Suspension for an '88 323 GTX

Hello all! I am new to the forum. I have an '88 323 GTX that I bought several years ago. It has 80k miles on it and the body and interior are in good shape. The under carriage is pretty rusty and the suspension is SHOT. When I purchased the car several years ago I hunted for suspension components but was never able to find anything. As in NOTHING. Not sure how many 323 guys are on here... but does anyone make anything for these little beasts? I can't afford to drop $5000 on a custom suspension or anything crazy like that... I would be willing to spend up to $1500 for something pretty good. But from what i've seen... that's not really an option.

Not $1500 but just a tad over $2000 will get you really first class, strong, durable as hell inverted Bilstein inserts in thick wall chrome-moly tubes....
They look something like this, but slightly different width between the ears:


They should outlast anything else in the car...

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Where are those available? Those look fantastic, but perhaps are overkill.

Hey N00b! Mr. Vanlandingham makes those custom struts. They work REALLY well for most everybody who's tried them on their rally cars.

On a 323 GTX, I think you're going to be hard pressed to find a better value, believe it or not. There are other options, but they mostly involve cobbling together parts and making custom housings for lesser strut inserts.

Oh, and please put your real name and location in your profile so we know where to go steal your stuff you are and if we can easily help with your projects.

I found a GTX for my dad to use as a cool commuter car, but he turned it into an OtterCross monster and sold it just as he got it handling well. He spent tons of money at Rice Ground Control getting that thing set up, don't remember what he finally ended up doing with it to get the suspension sorted, but I beat him the last time I drove it (which I think is the last time I OtterCrossed).

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Sorry! Hope i didn't offend anyone. I am definately a noob when it comes to the 323 and to rally in general. Like i said, i've owned it for years. But it's just been in a shed since i bought it. I wouldn't think there would be too many of them left. Don't think they made more than 1300 or so to begin with.

BTW... Is that an XR4TI in your avatar? I have 3 of those... Hahaha ****EDIT*** From some poking around on here, i guess XR4TI's are pretty common around here. Who knew. Damn. I should have found this forum 10 years ago, haha.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2012 09:27PM by riponfrosh.

Then prep one of those, it's twice the car. I have 4 of them.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Check the for sale section, that kid is parting out his 323GTX Rally car. i would recommend John's stuff first though....

Well... To be fair i have 4 as well... But one is merely a shell. Didn't think it counted...

I really like the little 323. It's a nimble little thing. But the suspension is toast.

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riponfrosh
Well... To be fair i have 4 as well... But one is merely a shell. Didn't think it counted...

I really like the little 323. It's a nimble little thing. But the suspension is toast.

Add suspension to both and on typical North American stages, or racetracks the Xratty will, with equal drivers, embarrass the 323....

Add slightly shorter gearing to the Xratty like the 323 has, and the Xratty would kill the 323 even more...

We do not rally on roads in North America which require nimbleness.
We drive on medium to very high speed roads where longer wheelbase, LOTS of torque good steering and good brakes are decisive..

Suspension can be had for either one, you should ask: What car offers more advantages over the long term...and which can be kept going when 2nd and 3rd blow up---and there are none in the whole country?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
riponfrosh
Sorry! Hope i didn't offend anyone. I am definately a noob when it comes to the 323 and to rally in general. Like i said, i've owned it for years. But it's just been in a shed since i bought it. I wouldn't think there would be too many of them left. Don't think they made more than 1300 or so to begin with.

BTW... Is that an XR4TI in your avatar? I have 3 of those... Hahaha ****EDIT*** From some poking around on here, i guess XR4TI's are pretty common around here. Who knew. Damn. I should have found this forum 10 years ago, haha.

Heh, heh, heh. Welcome, we won't bite, we're not like the others...

I have 1.5 XR4s, the 0.5 is co-owned with a friend and we're making 24 Hours of LeMons car with it.

fiascorally.wordpress.com for more on that foolishness.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

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fiasco

Quote
riponfrosh
Sorry! Hope i didn't offend anyone. I am definately a noob when it comes to the 323 and to rally in general. Like i said, i've owned it for years. But it's just been in a shed since i bought it. I wouldn't think there would be too many of them left. Don't think they made more than 1300 or so to begin with.

BTW... Is that an XR4TI in your avatar? I have 3 of those... Hahaha ****EDIT*** From some poking around on here, i guess XR4TI's are pretty common around here. Who knew. Damn. I should have found this forum 10 years ago, haha.

Heh, heh, heh. Welcome, we won't bite, we're not like the others...

I have 1.5 XR4s, the 0.5 is co-owned with a friend and we're making 24 Hours of LeMons car with it.

fiascorally.wordpress.com for more on that foolishness.

And Andrews Dad had a 323 or 2 and we've all known people that had 'em and beat them some of us going back to 1986 (me)..
That's why we advise so strongly against building one for anything other than an occasional vroom vroom plaything in a noncompetitive venue

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I have no intentions of competing with the 323. I have a Miata-shaped money pit that keeps my pockets empty enough as it is. I mainly just wanted to get the 323 back to streetable condition. It is certainly drivable, but not what it once was. Perhaps i should sell it? Not to turn this into one of those "What is my car worth" threads, but being as these are so rare (at least in most circles) i really don't know what it's worth. It has 84,000 original miles. The interior is MINTO and the body is straight. Runs well, had the crank replaced under warranty back in '91 (have paperwork.) Also had the clutch replaced not many miles ago, but IIRC it slipped a bit the last few times i had it out. It did sit for MANY years, not sure if that had anything to do with it. Car runs well, and always starts right up. I sure would appreciate a few knowledgable appraisals.

Here is a link to some pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tryourcoffee/4001412949/in/photostream/

Oh hey neat, another Wisconsinite. Welcome aboard!

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mekilljoydammit
Oh hey neat, another Wisconsinite. Welcome aboard!

Hello! I see you "don't have a rally car yet." Would you like a 323? Hahaha...

Actually, the 323GTXs are pretty cool; too bad you asked this after I got a WRX for my daily driver. As for rally... after having helped build a succession of roadrace cars with and for my dad, I have a very clear idea in my head about what it costs to go racing in any sort of non-half-assed way, and stage rallies for the most part aren't close enough to here to justify bringing a half-assed car. What I mean by that is in my experience, any cut corner leads to the stupid car not finishing the race weekend, and trailering stuff for umpteen dozen hours only to have the stupid thing break for something that I could have prepped in the shop is a false economy. So I'm waiting to build a car until my finances are a bit more in order.

Actually, I'm seriously looking at building a 2nd gen RX-7 for rally; it seems like it has a lot of attributes that could have it being pretty competitive in the 2wd classes if prepared right. I just need some more cubic dollars.

But all that's offtopic, heh heh.