Hybrid No. 13: Ford Festiva Chassis, Mazda B6T Engine
What and why
Ah, the pleasures of driving a shitbox. The excellent parking opportunities. Invisibility. Complete disregard at the appearance of door dings, bird shit or faded paint. And what better shitbox than the Festiva?
The name Festiva evokes bad cruise line commercials from the '80s and was certainly emblematic of the economy at the end of the decade of decadence. Ford needed something to buy it lots of pollution credits to offset the production of extremely profitable trucks and the then beginning SUV hemorrhage. "What better than a car that averages 40-plus mpg?" Ford whispered across the bed to Mazda, which designed a car actually produced by KIA, using Mazda engines. Festivas even have a little "Made in Korea" sticker on the firewall similar to those on cheapo Walkmen, my favorite feature of the car.
The Festiva was made forever cool in 1990 as the recipient of the Taurus SHO V6 powertrain, RWD and massive box flares when Rick Titus and Chuck Beck created the epic Shogun. Jay Leno owns two.
There's little reason the Festiva shouldn't make one hell of a whipper snapper: Fully loaded, even with the A/C option, the Festiva treads lightly at under 1,800 pounds. Base models are under 1,750 pounds. Being of Mazda design means there is a fair amount of parts interchangeability. The stock suspension is surprisingly competent, with 6 inches of travel in the front McPherson struts and a VW A2-style rear torsion beam setup in the rear.
In contention for the cheapest car sold in its day, many Festivas found their way into the loving arms of owners wowed by the car's demure sex appeal and neck-snapping performance. As a result of their collective miscalculation, there are plenty in junkyards for parts harvesting, and a surprising number still on the road and for sale. Expect to pay anything from $0 all the way to $1,500 for a 10-point show winner. We got our car in trade for a case of beer.
Picking the chassis
You want a fuel-injected Festiva sold between 1989 and 1993. You can use the 1988 (and some 1989) carbureted models, but it's not recommended. Carbureted cars will need to raid their fuel-injected brethren for a fuel tank, lines, and much of the wiring harness. The base model carbureted car is tempting for its title as the lightest Festiva ever produced, but by the time you add the parts from the fuel-injected car, it won't be, so don't bother.
Picking the engine
A surprising number of powerplants have successfully been grafted to the Festiva's chassis, but we'll stick with the venerable B6T. It was this engine that powered our inspiration, the impressive Fastiva built by Cam Waugh of CWS Tuning, featured in our October '01 issue. We were fortunate enough to have his personal assistance building this car as well. Mazda's 1.6-liter, twin-cam turbo engine can be found in the 323 GT, 323 GTX and Mercury XR-2 Capri as well as the Japanese-market Familia GT.
B6Ts are not the easiest engine to find used, but are cheap when found, going for around $600 at Japanese engine importers and between $250 and $1,000 in junkyards. Buying an entire donor Capri XR-2 (they were produced in larger numbers than the 323 GT or GTX), is often as cheap as the engine alone, and gets you all the mounts, brackets, and wiring harness goodies you'll need.
We found our Capri XR-2 engine in a local pull-it-yourself junkyard for $250.