Aside from the Ford Probe/Mazda MX-6, the collaboration between the Blue Oval and the pride of Hiroshima didn’t produce much in the way of performance cars. But a little know rebadge effort did give Ford a 4WD, rally-derived pocket rocket.
As an attempt by Ford to break into the Japanese market, Ford leveraged their partnership with Mazda to build cars like the Laser and Telstar, which used Mazda mechanicals in an effort to build right-sized cars that would appeal to Japanese consumers. The Laser was also exported to select markets like Australia and New Zealand.
A performance trim, dubbed the TX3, was offered, featuring the Mazda B6 and BP twincam motors used in the Miata and hot versions of the 323. But the TX3 Turbo and Turbo 4WD were the real stars, offering the same running gear and performace as the Mazda 323 GTX. While they offered the B6T and BPT engines of our 323 GTX (and the JDM-only second generation, which used a 1.8L turbo mill), they also suffered from fragile drivelines and uncaring owners.
The Ford Laser TX3 is but a footnote in the canon of Japanese performance cars. Nevertheless, its an under-appreciated bright spot in an ultimately doomed partnership. The similarity between the two cars echoes the near identical nature of the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT86 – but pre-dated even Subaru’s own 4WD turbocharged efforts by a good 5-10 years.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh Sweet. Another cool car we in the U.S.A. never got.
Is NZ LHD? This car appears to be LHD.
If you enlarge the pic you can see the top of the steering wheel on the right side.
If you enlarge the picture you can see the top of the steering wheel on the right side.
Car in the picture is RHD. Pay attention to the wipers orientation…
No we’re RHD, while I’ve seen a few TX3’s around I’m pretty sure most of them were not turbo or 4WD… either that or they’d all died off before I became old enough to learn much about cars.
We essentially got the same car with the Mazda 323 GTX badge. I’m not sure what it matters that we didn’t get it with Ford badges.
Was the 323 GTX turbo’d?
In the 90s for homolgation reasons I do think some turbo’d AWD versions were in the US, but they weren’t GTX’s.
Google is your friend. The 323 GTX was a normal AWD turbo model in the US for two years. They didn’t sell many, but mostly because people didn’t want them once word got out that a clutch drop equaled a new transmission.
Cover up the front 60% of the car, and what do ya get? Isuzu Piazza/I-Mark.
Is this a Guigiaro design? It smacks of him.
323 meets Sierra Cosworth.
I have a JDM GTR transmission in my garage waiting for an appropriate project car. AWD mx3s tracers and capris have been done. Along with drop in swaps in the rare 4wd protege.
“The Ford Laser TX3 is but a footnote in the canon of Japanese performance cars. Nevertheless, its an under-appreciated bright spot in an ultimately doomed partnership. The similarity between the two cars echoes the near identical nature of the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT86 – but pre-dated even Subaru’s own 4WD turbocharged efforts by a good 5-10 years.”
Subaru had the Leone 4wd Turbo model (circa 1983) prior to the 323/Laser Turbo 4WD models (circa 1985).
I just logged into say the same thing. I was like wait, I know Subaru has been playing with AWd/4wd since the early 80s and and turbos just as long. Then I remembered the epic “TURBO 4×4” logo I saw on them. I raced to wikipedia and then back to log in.
Love, love, love those white wheels.
Yeah! This!
Back in high school my first car was a ’93 Escort GT, another Ford/Mazda lovechild and a totally underappreciated hot hatch. It was built on the 323/Protege chassis with the Mazda BP DOHC I4 mentioned above. It was always overlooked as “LOL a performance Escort?” but it was quicker than any Civic, Celica, GTI, etc. that I ever lined up with.
Cars like the 323 GTX and the Laser were legendary among the online Escort enthusiast crowd (laugh all you want). IIRC, a J-spec Mazda BP-T could be had for under $2,000 and could be easily swapped into an Escort GT with only a couple minor modifications to the wiring, which would give you a 2400-lbs turbo hatch with 200+ hp and a sporty Mazda suspension. Pretty damn sweet, but alas it was still just a stupid Escort.
Apparently Tom Magliozzi, co-host of Car Talk, has died of complications from an illness. I loved those guys. Such a great sense of humour and some good advice.
Even Toyota had a 4WD Corolla WRC car from 1997 to 1999, not unlike this thinly disguised Mazda.
http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/Toyota_GT4/Corolla_WRC.html
Ford Telstar, as well as its sister cars from Mazda (Capella sedan and wagon) have never been a good seller there, even in its home prefecture.
The biggest reason being its excessive-for-Japan width, pushing it outside of 5 Number class (less than 1700 mm) and correspondingly making its taxes too heavy for a mass buyer.
These were relatively common in Australia a couple of decades ago.
From what I’ve read they were quite a quick vehicle for their time.
With some simple changes and modifications they did look very nice.
But the V8 guys thought the people who bought and drove these were from the hair dresser set.
Reminds me of the Ford C1 platform’s extended family:
Focus (all versions, up through RS), Ford Escape/Kuga, Transit Connect
Mazda3 (up through ‘Speed3), Mazda5
Volvo C30, S40 and V50 (up through T5 versions of all)
If you cut a driveshaft hump, you could conceivably build an AWD turbo Mazda5 with multiple options for a motor.
Didn’t we get this car as the plebian first gen Mercury Tracer?
“The Tracer was introduced in 1987 for the 1988 model year. It was a rebadged version of the Ford Laser model already sold in Asia and Australia, which was itself a restyled Mazda 323.” – Wikipedia
This is what I’ve seen here on the streets. VERY rarely
http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Ford-Laser-1991/SSE-AD-2919235/?Cr=0&sdmvc=1
And the regular Lasers from this model also have nicer engines than their US counterparts.
Subaru had turbos in the early 80’s.
I had a teacher that had a 323 GTX. I remember it being a pretty cool little car that stood out in the parking lot. I haven’t seen another one for a good 20+ years.
Those early Subaru’s always had a thing for rust.
They were quite exclusive over the years. Just about Hen’s Teeth now, if there’s anything left of them.
Perhaps a fine citizen of Colorado will clarify. The State of Colorado is Subaru Central.
“The Laser was also exported to select markets like Australia and New Zealand.”
Actually they were made there!
Was there a second generation 323 GTX? There was a second generation TX3 Turbo 4wd, sold in Australia. At the 1991 Bathurst 12 Hour production car race one of these (2nd gen car) came 2nd outright.