Welcome to this weeks Trade Me Find. This time, we have found what quite possibly is the last dead stock REAR WHEEL DRIVE Mazda 323 wagon!
This car has obviously been taken care of its whole life and appears to have never been in an accident due to the straight panel gaps. It has been resprayed in the factory Mazda red colour which suits this car quite well.
What's really rare is the fact that the Mazda has retained the original TC straight 4 engine. Most of these early 323's were modified and had Rotary engines such as the 12A and 13B from Mazda RX7's fitted which resulted in many being thrashed, bashed and wrecked. The motor has had a rebuild including big end bearings, new rings and a valve grind which means that it should run just like new.
The interior appears to be in excellent condition and doesn't appear to have any rips or stains at all. The interior is also fully original which is astounding for a 35 year old car.
Overall, this 323 wagon is a very clean and original example of a car that used to be plentiful in New Zealand but now rare. The car has a Buy Now price of $7,500 with bidding at $6,500. To view the Trade Me listing, click here.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more awesome automotive articles!
If you haven't seen these videos yet then now's your lucky chance! They have been out for quite a while now, but perfectly showcase what sort of cars we kiwis love to build and are quite entertaining and interesting to watch. They're presented by Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire, one of the worlds top automotive journalists. Enjoy folks!
While having a snoop at other people's race cars on the awesome Facebook page RCIS (Race Cars In Sheds), these retro photos from around 1998 popped up. They were taken at the excellent Manfeild Racing Circuit in Feilding and according to the post, are of some Japanese students who used to regularly attend the Manfeild "Open Track Days" and slide their cars around the track.
These first photos are of a stock looking 1988 Nissan Silvia S13. These cars are notorious for being perfect drift cars and finding a decent one these days is almost impossible.
Next up is this blue Nissan Sunny B310. The Sunny isn't as well known for drifting as the Silvia, but still appears to go sideways alright when provoked into a powerslide.
Classic Nissans/Datsuns were quite popular back in the day and still are today with this Datsun 510 sedan also being taken 'round the track. Sadly, finding one of these today is tough and decent ones sell for silly prices.
Last but not least is this Ford Escort van. You would think that the van would be the tow vehicle for the other cars but nope, they're out on the track having fun. Awesome!
Unfortunately, due to modern safety restrictions and insurance policies regarding race tracks, these sorts of events can no longer be held and people can't access proper facilities cheaply anymore. These cool images show the much less restricted fun that people had back in the old days where over restricting laws didn't spoil their fun. Of course, some laws are there to protect us but having to spend tons of money to go for a day at the track is not accessible for everyone.
Do you know if any of these cars still exist? Leave a comment below or on our Facebook page. Thanks for reading!
Welcome to Part 2 of our HardPark 2017 feature. We apologise for being a bit slow on releasing part 2 as we have been quite busy recently. Anyway, enjoy!
This Nissan Skyline GTS-4 was a surprising sight as they are quite rare and are technically a less powerful GT-R. The GTS-4 features an RB20DET, just like a GTS-t does but with the added traction of 4WD derived from the GT-R.
Another rare sight was this Series 1 Mazda RX7. They are quite rare nowadays as the majority of them have been thrashed and crashed due to them being cheap imports. The car looks excellent in a factory looking green colour.
This "shovel nose" Toyota corona also had a rotary in it but it was mounted incredibly low in the engine bay. It appeared to be fully rust free and immaculate inside and out.
The RX3 sedan was another interesting classic Mazda and was incredibly well built. The body of the car looked flawless and the red paint had an excellent shine in the sun.
Dream Factory Racing were also there with an awesome line up of cars including the Nissan EXA Turbo and rat rod Nissan Skyline R31 wagon.
This Toyota Starlet appeared to be in immaculate original condition which is incredibly rare nowadays due to the car's RWD platform and great aftermarket support.
Is this the most tidy R33 around? This Nissan Skyline GTS25T was in stunning condition and looked excellent in the factory red/burgundy colour.
It wasn't just classic cars on show, this brand new Ford Focus RS looked staunch and seemed quite big when compared with the other Japanese cars surrounding it.
Looking at this Toyota Corolla SR coupe reminded me of old school Japan as it featured numerous period modifications such as "fish net" Recaro seats, flair guards, mesh wheels and old Bridgestone tyres.
This Mazda RX7 was another minter and appeared to be stock as a rock. The FD RX7 was always a magnificent looking car from the factory and the owner of this car obviously appreciates the car as is, which is excellent in my opinion.
That concludes our HardPark 2017 feature. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more automotive articles!
While driving down the road the other day, I saw this out the corner of my eye. A 1980's Toyota Sprinter Trueno that is a replica of the star car of the Initial D Anime series.
The detail of this replica is amazing as practically everything is replicated from the cartoon. This includes the RS Watanabe wheels, black bonnet and "Tofu Shop" decals. The Trueno was also very clean and tidy which is excellent as unfortunately, most of these AE86's have been thrashed and neglected.
Overall, it's a very cool and iconic classic Toyota that should hopefully be preserved for years to come.
This year, we attended the annual HardPark Car Show event at the Riverbank Car Park in Lower Hutt. The event is hosted by Speedmagnet, an awesome bunch that create automotive content just like us.
The event drew thousands of car enthusiasts with an equally impressive number of cars and trucks to the big car park with a diverse range of vehicles spanning many different manufacturers and countries.
Anyway, here is some excellent footage from HardPark 2K17!
First up is this incredibly wild and definitely not mild Nissan 180SX. The car is fitted with a Rocket Bunny widebody kit all round and a really nice light blue paint job. Grunt is delivered via a Chevrolet LS V8 engine that had a very lumpy and healthy growl.
Next is this similarly wide Nissan Skyline wagon. This car sports a custom made widebody kit with boxy arches that feature nicely with the wagon's rectangular shape. Interestingly, instead of being powered by the RB30E Single Cam straight 6, the car runs the legendary SR20DET Twin Cam 4 Cylinder engine instead. Very cool.
This Nissan Skyline R30 was a pleasant surprise as there aren't many left of this model. This one was heavily modified and featured a V8 in the front that came right back to the firewall. I couldn't get a shot of the front as there was a large crowd of people in the way.
Parked not too far from the previous cars was this Toyota Hilux that had this awesome set of Individual Throttle Bodies poking through the bonnet. The dark grey paint job was complimented by the shiny metal ram pipes on the top of the intake.
Another interesting V8 swap was this Nissan Skyline GTS-X. It had a 4.1 Litre Nissan V8 fitted instead of the RB20DET Turbo Straight 6 that it came out with.
Now that we're on the subject of engine swaps, this CA18DET was swapped into a classic KP Toyota Starlet. By the looks of things, this would probably make the Starlet an insane little monster to drive!
This Toyota Corolla SR Coupe was also packing a Nissan engine, an SR20DET to be exact. This car also featured on NAC Car Culture in Episode 1 of Season 3 which is easy to see why as it is amazingly well built and looks perfect in the black and orange colour scheme.
Hiding amongst the Evo's and Integra's was this lone MK1 Ford Escort. The bodywork on the car is absolutely magnificent and dead straight and the colour scheme is to die for. The Esky had a nice set of Minilite wheels on it that suited the car perfectly.
Lurking next to a bright Yellow Mazda wagon was this Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 2 looked very tidy and ready to race with the replica rally livery looking very exquisite on the car.
This tidy Toyota Soarer is packing a mighty 1JZGTE that has been converted to single turbo. I have seen and heard this car driving and believe me, it sounds good.
This Lancia Delta Turbo was an interesting sight at a car show that is predominantly JDM. The seat design and Nardi steering wheel just scream Italian appeal.
Last but not least is this interesting build. I'm not too sure what to say about this one, a Mazda MX5 that has a strange combination of colour shifting paint job and twin exit Bosozoku exhaust pipes!
This concludes Part One of our HardPark 2017 feature. Stay tuned for Part 2 shortly!
