13 May 2009

Below is what the car looked like 5-6 years ago, i wish it still looked like that now. The boot layout still looks similar though a few components have been changed, the car is the same colour but the clear coat is peeling off in places and anything that could have surface rust, has surface rust.

So, a few details of the car, which may explain why i like it so much.

It's a New zealand new Mazda 626 GT. Aparently the colour might be factory calamari gold. what ever it is, i havent seen any other Ford or Mazda with the same colour.

It has full electric controls for the doors, windows, sunroof and boot. Air con with the two vents in the dash that move side to side. It's a 5 speed manual with factory cruize control, speed controlled power steering, auto damping suspension which adjusts depending on speed, heavy acceleration and heavy braking. It also has the 2ltr, Fuel injected, 4 cylinder, N/A, 10:1 compression ratio, DOHC, 16v gold top engine with the dual intake manifold system. Pretty normal stuff for a car of today, but this car is almost 20 years old!!!! 

As far as modifications go, I want to keep this car as close to standard as i can, so i had a new 2.25" exhaust fitted from the front pipe, all the way back to the crome tips. I also installed a K&N air filter, removed the intake muffler link behind the paggenger gaurd (intake still sits behind the indicator light, havent rerouted that). 110A EA Falcon alternator (straight replacement for the original 70A), home made oil catch can, dynamat in the front doors and the 17" avanti aztec alloy's..... oh i almost forgot about the crome window washers to help the car go that little bit faster.

The car stereo is always a working progress, at the moment i'm trying to reduce the wieght so i can start saving on fuel. The picture above shows the current box which is constructed from a sheet of 2400x1200x25mm MDF. anyone that works with MDF will tell you those sheets are not light (the top of the box is the parcel tray). I've finally thrown out the 9yr old pioneer 6x9's you can see, the tweeters were slightly UV damaged, just slightly :) Becuase the current subs are the entry level pioneer 12", i'm thinking it may be best for me to buy a single decent 12" sub, build a smaller box and stuff it with polyfill (1.5lb to every ft^3). It might be a few Db queiter but in the long run it should mean more money in the pocket from the fuel savings and i should still have some nice boom in the boot.

The next page shows what it looks like now.