Has there ever been a factory turbo protege before the Mazdaspeed? I would find it hard to believe a company that has used turbos on RX-7's wouldn't at least experiment with a short production run.. thanks

 

Not in the states . But over seas they had tons 90-94 gtx with a 1.8 dohc turbo hitting 180 hp. They called them familias they were also awd. im not sure if any 80's 323 sedans had turbos in the states.Jon

 

Yes they sold 323 gt-x models here with a 1.6l BP engine and factory turbo, like 130-140hp i think

They had the turbo mx-6 2.2l turbo

They had the turbo 626 2.2l turbo

in japan they have lots, they now are thinking of a turbo 2.3l Mazdaspeed 6

Kyle Lancaster--Mystery Mazda Dealer

 

There was also a 323gt, which was truly the predecessor to the MSP. It was a 4-door 323 with a 1.6L turbo made from around '86 to '89 or so.

 

Hey thanks for the info! I was thinking about buying one if I could find one for a pretty good price maybe about 800 to 1000 and fixing it up! I might pursue that and make it my project and hopefully have it in some kind of a magazine some day.

 

Good luck finding one. The 323 GT was a dismal sales failure; Mazda offered it only in 1988, and only about 600 were sold. Nifty car if you can find one tho.

 

I remember a few years ago (and the protegetech website has info on it I believe) Mazda and HKS built a 3rd gen turbocharged protege. It was red, they only built one, and it had around 200bhp from the 1.8L HKS turbocharged FS engine. It had a body kit also, with Racing Hart 17" wheels, but looked very different than a MP3 or Mazdaspeed appearence wise. I will try to find the old Road and Track that had a write up on it in the Ampersand section...

I do realize that you can't buy this one, but was just pointing out that Mazda did experiment with turbo'ing the 3rd gen not long after it was introduced..