I picked up a Montrose a few weeks back, 47k on the clock and one owner from new. It had been sat for 15 years before I found it

I will be restoring it in the new year








The tow bar has been removed! (Not the sort of thing I would fit!)

Welcome aboard Brett, man sweet ride, I love those series coupes, love to add one to the collection. Looks like it's in really good condition, making your job a bit easier.

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Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

It's pretty good, theres been a knock at the front end - and it has a few rust holes here and there, but nothing terminal

Looking to drop in the running gear from one of my Rx7's in time for Rotorstock

Awesome find! Love the brown color and the name... "Montrose" LOL!
What are your plans for it?

Welcome to JNC

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is that a 626 coupe???...

pretty sure its a 626 coupe..... seen one near me quite regulary... dont know how common these are in australia but i have seen quite a few

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In the UK the 626 was initially badged as the Mazda Montrose, only the later generation were called 626.
The one I have is a Pillarless coupe, it was specced especially for a disabled couple in 1979 and delivered in 1980. (Hence why it is an auto - automatic versions were not generally available in the UK until 1981 when it became an option)

The spec of my Montrose is:

2.0 MA engine
Head lamp washers
Electric boot release
Electric wing mirror
Radio
...Although strangely it doesn't have hazard lights!

With a bit of luck the weather will clear this weekend and i can get some work done on it!

Looks ripe for a 13b!

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'75 TA22 Celica/'84 MA61 Celica-Supra/'73 Corona

Yeah man, it's the 626 coupe, our English friends just had a cooler badge name. Some of the Montrose range too, had a different front nose panels with a deeper recessed bonnet line. This was common to some of the European countries as well. I believe though it was only for the CB rwd series though, I think it got the normal 626 badging like ours when the FWD version arrived.





WE got both series 1 and 2 CB rwd coupes, but we got a lot more of the later plastic bumper version, late 1980 onwards.

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Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

Is it just me,or does that gold-ish colored car have an obscene amount of negative camber in the rear? Were they equipped with independent rear suspension?

Very cool car!!! I wish we still had older Mazda's around here,but they all went to the big salt shed in the sky long ago.

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Chris

78 RX-7 GS Spark Yellow
74 REPU Lawn Green

Hey Chris, I think its just my camera angle man! They're just some of my old Mazda brochure photo's. All of the CB RWD series were solid rear axle, running the trailing arm/coil spring set up.

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Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

ANyone know if the rear end on the Montrose will poke up with the 280bhp/250ft-lb I'm intending to put through it?

Superb motor, I love the Montrose! You should bring it to the next OJC event (TBA), the Montrose is one of those obscurities we get a bit exciteable about.

I did ponder buying that one for some time, but I'm holding out for the (probably extinct) 4-door. Hopefully one will turn up at some point, no doubt in a suitably grandad-style colour and spec.

Good luck with it!

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http://www.oldjapanesecar.com

Cool have signed up to OJC now as well

I'm currently on Mazda Rotary Club & Retro Car club too

My other half and I have a few cars on the go

4 Rx7's, a 323 and the Montrose - plus an 89 Prelude

Not seen any four doors for years - theres a mint Coupe on Car and classic - but it's a might pricey! (£2800)

Actualy there is a realy nice one of those in Lynn Ma.! White with a black and tan two tone interior. An older guy owns it and I presume has since new. I have been trying to talk to him about it for the past couple of years but short of walking up to his door I have not had the chance yet.

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Brad D.

'83 Sapporo Technica; '84 Starion ES; '87 Conquest TSi;
'91 RX7 convertible; '68 Camaro SS 350 convertible; '71 NSU 1200c

Wow, well done for saving this one Brett, I'm sorry I didn't see this thread sooner.

If you turn up at an OJC, don't be surprised if I'm the first to come and see your Montrose!

I too looked at the one on C&C and saw it advertised some years ago, the logistics of getting it back from NI and lack of space are against it unfortunately.

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Just 16 of me left in the UK!

Where did you get the info regarding the number of surving cars etc?

I wrote to DVLA who passed me onto a subcontractor of data (effectively). Rather than pay hundreds of pounds or some such daft figure, a fellow took pity on me and discounted the fee considerably in exchange for some sketchy information on an Excel sheet, which I had to fiddle with to extract the appropriate information.

From this I managed to establish there appeared to be 16 of mine, which is the carburettor-engined first FWD 626s (Y-C reg). This does not however include SORN and other stored vehicles that have fallen outside of their record.

The main cause of the poor survival rate is the agreement on import quotas that continued into the mid 80s, and the comparative rarity of the Coupe variant to start with amongst the 626 import quota.

They are notoriously difficult to repair around the back end and are prone to rust in this area too, which have put paid to most of the rest.

The figure of 16 does not include the 2.0 EGi variant of the same shape (C-E reg). I'd suggest there are more of these left, but probably only 50 or so now running in the UK at a guess.

The figure may well be less now, but at this level I'd suggest that numbers will drop very slowly.

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Just 16 of me left in the UK!

Congrats on getting it past the red tape!

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