Street Sighting ~ Mazda 323

By

January petered out and the start of Feb fell off a cliff so back to some regular programming starting with a plastic Japanese survivor car on some wheels.

Oh and relax it's a Mazda 323 GTX so it's actually special.

http://www.cornerstories.au

Not so much special because a partition of these are 4WD-turbocharged cars homologated to go group A racing, but more such a rare and curious machine to be street parked in the eastern suburbs.

http://www.cornerstories.au

Now I guessing this specific car is an AU-delived FWD DOHC turbo simply because it it was 4WD it would likely be sporting more decals to say so. That aside I loved walking around this 2-door economy hatch and taking notes of the little ways Mazda tried to hot to body up to match the 1.6l turbo4 under the bonnet.

http://www.cornerstories.au

Turbo decals, tick*

Spoiler/s, tick*

http://www.cornerstories.au
 no way, sunroof too.

It also had a chin spoiler (lip), side skirts and a real schmick looking interior that is likely a high trim variant.

http://www.cornerstories.au

It's a level-headed hot hatch if there's such a thing. Kind of boring, probably sensible at the time, but packs some performance and a whole lota goodies to admire and geek out on. The only thing I was in two worlds about was the wheels. The car was running some truly ancient CSA wheels. And while I would have liked to see it on factory alloys - potentially unique to this trim, I made peace with the CSA metal.

http://www.cornerstories.au

But why? Well I was picking up a mate from his mates shed and passed the CSA warehouse/factory in Salisbury. Back in the 80s CSA was acquired by another aus wheel company and woulda been making the alloys depicted above locally. So while they're pretty bland for an aftermarket wheel at least they originate from the backyard - making em era and location accurate. A true SA survivor car.

http://www.cornerstories.auhttp://www.cornerstories.au

More stories n' nonsense on the coming round the corner soon.
Adelaide based. No real consistency just yarns, plain and simple.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The first BYD was a Holden??

By
Image
Let's start with a very simple concept. The image below is a VN Commodore wagon, made in my backyard ( Aussie land ). Simple enough. Now here's where it gets a little more interesting; We actually sold these to China ( it gets better ). However, that's been covered before; UNIQUE CARS So instead I wanted to bring this to your attention... Yep, the first BYD was in fact a VN Commo wags . Wikipedia : BYD began exploring hybrid and electric vehicles as early as 1997, before acquiring Xi'an Qinchuan Automobile. In that year, Wang Chuanfu, as part of his research into electric vehicles, purchased a BJ6490D, an electric car made by Beijing Second Auto Works that was built off an imported knock-down kit of the Holden Commodore VN station wagon. The BJ6490D was powered by golf cart batteries, with a range of about 100 km (62 mi) and a top speed of 92 km/h (57 mph). Later, BYD acquired a second BJ6490D, which was subsequently converted into a hybrid vehicle.
Read more

Yeah Bud!

By
Image
While the nats is just around the corner here's a Low Standards fix to close out 2025. Keen viewers may have seen Jay post about acquiring a pair of Simmons racing wheels earlier this year. And because the Low Standards HQ is cool relics, birthdays and Aussie brand-centric it's a good time to go a littler deeper. Jay remarked the pair had spent significant time in a swamp. So while that means they've developed a bita patina, I'd say they are about on brand for Low Standards . "Yeah, genuine Simmons mags." "Chuck em on a bonfire and get hours of white flames, haha." "You know people used to do that with VW cylinder heads." The barrels are steel, the centres are magnesium - which is where the mag wheels notion originates.  And the tyres, Dunlop Racing - 265/535-13 'FOR RACING PURPOSE ONLY' Older headz than me will also remember when Dunlop manufactured Volley's (amongst other products) . But for an additional eleven bucks...
Read more

Street Sighting ~ Subaru WRX

By
Image
This car has passed, been opposite and crossed in front of me multiple times driving. Every time so incredibly short - enough to bug me with intrigue.  So to finally see it standing still I took my chance to pass, circle, cross it & take pics. I found it pretty perplexing. Close examination revealed it was more setup as a track toy and yet every prior interaction it was running the streets. Normally when I type up these street sightings I undertake a bit of guess work. But for this rather unique looking rexy, with no internet presence, I attempted some research ( desperate to know more ). Lucky one bloke came through ( Cheers Grant ). The car has been an SA car for at least half a decade, starting life as a street car that progressed into its current state. Motor wise a built 2litre mated to a STI 6speed gives it the ducks guts. The other works like suspension, brakes, seats, turbo, and  ECU make for a level headed but quick bita machinery. But the kicka has to be the ae...
Read more