TheSeatHeater

Future classics (in my mind) part III

As we already have listed two spiced up family cars let's have a third one. But this one is a little bit different as it was meant to go to rallying to the World Rally Championship but never made it. 

The car in question is the Mazda Familia GTR or known as well as Mazda 323 GT-R. I don't know much about this car. I only found out it existed late last year and was astounded by the lengths that Mazda went to only to not become a part of the WRC line up. But anyhow, what we got out of it was 2500 pieces of Japanese top techonology and precision in the early 90's, which is never a bad thing. Because it was meant to go rallying it has a sophisticated four-wheel drive system and a unique 210 hp 1.8 litre turbocharged engine instead of the standard 2.0 litre turbo found on the other road going rally cars from that period. And of course being a sort of car that it is, it is hard to find one that is not modified. But be assured, if you find one that is untouched by eager tuning fingers you'll be in for a profitable buy.

The Familia GTR also has a more hardcore version the GT-Ae. It is lighter than the GTR and there were only 300 made. You can also go for the budget version, the GTX. It also has 4WD and the same engine but with 185 hp. Inside the biggest difference between the GTR and the GTX is that the GTR has leather seats and the GTX doesn't. The GT-Ae doesn't have leather seats either, but that is to save weight.

Now we've reached the point where you can choose between an original Subaru Impreza WRX or Mitsubishi Evo 1. Or then you could choose a unique rally car for the road with a tragic history of never being able to show it's true potential to the world.

All of that four-wheel drive goodness.

This is how it looks from behind. Sorry for the bad picture.