924Board.org

[garthfan]

Driving to work this morning down 202 in the 924S and some kid in a newer Mazda3 got a bug up his butt and decided he wanted to be glued to my bumper. When the lane finally split into two, I decided to come down to his level and stomp on the gas. Much to my dismay and utter frustration, I BARELY kept ahead of him -and I mean by a NOSE- until the lanes came back down to one for the rotary. After fishtailing around the rotary -rainy morning- I got stuck behind a Blazer that pulled out and the Mazda snuck by and was gone.

Normally, I don't road-race, but occasionally it's nice to smoke somebody on an otherwise empty road. And, yes, I'm used to driving big-block Chevy's and 351W Mustangs, but I was pretty disheartened that all the work I've had done to this engine didn't give me ANY advantage whatsoever over a Mazda. I may as well have been driving a Peugot.

Anybody have any other track or road experiences like this???
_________________
1987 924S - Was a daily driver...now it's GONE! *sniff*
1986 944 N/A Guards Red
1996 VW Jetta Grocery-Getter
1995 Saab 900S Winter-Driving-Feeling-of-Security-Vehicle

[924guy]

dont feel bad, the 6 is a pretty impressive car.. the baseline model has 160hp and the "S" version is 220hp... and the weight distrib is 60/40... disks all around and a nice handling package.. the base model is a fairly equal match for 924s. and with all things relatively equal, is all comes down to the driver..

you also have to remember, thats a brand new car which the guy just spent better than 20k for, just to be on equal footing with your 924s...in that dept youve won big time..
id bet youd best him on a track...that extra 5% of balance would work more in your favor there... and its a safer environment where you can concentrate entirely on the task at hand ..no pesky troopers or SUV'S to watchout for...
_________________
Eric
78 924
82 931 SE "smokey"
99' VehiCross
Y2K Honda Insight
http://www.cardomain.com/id/924Guy
Performance by Pasha

[CBass]

There are many cars that will outpace a 924S in a straight line. Take that little Mazda 3 to the track, and see how well he can keep up with you in a sweeping corner


Also, to be fair, the Mazda 3 is poised to dethrone the Mini Cooper S as the best handling front wheel drive car in the world. An improvement on the already excellent Focus/Protege platform, the 3 is a pretty sporty little car.

I'm very impressed with Mazda's engineering, to be honest. When cash flow permits, I'll be swapping in a KL series V6 from a Mazda MX6, probably a JDM KL-ZE, although my cousin has recently bought a Probe GT with the KL engine, and I've been promised the engine if he wraps it around a telephone pole

Here's a little writeup on the motor

http://www.rs-productions.com/RSP_Motors/tech/sae-920677/sae-920677.htm
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'81 931 in various states of assembly

[-nick]

I'll agree that Mazda doing a pretty good job in the performance category lately.

Garthfan- we should get a meet/cruise thing together this summer. I'm just over in Northampton and another friend of mine with an '88 S is up in Deerfield. Heck, with Diesel just down in CT and eturbo in Boston, we could have a nice collection of cars together- we'd have all the models covered (minus the GT!) and even pretty impressive examples of each.

PS- careful on 202, that's where I got my first speeding ticket in MA (going toward Rt 2)! I'm sure you know this already.

-nick

[garthfan]

-nick:

A get-together would be pretty cool, indeed. Just let me know when and where and I'll be there....

You know, I've been driving to and from work on 202 every day for the past eight months and I'll bet I haven't seen more than five troopers in all that time, but everybody tells me, "Watch out!" And I travel from the Orange area all the way down into Holyoke. HOWEVER! Watch out for the South Hadley police. They're quite adept at finding places to hide.

garthfan@hotmail.com/jjones@star-press.com If anyone's interested in the New England get-together.
_________________
1987 924S - Was a daily driver...now it's GONE! *sniff*
1986 944 N/A Guards Red
1996 VW Jetta Grocery-Getter
1995 Saab 900S Winter-Driving-Feeling-of-Security-Vehicle