The newest weird old Mazda that I picked up.

 

Non miata content, but still Mazda content! 1993 b2600i 4x4. I bought it from the first owner, who bought it new at a dealer in the same town I bought it from. It's super clean inside as well, I'll have to get some more pics. Total throwback vehicle. I've been looking at old yotas for a while, but they are impossible to find clean ones for any reasonable price.

Then I stumbled upon these things. The last of the "real" mazda pickup trucks, with the G6 mazda 2.6l motor. Similar architecture to a B8/B6, or actually closer to an F series (like an FE) stroked out. Bulletproof design with oil squirters under the pistons similar to a BP. Fully boxed frame, auto locking front hubs, blah blah. Basically everything I want in a mini 4x4.

Then I found this one on craigslist, and one impulse buy afternoon later It's mine. It cruises 75 on the highway no problem, and has proven after some testing to be quite capable offroad. It could use a locker or an LSD in the rear pretty badly, but that's typical of any truck like this from this era.

 

Nice find, cool little truck.

 

Added a flex fuel sensor



Have not run any e85 in it yet, but it measures 8.4% ethanol content on 91 pump. Sounds about right.

 

+1 looks rad

Iirc you've had some cool cars over the years!

 

Who, me? I've had some funky stuff haha. 2 merkurs, 3 saabs, turbo PT cruiser, GTO (holden), few other things. I'm a weirdo. Nate has better taste haha

 

Thanks! I still have the GTX as well. The old Mazda collection is strong right now.


The truck sits a lot nicer now with fresh KYB's and a few turns on the front torsion bars. The front was sitting waaaay too low in its travel before.

 

Those merkur xr4's always caught my eye, in a weird shitbox 80's kinda way. I hear they are kinda terrible though.

 

I saw one of these in the Ace Hardware parking lot today in my town. I've always liked these trucks.

 

Some updates. First and foremost, late last season the car had developed a driveline lash and audible clunk, particularly going from reverse to forward (or vice versa). It had gotten pretty bad, and while cleaning out the old shop I found a 99 driveshaft I had taken with the bp4w and trans. Score! I forgot I even had that thing. A quick swap on my friends lift and I was back in business!

Now, I've had this car a long time and between the new wheels/tires, and this new driveshaft, I've never in my life felt a miata that's so smooth. I'm really pumped on it, cruising 80 is smooth as butter. And 55. And 115. The car always had an annoying vibration I just couldn't get out of it and this did the trick.

I ended up scoring 5 Federal 959 RS-RR's in 225/45/15 on FB marketplace for $300, so I went the cheap tire route again this season. I was going to take this chance to actually upgrade to a real 200TW tire for this season, but cheap tires get me track time and I don't mind churning out miles on the street with them. Driving 500 miles round trip to the time attack events has its toll and the cheapies are nice for that.

That said I was super impressed with my last set of these tires, and I feel the same way about them in a larger size. Going to a Time Attack event at PPIR this weekend so hopefully all goes well. I'm sure it will. Gave the car a shakedown canyon rip and some tuning, because to be frank, the fuel map was **** after I did the throttle body/intake manifold swap. It god cold and I haven't driven the car much since then. It's much better after some autotune time targeting specific cells to dial in the part throttle and cruise. WOT pulls were still nice and fat. Targeting 11.5 WOT right now.




Looking forward to making this thing look nice once I finish my Garage, but it's kinda fun having a sleeper too. On the way home today I lined up with a new 5.0 Bullitt, not sure if it had an exhaust, but it sounded mean. He gave me the downshift and we hit it. Pulled him pretty hard, at least a car by 80. This was on 14psi or so, I had turned it down a bit in preparation of the track. I bet he was surprised!

 

Still having fun with the car! Another 500 mile trip and time attack.


The car is really nice right now. The drive there and back were by far the most enjoyable trips in this car to date. It's so smooooooth, like I never thought an NA could be. It always had some sort of wobble or shimmy with it until I replaced that driveshaft. This run was good for 11th out of 48 in the RA class, which I was happy with. Need to work on my camera mount too, sorry, it's a bit washed out.

Not sure why the PI rebooted, it doesn't do that often and the car doesn't lose sync or anything. I think it must be a voltage drop or fluctuation issue. Reviewing my videos from the day this is the only time that happened. Maybe a capacitor in line or something would be a good idea. Not too worried about it.

 

Another track day in the books last week.



This was back at sandia, for their time attack event. I was able to score 3rd in my class. I'm getting faster, but still lots to learn. I'm good at momentum driving and reaching the limits in the corners, and good at accellerating out past the apex, but my braking points need work.

Shaved 2 seconds of my best time though, and got a 1:35.6

The car is super tail happy right now and now that I'm getting better at driving it I'm exposing the limits of my current setup. Going to start with sway bar adjustments for the next track day and go from there.

 

More racing, and a new PB of 1:35.4 at Sandia! I've got my eyes on 1:34's but need to work on my braking zones still, and my current brakes are not all that confidence inspiring. Stiff pedal and lots of effort required.

Just like other events, lots of street miles to get here and back. The car did flawlessly, except for some more wastegate issues which I sorted out in the paddock.






I ended up setting the front swaybar to full stiff, and leaving the rear in the middle setting. Car is much less "snap" oversteery and less prone to trying to spin. I might try the rear bar in the softer setting still and see how I like it.

Otherwise the car has been rock solid, doesn't use oil, and just rips. I'm only running it on 10-12psi, or just over 200whp, to compete in the racing series I'm in, but honestly as a driver it's a great power level for me to learn the car and have fun with it. I really need some brakes next.

 

Commuting several hours each way in the desert to the racetrack and back in the middle of the summer is hot. I'm a DIY kinda guy so I figured I'd try my hand at building a cool suit *I did buy a pre-made FAST shirt to go with it

 

The cool shirt system is a huge win. 1 bag of ice gets me 2.5 hours to the track in 90*+ heat, it's a great compromise for A/C and makes it comfortable even in hot traffic. My arms and head get kinda warm still, but my core temps stay down and I don't get that overheated/exhausted feel. So highly recommended.

I ended up bending one of my 6ul's, so I had to retire that wheelset for the season. Ended up replacing my bent konig wideopen and painted the whole set graphite gray. Digging the look for now. Clad with some 225 federals I set my new PB at Sandia Speedway with a 1:32.5.


I'm super happy the car continues to perform without issue. For some reason the power steering was pushing fluid out, so I should probably do something about that. And I'm starting to overdrive my stock 1.8 brakes, so that needs to be addressed, especially before I turn up the power on the e85 tune. I finally feel like I'm learning to drive the car properly, though I'm still a bit of a hack I'm definitely getting faster.

 

 

If your CS system has a big enough cooler, try using frozen gallon jugs (or what size fits your cooler). They last longer than a bag of ice and can be refilled and reused. Just make sure to remove the labels so they don't come off in the water and get sucked into the pump.

 

Thanks for the tip! I was considering that, or frozen water bottles. I did noticed the finer ground the ice, the quicker it melted. I was kinda regretting building the cool shirt system since I barely used it this year, but after one trip with it I'll never go without one again. Highly recommended.

 

I bought another one of these. There might be something wrong with me.



It's a non-runner, rod knock, good drivetrain though. I was originally buying it as a parts car for my other one, but it's got a clean title and is too nice to let rot. I'll get it going again soon, it will make a nice daily/winter beater, then I can turn up the wick on my other one..

 

It happens, trust me.