FWD Miata? Not sure about that. But I do believe that for awhile it was the unofficial state car of West Virginia. Those little buggers were EVERYWHERE.
Photography Credit: Nick Pon
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Story by Nick Pon
Lemons racing is a great provider of excuses. Want to race a car that few others do? Want to try an engine swap that should work on paper? Want to see if your unconventional idea can beat superior machines in an endurance race?
Lemons is your playground. And if you want an excuse to do all of the above, the Ford Festiva is a great starting point.
The Festiva was originally designed by Mazda by request from Ford, and production models hit the streets in overseas markets in 1986. A short time later, Kia (another Ford partner at the time) started producing license-built copies in South Korea.
The Kia-built version was then imported into the U.S. for the 1988 model year. That Maury-grade genealogy had one interesting (to gearheads, anyway) side effect: The engine in the Kia-built USDM Festiva was a 1.3-liter version of the venerable Mazda B-series engine, common in earlier Miatas and a handful of other much-sportier-than-the-Ford-Festiva models.
Texas-based Braking Bad Racing took the next logical step and fitted a factory-turbocharged B6T version of the Mazda B-series from a Mercury Capri XR2 into their Lemons Festiva. Complete with an external intercooler (underhood space in a Festiva is predictably limited) and a few low-buck tweaks to increase boost, the engine makes close to 200 horsepower, the team figures–more than enough for the sub-1-ton Festiva.
All that is great for winning arguments on the internet, but in Lemons you actually have to race your car for true bragging rights. Braking Bad was more than up for that challenge, entering no fewer than eight team cars in a Lemons event at MSR Houston. Their entries featured some pretty impressive-sounding hardware, including two V8-swapped BMWs, two Miatas, two Mustangs and a Celica-powered Toyota Tercel.
After two days of racing, the Festiva crossed the line before all of them, finishing 13th overall in a field of 110. If the team was looking for an excuse to say, “We beat most of you people in a Ford Festiva,” they were clearly successful.
FWD Miata? Not sure about that. But I do believe that for awhile it was the unofficial state car of West Virginia. Those little buggers were EVERYWHERE.
FWD Miata is the 323 / Protege :)
it even has the same engine
really missed an opportunity to call it the fastiva
In reply to amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) :
So does the Kia Sephia GS :) And the Ford Escort GT. And the Festiva has a relative, as noted in the article. If you define a car by its powerplant alone, the Pontiac Vibe is a Lotus Exige.
But it's a good title for clicks. Even if the car actually got a non-Miata motor from the car that is really best described as a front wheel drive Miata :)
I'll bet it was fun to drive, though. We had one of these behind our shop for a few years, an employee bought one to jump in the desert and then abandoned it. Would have been a good racecar donor, it got turned into washing machines or something.
I grew up friends with a set of twins. No, boys. I'm not that lucky.
In 1987-88 they both got Festivas for their 16th birthday. One in blue, one in red. We raced those little cars all over town for years (It was a small town back then). Cat and mouse, cops and robbers, call it what you want, we had a blast with those little cars.
I've never driven a Miata so I can compare, but I could see them as being similar.
In reply to Toyman! :
That's classic slow car fast :) I worked at a Ford dealership in the 90s as a used car jockey, and my favorite car on the lot was a teal automatic Aspire because you had to drive the wheels off it to keep up with traffic, and nobody every noticed. If we'd had two, there definitely would have been a race series.
As someone who isn't skilled enough to handle that short of a wheelbase, I opt for the afore mentioned BG chassis cars (323, escort, MX-3, protege or sephia)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Probably less of a slow car fast and more of two equally matched cars. Of the 3 of us, I was the better driver. 
It didn't matter which car I was driving I could usually take them.
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:As someone who isn't skilled enough to handle that short of a wheelbase, I opt for the afore mentioned BG chassis cars (323, escort, MX-3, protege or sephia)
The steering is so remarkably heavy, with a strong return to center, that I would impressed if you could run into short-wheelbase problems.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
They're a Prius EPS box addition away from becoming an issue.
We raced with those guys in Houston. That little car crushed class C, it was quite fast. If I remember right, only a few seconds off of the fastest cars out there. Really neat looking on the track too, tiny wheelbase + turbo = smiles.
Toyman! said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
Probably less of a slow car fast and more of two equally matched cars. Of the 3 of us, I was the better driver.
It didn't matter which car I was driving I could usually take them.
Maybe that was because they owned the cars and you didn't.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
I was thinking the same. Nothin's faster than a borrowed car.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
That could also be the case. Time is prone to alter memories though so I'm sticking to my story.
Keith Tanner said:...But it's a good title for clicks...
Sadly that's becoming the only requirement for posts and articles.
In reply to Guest Writer :
Does it have a 50 / 50 weight distribution and double wishbone independent suspension front and rear mr guest writer?
I worked with a Lemons team that ran one of these cars and they did the Escort GT engine swap. I rebuilt the engine on the cheap for them and while it used oil it did run strong. The team later aquired a later Miata 1.8L cylinder head that features raised intake ports. I modified the Escort intake mounting flange to allow it to bolt up the the uprated head. With the install a a custom FI system the car made 140+ HP at the wheels all using stock or modified stock parts.
Had one. Loved it! Not exactly a Miata, which I've also owned, but I loved driving that Festiva fast. It was more fun in the twistys than it had any right to be.
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