Learn Me Mazda MX6

I know where a second generation MX6 is, that has not moved in five or six years. Has been parked on a concrete driveway all this time.  Only damage I can see is left front fender is crashed and the headlight is still hanging by the wires.  Cool looking car, but is there any potential here? 

The 4-cylinder is kind of blah, the 2.5L V6 is a sweet little motor.  Not blazingly powerful by modern standards, but fun.

I doubt there's much available in terms of performance parts for them these days, though.

The V6 also sounds amazing. There's a plug and play swap, that's another 2.5l V6, the klze (the one in it would be a klde) that is all sorts of rev happy. 

There are MSPNPs for them. Add stiffer valve springs and corn juice and rev to the moon while making 230-240hp. 

I drove a 2nd gen Probe 4-cyl auto now and then back in college (then-girlfriend's car) and it wasn't awful in the power department.  I kind of wonder what a light pressure turbo setup with the auto would have been like to just add power everywhere without changing the overall parameters of the car.

This is kind of a golden age for Japanese cars and Mazda's 626/MX-6 platform is no exception.  No crazy engineering outside of quality that was obviously designed in.  If you can get this thing for the right price (meaning, nearly free) it might be great to build on.  Agreed with previous comments about a lack of aftermarket / performance parts support.  

M Factory makes limited slips and gear sets, coilovers are available. I'm questioning what sort of additional aftermarket support would be sought beyond a plug and play stand alone, limited slip, fueling and coilovers. 

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

M Factory makes limited slips and gear sets, coilovers are available. I'm questioning what sort of additional aftermarket support would be sought beyond a plug and play stand alone, limited slip, fueling and coilovers. 

I'm surprised there are coilovers available, a lot of seemingly more-popular cars of that vintage have very limited suspension options today.  MR2s, for example.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

M Factory makes limited slips and gear sets, coilovers are available. I'm questioning what sort of additional aftermarket support would be sought beyond a plug and play stand alone, limited slip, fueling and coilovers. 

I'm surprised there are coilovers available, a lot of seemingly more-popular cars of that vintage have very limited suspension options today.  MR2s, for example.

Mr2's have strut inserts which is why most folks cobble together some Megan racing/T3 stuff with konis and call it a day. 

You should know that they were called MX-6 Mystere in Canada.  They are a pretty car . . .

I had a rare Kauai Blue '96 V6 and loved it. I actually preferred it to the RSX-S I bought after it, even though the Acura was a much better car. The Mazda just seemed like it had personality, while the RSX was soul-less (and had crap seats). It wasn't the fastest car on the road, but even stock, the V6 sounded great. Back then (late '90s-late 2000), it seemed like the only power adding mods that gave you significant horsepower gains were KLZE swaps and home-brew forced induction. I seem to remember someone racing one successfully back in the day. I would guess finding parts will be a problem, now, although the car shared a platform with the Ford Probe and 626. I'd often find the same parts for the Ford for less than what Mazda parts were going for. 

I had a 1993 V6 and, later, a 1993 4-cylinder. I loved them both. They were great cars, comfortable, good handling, good looking and pretty quick back in the day. They were built on the same assembly line as the Ford Probe, at the AutoAlliance plant in Flat Rock. 

Hold the phone: Danny Shields can't merely say that he "had" one. Um, hello, who here drove a Mazda MX-6 to multiple national SCCA autocross titles? 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

So.... you're saying, in the right hands, there is some potential here ? 

They have potential. There was a guy who drove one in SM or SP and was pretty fast. I think he was in Utah. If you google it you might be able to find the build, it was in one of the Mazda forums.

I think you can swap a later 626 intake manifold on for a few horses.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

OK, maybe I should have said "best car I ever had". When we first won the Nationals in 1993, the MX6 was stock and original, except for the BFG tires, and we had only had it for seven weeks. We got lighter wheels for 1994, and Konis for 1995.  

Our second MX6 was the four-cylinder, bought very used from a neighbor. It got Tokicos, but was otherwise stock with about 135K miles when Sharron won the HSL title with it in 1999.

drock25too said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

So.... you're saying, in the right hands, there is some potential here ? 

Yup--like the potential for SCCA national Solo titles. 

Thanks everyone for the info. I think I'll go check it out a little closer. Let's see what happens.