I can get is a good way for me to get used to them and learn to drive in a certain manner.

I'm not into the ultra low thing, suspension needs some room to actually work so the car stays relatively stock height wise, replaced some suspension & steering parts however which has been an improvement. Quite chuffed with what I've fixed on it so far as I've never worked on a car on my own before, pretty simple machine really, nothing's fallen off yet!

As for the engine... it's the standard MA 2L and seems to run fine, car has 170xxx Km on the clock and was owned by an old guy for most of it's life.
I've found where I can buy a manifold for a Weber 45 DCOE carb, but I've seen mixed emotions about what these engines can do, one guy on THIS forum reckons he's turbocharged, supercharged them etc. and they've been good, people on another site reckon they're doomed to be a clagger and have no potential. To be honest I'd be quite happy if I only had minimal gains in power from ditching the emissions crap that's sucking in hot air and exhaust fumes, fitting a Weber, having an open exhaust system made, and tuning it as best I can, as long as the car sounded awesome and the responsiveness was improved. I'm interested to know what can be done to the engine itself, if I did the above mods would I benefit from any porting? Camshaft upgrades etc?

Hope someone who has experience with the MA motors can tell me what I can expect and what I should look at doing.

I'll keep you up to date with things if I go down this path and maybe we'll see if these cars can perform well with basic mods or at least be more fun than you would think.

Cheers.

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1981 Mazda 626 Sedan
Zoom Zoom...

I love 626s! Your car is SO MUCH WIN!
Why is every second S2 626 you see either beige or brown? Was Mazda only thinking about old people buying them?

I hope you are bringing this up to the Hanging Rock craft market on the 17th?

The first beige S2 coupe I bought from an old woman in Noosaville. The engine was a boat anchor, so this was getting the
rotary engine conversion I always dreamed of, but no because........


Then I found this!

The second beige/ivory coupe I bought from an old guy just outside of Brisbane. He bought it from another old guy
for his daughter and she didn't like it coz there was no power steering! Her loss!!!!!!

Hey, was this the one for sale up in Bendigo?

Unless you are going to turbo it, don't waste your time and money.
The MA is a long stroke, lazy motor that made 76kW from the factory.
Bore and stroke is 80 x 98. Good for torque not much else!

If you want to stay old school, get the 1600 motor(Capella and 808) - it's bore and stroke make it
almost square - 78 x 83. This is the motor you want to tweak!

Funny you should say that about them all being brown because I've been to 2 wreckers which have this car and they were both that 80's boxy car blue colour.

I bought mine off a bus driver from Eltham (Melbourne NE suburbs) for $400, heard about it through word of mouth. Only has 170,000ks which is good.

Won't be able to take the car anywhere at the moment as it's on a UVP, unless i can get a roadworthy and register it within the fortnight... which is possible, just need to do the trailing arm bushes! Might need to get a new Alternator as well, 6 month old battery won't charge after going flat... Otherwise I'd be keen to take it out.

Also about the motor... I found this page for a coupe which some guy turbo'd, yet he claims he ditched the turbo and went to twin sidedraughts.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2638331/1980-mazda-626/

Another guy said he was happy with the result after putting a 32/36 DGV and extractors on his MA, I suppose it's up to personal preference, maybe he was happy with spending $600 to get one extra horsepower, who knows. I like to experiment and I'm still young so maybe I should give it a go, I can always try to sell the carby if I'm not happy with it. Let's be honest, if you're into modifying any sort of car you're losing money in the end.

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1981 Mazda 626 Sedan
Zoom Zoom...

From an older bloke(still playing with cars) to a young bloke, save your money and spend it on the stuff that really needs fixing!
She's 32 years old. Instead of trying to make her go faster, make her safer. Do all important things first like the brakes, struts,
tie rods, ball joints, all the bushes. Even maybe fix - if she has it, the aircon.

Then, once she is a nice safe comfortable cruiser, then look at improving her performance. This then gives you time to save your cash,
do the research, then spend your money wisely on the bits you need.

Sorry, the benefit of hindsight after tweaking with cars for 30 years. Just trying to help you save your cash.

Appreciated Philip, I just put new discs and pads in and bled the brakes, new shockers in the front. My brother was a technician at pedders for 5 years and has looked over the suspension for me and thinks it all seems good, but suggested i get some more new bushes for it soon, other than that it's pretty straight.
And yes it does have aircon, probably needs to be re-gassed though as it doesn't feel very cold.

I'm not in any huge rush but I want to get the roadworthy by the end of the month otherwise I'll have to get another permit. I'll take your words in my stride anyway, sounds like a good idea.
Cheers.

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1981 Mazda 626 Sedan
Zoom Zoom...

nice 626 Trezza , and wise words Phillip!

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round and round and now up and down!