car advise needed

[mattheadfat]

ok, i've got a 91 mazda 626 lx (yeah, i know family sedan). it's in great shape, no rust, no body damage, perfect interior, well maintained at 182k kms. but i need a car like this for the room, i've got to be able to fit all my drums in it as well as some PA equiptment when i'm gig'ing and having a 5 door with a big hatch and seats that folds away gives me tons of room. plus i like 5 door vechiles.
now, i was thinking about pimping it out. nothing over the top (3 tier spoilers with an overkill body kit). how much would it cost to get the GT (2.2L turbo) engine for this car as well as redo the exhaust and intake and tune in up a little. are there performance parts built for 91 mx-6 cause i believe there are the same car (mine being an mx-6 touring sedan). would it be too expensive for a car like this? you see people doing it to honda's all the time.

my goal is to have reliable sporty sedan with about 200hp. Is this realistic?


thanks,



matt

[caddmannq]

Realistic is a relative term. BTW, we owned one of these for 9 years, and just gave it to my daughter. 120k+ & still runs well.

But: once you boost the HP, several things are going to become obvious:

The trans, CV joints, suspension, radiator and motor mounts are all tuned (sized) for a 142 HP car. You're going to shorten the life of most of these things dramatically when you "get it on."

Driveability will suffer, as you push the HP peak up the RPM band. You'll be barking it up to get off the line, as the torque curve will shift up also. Running at higher RPM will shorten the accessory life as well (water pump, alternator, etc.)

Gas mileage around town will suffer as well.

The brakes are sized for a 142 HP car as well. As you zoom about faster, they'll be taking more wear.

I'm not saying that you can't do what you want here; it's just that by the time you do it all and see what you've got, that you might just wish you'd bought a more powerful car instead.

The down-side to hot rodding has always been that practicality suffers, because you're tweaking one side of a system (the entire car being a designed system) without ballancing the other side(s).

Now, I do this kind of stuff myself (well, not with a Mazda...) so go for it if you wanna, dude. Just don't misunderstand what you'll wind up with. The TCO (total cost of ownership) will go up more that just the cost of the modifications.

[mattheadfat]

thanks for the input, i never really thought about most of that. 142 is the GT's hp rating?

[Bullion]

Hey, a friend of mine's brother is a mechanic (he rally's his own car). He is a firm believer that if you do something to the engine, you need to match that with the suspension, (am i right in saying the 626 is a front driver??) Which is especially the case in a froont driver that dont have the best handling characheristics under power.

my 2 cents

Ive been slowly working my alfa 33, and its been a heap of fun along the way (taking money away from my computer ) Its a good hobby in my opinion.

[mattheadfat]

yup, it's fwd. it's fun to drive, i wish it was a bit more ballsy, i was thinking about doing droping it a bit, upgrading were i can, some new wheels

Look at the BMW 760i turbo charged. Will meet your requirements.

[caddmannq]

Oh...I didn't realize it was a GT.

I'm not sure what the differences are there.
Ours was the basic 4-door '91 626 Mazda, w/ automatic, & California emissions package.

142 HP in stock trim.

[caddmannq]

Look at the BMW 760i turbo charged. Will meet your requirements.

Woohoo! Would it!

It also costs about $2 per hour to own one here.

It also costs about $2 per hour to own one here.

MINUTE, more likely. Does everything but make your morning coffee!!

[Bullion]

look at www.alfa-pages.co.uk under the suspension icon at the top(then go on to the suspension guide), while it is pretty much alfa specific, it has some good tips for 'dumpin', wheels and suspension.

catch