ZX2 as autocross car?

Any thoughts on early ZX2's as autocross cars?

I might have come across one I could pick up for really cheap.

I'm looking for something I can buy and do a little bit of suspension work to and run for a year or two until I save up money for something I like better.

They can do pretty well in STS. This one is usually near/at the top of the class.

http://aseipos.zenfolio.com/p490252729/e2aef1457

http://aseipos.zenfolio.com/p490252729/e23aa221f

When I first started autocrossing my 325e, back when it was largely stock, there was a guy with a ZX2 who would beat my time as often as not. I think they're a little underrated. Not WAY underrated, but I'd prefer one over say, a cavalier. Personally.

The ZX2 is relatively light. Supension pieces are available although you may have to go the Mazda route. The Zetec has good torque and ability to rev.

Camber, the tires are straight up and down.

So don't try runing it in a stock class.

That's the problem with most cars in G & H. There are ways to obtain some camber and still be legal.

The ZX2 had a factory "ACR" package called the "S/R". From Wikipedia:

"The optional S/R package adds stiffer suspension parts (Eibach springs (M-5560-Z2), Tokico struts (M-18000-Z2) and Energy Suspension brand polyurethane suspension bushings), more power (through a Ford Racing PCM (M-12650-Z2)), more efficient intake (Rousch and Iceman), rear disc brakes (M-2300-Z2), a stronger clutch (Centerforce dual friction (M-7560-Z2), a short-throw B&M manual-transmission shifter (M-7210-Z2), an S/R-unique shift knob (M-7213-Z2) and boot (M-7277-Z2), upgraded seats, a unique blue valve cover, a different speed cluster that goes up to 150mph (240km/h) and a unique tire/wheel package. Engine power was increased 10 percent over the base Zetec engine used in the ZX2 to 143 bhp, courtesy of a recommended premium fuel re-calibration, new air inlet system, the performance PCM, improved Borla muffler and pipe (M-5230-Z2). All ZX2 S/R have a special "S/R" badge on the back, either silver (on a red car) or red (on a yellow or black car). Some S/R went out of the assembly plant without some of the performance items (mostly missing the Centerforce clutch). The suspension bushings were not installed at the factory but instead packaged with the car for installation at the dealership. This also led to many cars leaving the showroom without the full complement of S/R parts."

So there are some good OEM parts to swap in.

good luck finding a S/R model, but you can find some of the goodies, I plan on getting the struts (about 180, for the set, from summit), and like some others mentioned mx3/early 90s protege/other escorts can provide hop ups (the rear swaybar on the escort wagon is 21mm!!!) I'm still getting used to mine and have found this site a decent source of info

in Stock form/class , its going to be a challenge since your not able to swap out the rear bar for a bigger one. I think the stock front bar is around an 18-20mm and the rear bar is puny at 12 mm. STS might be a better option. 2nd gen Escort Gt's and wagons have the best rear swaybar options. They are dirt cheap and worth the money! I'm currently running Eibachs from an S/R and an Escort GT rear bar on my Escort now and the handling difference is night and day. This would put you in a prepared class but you could swap out the stock Zx2 seats for the Recaros found in 92-93 Mx-3's for uber comfort/bolstering/support.

I figured that I might as well just add to this thread. We have decided that ST is not a great fit for anything that is not an EF Civic. We have spent 4 years chasing the likes of Jason Frank and Pat Washburn. When all of the stars are in alignment getting within 2 seconds off of them on a 60 second course is possible. Closer to three seconds off of them is more typical; those guys are the best of the best in ST. We can't make up the fact that the ZX2 is 300 pounds heavier...and limited to the same size tires.

If you are somewhere that does not have top national caliber EFs in ST, then the ZX2 would still be a good car for the class. Locally.

Based on seeing some very positive results of the Barbry BG Protege in FSP, we decided that the ZX2 would be a good player in that class. It is marginally heavier (a couple dozen pounds) than the Protege, but also has more torque, with similar if not slightly greater power. The underpinnings are exactly the same. For now, that will all carry over from the ST setup to FSP.

Over the last few weeks, the car received an aluminum flywheel and a stage II clutch, the airbag steering wheel came out, as did the A/C. It got some new TRMotorsport 15x9s and some Hankook 225/45-15 RS3s. We will be running on those on the Street Tire Index class for a while--Purple Crack is expensive, and the wad was kind of shot on the other stuff. Not to mention that we have some motor freshening to do over the winter; that will also include intake optimization and a header upgrade. Some aero bits are in the works as well.

Here are a couple shots from the driveway taken last weekend.

ST_ZX2 wrote: We can't make up the fact that the ZX2 is 300 pounds heavier...and limited to the same size tires.

Can the ZX2 fit anything larger than the 15x9s with 225/45s?

245/40R17s on 17x9s on the front of my marginally ST* Saturn.

i want to codrive with bacon

Matthew, I am sure that once we switch to the Hoosiers, we will want 15x10s in the front...the 275s will work on 9s, should work better on 10s. The 9s will stay in back.

and zx2 front bar is 1 inch give or take and rear is ya 12. egt or protege lx rear bar is best. and after market zxtuner makes a 22mm rear bar. sr struts work very well and as stated are an oem part along with eibach prokit. only bad to a zx2 are the rear drum brakes. ofcourse correctable with egt parts but im not sure what the rules are when it comes classes.

92dxman wrote: in Stock form/class , its going to be a challenge since your not able to swap out the rear bar for a bigger one.

I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain that rule got changed this year. Either front or rear bar is open as I understand it, but not both. I'll check the rule book in the AM. What's that? Already AM?

Yeah, I'm going to have a E36 M3 day tomorrow. I berkeleying hate insomnia.

I would LOVE to see one of these cars kick some autocross ass. I think they're neat as hell.

Yeah, looks like they changed "front" to "a single". Rear bar is open as long as you leave the front bar alone. Seems to me that most cars have a lot more front bar than rear. Adding a whole big load of rear bar and making sure the front is in good shape with good (stock) bushings might work out pretty well for FWD cars.

13.7 ANTI-ROLL (SWAY) BARS A. Substitution, addition, or removal of a single anti-roll bar and supporting hardware (brackets, endlinks, bushings, etc.) is permitted. The use of any bushing material is permitted. A bushing may be implemented as a bearing.

KATYB wrote: and zx2 front bar is 1 inch give or take and rear is ya 12. egt or protege lx rear bar is best. and after market zxtuner makes a 22mm rear bar. sr struts work very well and as stated are an oem part along with eibach prokit. only bad to a zx2 are the rear drum brakes. ofcourse correctable with egt parts but im not sure what the rules are when it comes classes.

O.E. S/R Struts are obsolete now. Basic KYBs and Koni red inserts are still made--and those can be converted into yellows. The car would be limited by the 6" wheels in stock. The swaybar rule change would be a BIG help though. The front bar is 1" (25mm). EGT and 91-96 Escort Wagon RSBs are 21mm; the hatches were hollow 19mm. The rear drums are not a big issue for an autocross car. However, that can be addressed easily in FSP. Its not hard to "make" an S/R for ST either--most of the S/R bits are open in ST. You would need the rear disc setup (same as EGT/ProLX), and the Centerforce (or Greddy Stage I) clutch. The exhaust, the intake, the shifter etc. are all open. In ST the car would need A/C if you make it into an S/R (standard part).

We have 15/16" (24mm) custom bars on each end, the rear is a 3-way. Unfortunately, the gentleman that made these passed away early this year; he was an artist.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: Yeah, looks like they changed "front" to "a single". Rear bar is open as long as you leave the front bar alone. Seems to me that most cars have a lot more front bar than rear. Adding a whole big load of rear bar and making sure the front is in good shape with good (stock) bushings might work out pretty well for FWD cars.

It doesn't seem like many have realized that a lot of heavily understeer prone FWD cars may suddenly have become class overdogs. I've been running a slightly softer than stock front bar on my Saturn in HS, but the big advantage of the DOHC S-series in Stock was always their aggressively rear-biased stock suspension. Now that has been negated.

A bigger rear bar has helped my DS 325i.

ST_ZX2 wrote:

KATYB wrote: and zx2 front bar is 1 inch give or take and rear is ya 12. egt or protege lx rear bar is best. and after market zxtuner makes a 22mm rear bar. sr struts work very well and as stated are an oem part along with eibach prokit. only bad to a zx2 are the rear drum brakes. ofcourse correctable with egt parts but im not sure what the rules are when it comes classes.

O.E. S/R Struts are obsolete now. Basic KYBs and Koni red inserts are still made--and those can be converted into yellows. The car would be limited by the 6" wheels in stock. The swaybar rule change would be a BIG help though. The front bar is 1" (25mm). EGT and 91-96 Escort Wagon RSBs are 21mm; the hatches were hollow 19mm. The rear drums are not a big issue for an autocross car. However, that can be addressed easily in FSP. Its not hard to "make" an S/R for ST either--most of the S/R bits are open in ST. You would need the rear disc setup (same as EGT/ProLX), and the Centerforce (or Greddy Stage I) clutch. The exhaust, the intake, the shifter etc. are all open. In ST the car would need A/C if you make it into an S/R (standard part). We have 15/16" (24mm) custom bars on each end, the rear is a 3-way. Unfortunately, the gentleman that made these passed away early this year; he was an artist.

wagons maybe 21 but im still have some of my egt stuff and the rear is 19mm. no question. and really no more oem sr's? that stinks.... used to be u could by the s/r's from john bleakly ford for 160 shipped to your door. and they were more heavily damped than the reg tokico blues

You can take a Zx2 and make it perform better than an SR. I've tightened up the front end of mine pretty well. Downside; not great in water. Hit a patch today, putting me in a wall and spinning me twice across four lanes before recovering. Luckily, no one was hurt. Just need to fix the brackets on the bumper...

N Sperlo wrote: You can take a Zx2 and make it perform better than an SR. I've tightened up the front end of mine pretty well. Downside; not great in water. Hit a patch today, putting me in a wall and spinning me twice across four lanes before recovering. Luckily, no one was hurt. Just need to fix the brackets on the bumper...

Damn, glad you're still with us.

In reply to Matt B:

Yea. Me too. Super lucky. Keeps flashing through my head. Headlights, taillights, headlights, taillights. I must say, I'm proud of the recovery. I went into autopilot and got out of traffic. Most drivers would have stalled out and gotten hit HARD. Its a really unsafe highway in the rain. I've seen many fatalities on it.

But back too the subject, in dry weather, that car sticks to the ground like Velcro and turns on a dime. If it weren't my daily, I'd autocross it.

What are you using for tires? Our car on Z1 Star Specs was one of the fastest cars outright on a wet track day at the Milwaukee Mile infield/oval course.

Making a "regular" ZX2 out perform an S/R is not hard to do...but the S/R is a nice street package, much the same way as is the SVT Focus.

Here is a track day shot after it dried up a bit.

shown with 2010 STS rules setup...

My co-owner/driver set an unofficial class track record that day: http://www.mcscc.org/results/2010/ax/MC.AX.2010.TrackRecords.Milwaukee.pdf

there's a yellow S/R at Parts Galore in Flat Rock MI. it arrived about 3 weeks ago, and it was only missing the wheels and tires. the intake, the shifter, the struts, all that stuff was still on the car. i guess someone didn't know what they had.

Having owned a ZX2, now an Escort Wagon, and looking again, I'm a bit concerned in eyeing the ZX2 as competitor in racing.

The suspension options, while budget friendly; don't offer much diversity. You either spend a lot for coil overs, or spend a little on swap parts as mentioned above.

Now, granted, they are cheaper than a similar year Honda. Example: You can find a 2001 ZX2 for $2,000, the same Honda will cost you $4,000 or more. That leaves a lot in the budget.

On the flip side, you can get slightly older Honda, and spend half as much making it competitive, and in most cases better than a ZX2. A deal is a deal, and getting a low mileage, good condition ZX2 for under $2,000 is probably a pretty good deal. As is getting a Honda.

For me, I'm having a hard time with spending $2,000 on a front driver. I'd rather have a 318ti, or 325i, or 240SX, or A86. Then again I don't think any of those will get Honda or ZX2 MPG.