Mazda Xedos from 1993

Radisichrox · 31 Dec 2001, 20:20 (Ref:192096)

What kind of a gearbox did that car have, a sequential, or an H-pattern? Thanks!

Aidan J Harvey · 4 Jan 2002, 16:46 (Ref:193876)

It had a sequential. Every works car apart from the BMW and Renault had sequential boxes. Renault got theirs in mid season. BMW in 1994.

Radisichrox · 4 Jan 2002, 17:41 (Ref:193893)

Oh, okay, thanks!

JEMMO · 4 Jan 2002, 19:44 (Ref:193951)

did the mazda use the same engine as the ford mondeo?

Aidan J Harvey · 4 Jan 2002, 19:57 (Ref:193961)

Yes it was the same Yamaha designed V6 from the Ford Probe.

Radisichrox · 4 Jan 2002, 20:33 (Ref:193986)

Wow, I didn't know that!

Aidan J Harvey · 4 Jan 2002, 20:49 (Ref:193999)

Except they downsized it from 2.5 litres to 2 litres.

redshoes · 4 Jan 2002, 21:58 (Ref:194045)

Well trivia fans, there's a bit of a story behind the engine. The rules at the time said that a manufactorer could use any engine in it's range, not necessarily from the bodyshell represented. Until Ford came along no-one had actually taken advantage of that rule.

Rather than use a 4-cylinder, Ford wanted to use the V6. Problem was that at the time they hadn't released a V6 Mondeo and the V6 Probe wasn't available in the UK. To top it all it wasn't even a Ford engine, it was originally built by Mazda and re-badged. All perfectly within the rules if not necessarily within the sprirt.

Good indication as well of what money can buy you. Ford's engine, with the help of Cosworth, was considerable better that Mazda's supposedly equivilent unit.

Radisichrox · 5 Jan 2002, 02:55 (Ref:194153)

Hmm, wow! That is a great indication of how different the two cars were.

kmchow · 5 Jan 2002, 22:04 (Ref:194561)

But to play devil's advocated, didn't the engine suffer from being overweight, overly fuel thirsty and affected the car's weight balance? The engine never really reached it's potential until the last year or two?

Radisichrox · 7 Jan 2002, 00:30 (Ref:194725)

Hmm, do you mean the Mazda (which really was a piece of trash and never really reached it's full potential) or the Ford Mondeo? It's well known that my main man Radisich had tons of trouble with the front tires of the car degrading like crazy, as well as it being front-heavy (in 94-95).

kmchow · 7 Jan 2002, 04:12 (Ref:194753)

Radisichrox wrote:

>Hmm, do you mean the Mazda (which really was a piece of trash and >never really reached it's full potential) or the Ford Mondeo?
>
I meant the engines on both the cars I guess.

>It's well known that my main man Radisich had tons of trouble with >the front tires of the car degrading like crazy, as well as it being >front-heavy (in 94-95).
>
Yeah, I recall the engine's heavy weight sat basically right above the tires.

Just out of curiosity, the Mazda's returned to the racetrack in NA for the '97 NATCC. It was nice seeing those cars again. Of course, the cars were just blown away in terms of speed by everything around it! Back in '98, the cars were being offered for 50K US each. I don't know how much the cars are worth today? Maybe 25K?? They're better than the Lantras for racing???

Radisichrox · 7 Jan 2002, 13:19 (Ref:194869)

I think what they used to counter the weight in the front was to put hard tires on the car in hot conditions. Races that were on cold days or non-abrasive circuits would see them using softer tires, but the tires would "go off" and leave Radisich struggling towards the end of the race.

I remember on the 94 review vid it shows a shot of the guys cleaning Radisich's car out after Patrick Watts hit him off, and the bonnet is up on the car. The engine is huge!

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