Why Choose and What is Lantis/323f?
Lantis/323f is not a popular car in Japan.
When you say " I drive a Lantis/323f!" and chances of people knowing
what Lantis/323f is very limited.
It's suppose to be a "real sports car", but the manufacturing parts
are limited and not often we see an article about it in the
"Tuning Car Magazine".
Lantis/323f entered in the 2 liter 4 door Japan Touring Car Competition
(JTCC), but it never appeared as "the major car". Recently,
the "Familia" is the major car of Mazda and this maybe the reason
why Lantis/323f is not a very popular car.
When you think about this and if you wanted to purchase a major
car, there may be no affirmative reasons for choosing Lantis/323f.
But for some people without realizing, it has some attractive features
they cannot refuse. Maybe this is because it has some similar
features of "the maker" of Stuttgart cars. However, it's not the
racing image that attracts people but the everyday usage
that attracts them.
Nor the narrow body or the big bumpers of 911, but I am convinced
that it follows the exterior designs of 924, 928, 944,959,964,993,996,
Boxster, and 911GT1.
This may be just a guess but in reference of the first release catalog
of August 1993, and from the new edition catalog of February
1995 (pointing to the styles of coupe), I will explain why I am
convinced this way.
Aug.1993. Delivery catalogue. (C)MAZDA
Feb.1995. Delivery catalogue.(C)MAZDA
1, Styling by Porsche
Lantis/323f's exterior was designed by MRE ( Mazda Design Center,
Orberammergau, Germany).
We know the MRE chief designer at the time was the one
who designed the exteriors of Porsche 924,928,and 944.
From the Lantis/323f design competition, MRE's chief designer
proposed the best design to be applied for Lantis/323f(323f),
and the second best for Familia NEO(323 coupe), which as
a result applied to the end products.
I focused on the issue of this high quality proposition,
and I guess since this chief designer was employed
by Porsche he may already had this proposition in mind.
Because of this, we can certainly say
"Lantis/323f is designed by Porsche!"
2, Porsche Tuning Engine
The engine used by Lantis/323f is a KF-ZE type engine.
This engine is the same engine type developed for
Cronos(363), but there has been some practical changes
made especially for Lantis/323f. For the horse power, it only seems
160ps became 170ps and rev went up to 500rpm, but there is
a rumor going around that this V6 for Lantis/323f tuning was
performed by Porsche.
This may not be a rumor because The Porsche Company
attentively helps other car companies with their
mechanical development.
At that time we know Porsche assisted in putting together
Mazda's 2 liter and 1.8 liter V6 engine for Presso/MX-3.
Although,it seems there had been no assistance from
Porsche for 1.8 liter inline four unit (BP-ZE).
This may confuse V6 owner, because 1.8 liter inline four
unit is used for most races in Japan.
3, Chassis Tuned in Nurbergring
At the time, high quality Japanese car companies
started to favor Nurbergring, Germany circuit's
chassis tuning for some reason.
Nissan's BNR32 Skyline was the first Japanese car
to use this circuit and I guess this started other
Japanese car companies to follow.
The main reason Nissan started to use this was
to make world's number one FR which would dominate
Porsche 944.
It was well known by Nissan development team
that Porsche, (other than using their own test course)
they used Nurbergring.
It is also known to be a fact that Nissan used to
carry out their test runs on the same day as Porsche.
Porsche only started to acknowledge Nissan when it
began to super-rap.
As same as NSX and Impressa, Lantis/323f also
carried out their test runs often at Nurbergring
for the reasons of making new bases of
Mazda chassis and to incorporate similar
performance to Porsche's tuning engine.
Jly.1995. Delivery catalogue.(C)MAZDA
Aug.1996. Delivery catalogue.(C)MAZDA
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