I have been off the forum for about two years. While searching for info for my 1993 FD, I found a thread about the GTUs and was pleased to find the 1990 GTUs I used to own was racing in the New England area in SCCA ITS class. I bought the car in in late 1989 and finally sold it in 2005 to Robert Blake from Manchester, NH. I found his entry in several races in New England. Does anyone know if he is on the forum? I have no idea what his user name might be. I'd like to see if he still owns the car and if he is still racing it. This is the car on the back cover of John Matras' book on the history of the RX-7.

 

I have two copies of that book. Is that your actual 89 GTUs on the back of the book? I used to own the black 1980 GS that was featured in that book. Got it on a weird trade deal and it ended up being the car featured in the book next to the school busses.

 

mazdaverx713b- Yes, it is. John Matras flagged me down in the parking lot of my pharmacy while he was writing his book. He wanted a photo of every model for every production year and did not have a photo of the GTUs. He came out to my farm and I parked the car in the cul de sac of a housing development that was under construction. Nice view of the background. Matras put a mention of my name associated with the GTUs on page 6. He also called me to let me know the low production numbers. His contact at Mazda corporate office told him they made only 100 so they could homologate in the SCCA and IMSA racing that Mazda was sponsoring back then. I had no idea the model was anything special. They had a red one and a black one at the Mazda dealer when I bought it. Also-- I read some of the discussion about production years 1989 and 1990 for the GTUs. When I went to pick up the car in late 1989 I was expecting it would be shown on the invoice as a 1990 model, like all of the other Mazdas in the dealership. After I complained about getting "last year's model" they revised the sales invoice to show it as a 1990 and that is how my PA state registration was shown. But....from the VIN and the discussions on this forum, it is a 1989. I don't have most of the records for the car, since I sold it, but I am going to see if I have Xerox copies of the original title and sales invoice up in my attic. Now some of that info appears to be important. This photo has replacement mufflers, aftermarket wheels and cats.