db103 from ozzzzzzzz

[jardyDB]

hi

ive inherited this little 121 from my nan who passed away some time ago




the family had kept it for about a year as a spare getabout, i used it while other cars were getting worked on. rego lapsed on it and now i want it back since my current car is boring me to insanity

was bought new by nan as far as i know, she rode the clutch constantly and was happy to come to a stop in 2nd or 3rd and roll off from there. clutch is still fine despite this, gotta love oem. she scraped the side of the car on a large bluestone pillar out front of her house more often than not every time she went into/out of the driveway, and when i got it there was a perfect concave oval dent nearly a foot wide in the front quarter. no scratches or marks, just a perfect indent. ive still got no idea how she did it :\ just needed a fuel pump and a clean tank to get it going well again. and a clean, nan was a heavy smoker

[jardyDB]

now its mine and is going to be the reliable and least attention getting runabout needs some work to get it past our road authority but ive taken the opportunity to upgrade instead of just replacing:

needed new rotors so ive got some early rio hubs and brakes ready to go on, easily double the rotor i had previous so that should be interesting. need to jump to 14's though (no more dirt cheap tyres ) though that'll encourage me to get decent ones so not so bad


the suspension in it is fine (hehe its tiny) but i want a little more low and a little more firm so ive got some coilovers on the way from a mk2 golf. just for laughs really getting sick of boaty suspension i need something that stays flat. i got some BC's which are pretty popular for various cars down here. a tad pricey compared to your local stuff but i know they'll last so i dont mind. just a stock photo below, obviously mine will be two bolt up top etc


also found a tacho dash from another 121 at a yard, nearly 100k k's more on the odo tho plugged right in and worked straight up which is always nice

im looking around for some roofracks, kinda like this dude;


originally i had an improvised air filter that got rid of all the plastic so i could get some noise out of it. sounded pretty good for its capacity i think ill get a short pod filter instead this time around

i like the idea of a bigger engine, something maybe 1.6 or 1.8 and twin cam but ive got enough projects on at the moment. still nice to know there are options though. not overly fond of front wheel drive and turbo though so i doubt ill go that way

should be on the road in a few weeks

[FestYboy]

that odo can be made to read correctly, though i'm not sure of your local laws or if there's someone down there who can do it for you...

[jardyDB]

true, but theyre not worth anything down here so k's dont matter so much

got the hubs on, straight swap easy as. gunna order pads and rotors tomoz after work

i noticed the urethane bush thread might wait and see if i need a swaybar before i do them tho

[moz]

Re: db103 from ozzzzzzzz

Welcome to the forum mate!
I'm from sydney.
Where are you from?

Sent from my AMID-972XS using Tapatalk 2

[Festevil3]

I like that body style

[jardyDB]

im in melbourne forgot to set location. is there much in the way of australian festiva action?

pretty sure ive been mistaking early gen festivas for miras and charades i didnt know they made them before aspires. course we call aspires festivas, that doesnt help heh

did you ever get 121's like this in the US? the UK got em i know but maybe the US was cool with just aspires

i got a sorry-we-missed-you card from a courier today, coilovers are gunna be a couple more days off

[moz]

Re: db103 from ozzzzzzzz

No festiva action whatsoever.
There might be 5 decent festiva/121's in the whole of Australia.

There was a guy with a db with a b5 dohc turbo getting around the drag strip back like 5 years ago.
If you look on eBay, there's a db with a b6t for sale for $800. In Melbourne.

How much dis you pay for your coil overs? Those cost a bomb on eBay.

[jardyDB]

no fun i had trouble finding any expertise on em at all. no idea of suspension swaps or engine compatibility etc. i caught some old threads on a turbo 121 in syd and it directed me here. lots of good info

i like the idea of a quick 121 theyre hilarious little things i love em. i saw that red one on ebay. i was at a dyno day and it was there, i missed it by an hour or so but his buddies were still there. i put mine on for a laugh (40 something hp ) and they came over asking if i saw the red one. they told me how easy it was etc. im slightly tempted to get it, last thing i need now is a project tho

coilovers were 1200 to my door for a mk2 golf, there wasnt a lot cheaper local that id be happy to trust. BC's have been around ive got a few mates with em and no problems for their cars. one strut is probably worth more than the car but i dont mind. cheaper than teins heh

[moz]

Re: db103 from ozzzzzzzz

Yeh... teins are ridiculous.
I'm shopping around 3 different stores. 1 in the UK, another in France, and race land in america.
I'm tempted to give the french ones a go. The brand is technix. Its actually German.
Seems like the euro version of raceland.

You can remove the inserts so if they're crap, I'll just buy konis to replace them.

I'm doing that same swap on my 121. But I've got the older model that looks just like the festiva.

[moz]

Re: db103 from ozzzzzzzz

no fun i had trouble finding any expertise on em at all.

You definitely came to the right place. I've been here 3 months and the guys here helped me find my legs. I'm slowly starting to know all the ins and outs of the entire Mazda sub compact range.
Its actually amazing the performance you can get out of them.

[jardyDB]

sweet, looking around ive found that cheaper coilovers tend not to have good dampening, they mask that with stiffer spring rates. so probs a good idea to talk to dudes who have them see what they reckon

be careful with golf stuff, they dont have room for pillowball or camber plates so noone makes them. BC's have them on all their coilovers and its pretty much part of the price, but their golf stuff doesnt have camber tops. we have room for that stuff in our 121's and festys, but of course the coilovers arent made for us are they found that one out today

this forum has been good as, i dunno what it is but forums for more modest cars seem to have better members. most lightweight cars have good potential since suspension design isnt that critical cos there isnt much to pull you off course. the easy engine swap options are great though

[moz]

Re: db103 from ozzzzzzzz

Lol... if there's one word you must get used to while modding a 121. The word would be "custom".
The reason I don't wanna buy BC s is because I'll be hacking into them to make them fit.
I'll buy the cheaper ones first.
Mod them. Then see how they go.
If the dampening isn't up to the job, I'll replace the inserts with konis.

camber plates will be next on the list. Or maybe longer control arms + camber bolts.

This forum is great because everyone has had to customize their stuff to fit. That experience leads to higher technical knowledge. So rather than pointing you to a shop, the guys here can tell you how to DIY.

[jardyDB]

always good

well you were right about hacking into them

i dunno if db103 is same as early festiva, but the bottom of the rears didnt clear the swingarm. i ended up grinding one side of the crush tube down below to get it across a little. ill make some decent washers ive just got a couple i found in the shed in there atm as a temp thing

theyre fitted front and rear though, just need to sort out front camber and probably raise the rear a bit and should be good. fronts needed slotting, i ended up slotting the bottom bolt straight up so camber adjustment will... work. rears feel stiff but theres next to no weight back there so no suprise really. the rear uses the strut tower as a spring perch, coilover springs dont fit it so im doing what golfs do and im using the stock rubber bush for the damper as a strut mount :/ not ideal but there really isnt much weight back there so it'll do for now. ill make some urethane jobs eventually, the tower will cope alright

rotors and pads came in just need to fit them and bleed brakes. the little bracket for the brake line needed some die grinder action, only a touch though

getting there. might not make mondays rego date like i thought but ill see what rwc man says. ill get pics up tomoz when i have time

[moz]

Re: db103 from ozzzzzzzz

Just a piece of advice.
The springs you're using were designed for a golf. They're rated at about 400-500 lbs each in the front and 200-300lbs each in the rear.

If you wanna have a better and safer ride, you might wanna replace those springs with 150-200 in front and 120-150 in the rear.

This way the car will stick to the roads much better and you won't need to wear a kidney belt when driving it.

The stock festiva suspension is like 130 in front and 100 out back (or something to that effect)

I'm using 200 out front and 150 in the rear.
Charlie (advancedymix) has a write up on suspension that he uses to keep up with Ferraris around the track. I'm following it to the letter.
Have a read of it. Very enlightening.

Moz