WEIGHT IS MISSING

WEIGHT IS EVIL

i installed a JP3 shorty throttle cable yesterday and happened to remove the accelerator pedal. as soon as i held it in my hand i started to laugh. Mazda didn't miss a thing while designing our wonderful cars.

NINE OUNCES!



check out the backside...



this was back in 1990 something, sure today weight is a key design consideration, but back then... i am wondering what a BMW pedal assembly weighed... (pounds)
look at the backside of the pedal. engineered like a bridge. awesome Mazda.

 

the more i dig into these cars the more impressed i am with how crazy they were with details.
for instance the interior of the FC is all forced perspective to look square from the drivers seat...

 

Yeah there are tons of little details that are so great. Also love the MAZDA logo cast into the rear suspension arms - I think they were proud of them and put the logo there where no regular owner would ever see it.

There are a few things on the FD where the bean counters and EPA won out over the engineers, but really the engineers and passion won a lot of the battles.

Dale

 

I figured I was the only irregular owner who thought that was cool too!
IIRC wasn’t pressure casting still a pretty new and unique way to reduce unsprung weight? They may have carried it a little too far with the early S6 wheels, but I think they stood behind them and corrected the issue pretty quick.

 

Oh man I noticed the same thing putting in the DBW pedal. It's easily 4x the weight

 

It's really crazy how light these cars are considering how much power they have. 26,xx pounds and 300 whp is not difficult with basic bolt-ons, and it makes for a potent combination. Really can't wait to bring my car autocrossing and see how it does versus newer stuff.

 

An FD recently won A-Stock and times were comparable to SS

 

That's funny that it is still competitive with the best of the modern era. Makes sense though - the car is a weapon. It's hard to beat the weight, double wishbone suspension, and turbo power. The slim dimensions must help on a tight autocross course as well compared to something like a modern NSX.

 

Just need Mazda to fire up that FD brand new parts factory up again so we can all have pristine FD's on the road...