How are these cars? There is a low mileage on for sale near me. Is it worth looking at?
How are these cars? There is a low mileage on for sale near me. Is it worth looking at?
There were two automatic ZX2s in my family. The green one belongs to one of my younger sisters, the other used to belong to my younger twin sisters. I drove the green one from L.A. back to MA and it drove the whole 3000+ miles without a hiccup. It is a spunky car and handled well despite the crappy all-seasons (I know because I hooned it on the PCH. 
). It got 32-38mpg the whole trip, minus a 28mpg adventure when I accidentally filled it up with E36 M3ty 85 octane swill at a truck stop. The engine runs rough naturally, esp. with the autotragic. In Park and at idle, it will shake like a paint mixer. Get a steering wheel cover, or better yet, an aftermarket wheel. The stock steering wheel feels like hardened Silly Putty. Seats get uncomfy after Hour 3.
The car has a timing belt, but despite what the aftermarket manuals say, it is NOT an interference engine. The twins' ZX2 snapped its belt and I offered to fix it, but my dad (who had bought the car for them) ended up selling it.
The poster formally known as 96DXCivic wrote: How are these cars?
Well, I think they're pretty cool.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wre-iHI0NtM
The manual transaxles are a little weak for holeshot launches, but otherwise they are solid little cars. It is a Mazda BG Protege Chassis (MX3, Escort GT too)...so there are a lot of junkyard part-swap choices for swaybars, rear disc brakes and the like. The wheels are a common 4x100.
Our car is a full on ST autocrosser. On 60 second courses locally, it runs 1.5-2 seconds off of top tier EF Civics...also broke the class track record for MCSCC at the Milwaukee Mile infield course.
STS_ZX2 wrote: The manual transaxles are a VERY weak for EVERYTHING
Mine broke a few times in a few different ways - only regular driving, never got on it, and it was a replacement tranny. That and the swaybar fell off (probably rust) and the spark plug shot through the wire loom thingie and hit the hood. It took out another wire at the same time. I know what it was like driving an original beetle now, I was down two cylinders from that and two or three gears from the stupid tranny. Fun ride... Quick though, when everything was working.
Any transmission swaps available?
The OE trans is a Mazda G-Series. There are pleanty of aftermarket solutions to make it work OK. The ZX2 diff is the problem. You can even use an LSD from a Mazdaspeed3 with a little modification. Its a bigger issue for someone like me that must adhere to a rules-set (w/ stock tranny guts).
It might be possible to fit an MTX75 from a Focus--they are quite stout too, but for the money just doing an aftermarket diff on the Mazda transaxle would be easy and not expensive. Here: http://www.teammfactory.com/helical-lsd
We don't baby our car by any means--it did break one diff thus far (was early on in having the car). Did a rebuild and got new axles/CVs. So far, so good.
The rest of the car has been quite good. (90K miles)
The G series is a stout transmission in my experience, my escort GT has 200k miles on it, and while 2nd grinds, given the abuse it's been through I'd say it held up well.
All in all I would probably pass on a zx2 mainly because of the weight and lack of decent suspension options. Back when I raced my egt I had zx2 s/r struts with ground control coil sleeves, and the struts only lasted about 1.5 seasons of autox before they blew.
Not sure about the zx2 engine either, the BP in the egt is absolutely indestructible however so I can strongly recommend one of those.
1967cutlass wrote: The G series is a stout transmission in my experience, my escort GT has 200k miles on it, and while 2nd grinds, given the abuse it's been through I'd say it held up well. All in all I would probably pass on a zx2 mainly because of the weight and lack of decent suspension options. Back when I raced my egt I had zx2 s/r struts with ground control coil sleeves, and the struts only lasted about 1.5 seasons of autox before they blew. Not sure about the zx2 engine either, the BP in the egt is absolutely indestructible however so I can strongly recommend one of those.
Huh? Our car weighs 23XX with AC. A Zx2 is marginally heavier than an EGT.
There are all sorts of asian coilovers, as well as Konis (MX3 inserts) and Ground-Controls. The OE ZX2 S/R setup is a very nice street suspension--factory Tokicos and Eibach springs.
The Ford Zetec is a very good little motor with a strong racing background.
I had a super duper base model 98 ZX2. The handling is pretty good stock and they have a lot more punch than you'd expect from 130 hp. They are kind of crude, but for an AX car who cares?
Is the G-series used in the 1998-2003 Protege?
The poster formally known as 96DXCivic wrote: Is the G-series used in the 1998-2003 Protege?
A variant, yes. The "strongest" G-series transmission is actually used in the Kia Sephia, unless you count the strange and rare-ish H-series, which is merely a modified G-series built to take the abuse of the F2T.
PITA to swap into an Escort though.
Long story short, the ZX2/ZX2 S/R is a decent car. Same basic thing as the 2nd gen EGT, but different body and a different motor. Obviously, i'm partial to the EGT, but if i could find an S/R for cheap, i wouldn't hesitate to buy it.
It's probably easier to find a really nice ZX2 these days than it is to find a really nice EGT.
I have reasons to believe that an EGT set up similar to STS_ZX2's car would be a little faster, but nobody has really taken the time to do so in recent history, and it doesn't look like i'm going to be the one to do it.
I've had my ZX-2 for just over a year now after buying through the GRM $2K9 classifieds and have been quite pleased with it.
I think I've done about 18 RallyCross events with it this season and while it hasn't been 100% durable, I would consider it's performance admirable. (EDIT: Things that have broken from RallyCross use: the rusty exhaust on it broke in the middle, the radiator got pelted with rocks and got two holes in it, and the passenger side motor mount came loose from the engine.) It usually just sits in the garage between events, gets driven to the event (up to six hours one way), and has always driven home.
I never really thought about this but it seems odd that they teamed the Ford motor with the Mazda G-series trans.
Seems like a swap to the MTX75 would be a nice way to go if a G-series exploded on me and I wanted to play a bit. It would be nice if Mazda had better FWD transmissions...
Bought my 2000 Sr new. Aside from being a DD, it has been iceraced for 5 yrs.,ran many track days, Best time at Lime Rock 1:08. , a few auto cross's. I installed a few after market parts. The SR ecu adds 13 hp and a chip a few more, plus an inderdrive crank pulley. Car has been very durable with one failure. At Summit Point Shenandoah the spider gear pin came adrift and put a small hole in the case. Transmisssion shop fixed it. Due to my own neglect I overheated the engine and since I am not up to fixing it, it is for sale.
STS_ZX2 wrote:1967cutlass wrote: All in all I would probably pass on a zx2 mainly because of the weight and lack of decent suspension options. Back when I raced my egt I had zx2 s/r struts with ground control coil sleeves, and the struts only lasted about 1.5 seasons of autox before they blew. Not sure about the zx2 engine either, the BP in the egt is absolutely indestructible however so I can strongly recommend one of those.Huh? Our car weighs 23XX with AC. A Zx2 is marginally heavier than an EGT. There are all sorts of asian coilovers, as well as Konis (MX3 inserts) and Ground-Controls. The OE ZX2 S/R setup is a very nice street suspension--factory Tokicos and Eibach springs. The Ford Zetec is a very good little motor with a strong racing background.
^^^^x2 what STS_ZX2 says. I paid $142 for all four NEW Tokico/Ford Racing struts (S/R package). The car handles well, and is cheap. The Focus is a better chassis (sorry Erik!) but the ZX2 is def a decent option.
Oh I agree the Focus is a 'better' chassis. It makes for a better driver and is a nicer car all-around. Having had a Focus I can say that the Zx2 is a superior autocross/motorsports platform mainly because it's 'more lighter'...
the '02 ZX2 I had as my first car ended up puking a head gasket at ~14,000mi, although on 8 year old OEM tires it did seem to handle quite well for what it was. autoX schooled in it back in april with ~40psi in the tires and it felt pretty good, even though it was an autotragic, which eventually started to go out before I sold it to my uncle. it didn't seem to like winding it out to ~6K at full throttle before it shifted to 2nd, the more I did that the rougher the 1-2 shift got.
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