JDM Unicorns Episode 7: Mazdaspeed Demio A Spec 1997 DW5W
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Unless your youth was spent playing Grand Turismo 1 or Grand Turismo 2 you could be forgiven for not knowing about the Mazda Speed Demio A Spec. It was the basic starter car you sat licences in or won on beginner races like the Sunday Cup. The Demio A-Spec was based in the game on the real life hero car which was the top spec DW5W 1.5 Liter Mazda Demio GL-X Model.
1997 A Spec Touring Kit
Late 1999 A Spec Touring Kit
The top spec GL-X was available with 5 speed manual transmission or 4 speed Automatic, some of the lower grade models that used the 1.3 engine only had a 3 speed Automatic giving you an idea just how basic these cars were. The GL-X was fitted with Mazda’s 1.5 SOHC B5-ME engine which produced 100ps(74kW)/6000rpm. Performance was less than scintillating with 0-100kph times around 14 seconds. The GL-X also had ABS brakes as standard. Suspension and braking was basic however, MacPherson Struts and Disks up front and Torsions beams and drum brakes on the rear. The tall body and softly sprung suspension generated plenty of body roll as a result. As one of Mazda’s most popular models in the range at the time Mazdaspeed set about developing some basic bolt on modifications and dress up parts that customers could accessorize their Demio’s with. Apart from Mazda Speeds demo car/s there never appeared to be as far as our research goes an off the show room floor model. Rather customers built to order based off Mazda Speed catalog options below. For this reason finding one nearly 25 years on in any shape or form makes them a unicorn.
Zenki - Pre Facelift Demio A Spec 97-99. For myself I am a fan of the early version. I would be tempted to mix it with the facelift A-Spec rear spoiler and rear bumper though.
Kouki - Facelift Demio A Spec 99-2002 received full size front and rear bumpers, different side skirts and rear spoiler.
Mazda Speed marketed the Demio A-Spec as a touring kit and everything was designed to conform with Japanese Government Traffic regulations. Thus making it easy for Mazda dealerships or customers to bolt on the parts for road use. It was a mild stage 1 tune that might have picked up a few more KW at most if you went all out with the Mazda Speed Sports Muffler and High Flow drop in Air Filter panel. Handling wise you could add Eibach lowering springs, tuned sports dampers and a strut tower brace to reduce the body roll - this the most practical upgrades that offered true enhancement. Most however would have optioned the Aero kit only to get the look and in all honesty that was what it was all about.
The 97’ A-Spec Aero Kit consisted of Front Grille which you could colour code to the body or purchase in a chrome option. There was a Front Bumper (Option 1) which was made of more forgiving polyurethane, this option is what you see on the Mazda Speed Demo and GT1/2 Game Car. You could add Fog Lamp Brackets for using genuine Mazda Fog lights if you liked with this option. Front Bumper Half Spoiler (option 2), Rear Skirt & Rear wings were all made of fiberglass. Side Skirls and rear window finisher were made of ABS plastic. With the Front Bumper Face or Front Bumper Spoiler designs you were choosing between two styles. Basically they looked the same with the fiberglass lip type having 3 slots in the bottom and working with the factory bumper. I presume it was a lower cost option. Naturally the full polyurethane bumper with fiberglass/ABS mix kit would be my desire to get the Grand Turismo car look with more aggressive inlet vents. I too would want the Mazda Speed Recaro seats and rails fitted, something that I have personally never seen on any A-Spec Demio. At approximately $1000NZD/$750USD a seat I think that is really good value considering what would be expected for even knock off no brand seats today. The famous tri spoke wheels on the Zenki model which I believe are made by Advan do not seem to be officially offered but look very late 90s on trend. If you know more about the wheels let us know. We won’t go into the facelift model as its essentially the same but with full sized bumpers front and rear. When was the last time if ever you saw a A-Spec Demio outside of Grand Turismo? I think most would say never and it’s for this reason we would classify the Demio A-Spec as a unicorn.
With increasing gas prices these days and most classic JDM prices beyond affordable for most I am seeing a come back with some of these small hatches from the era. You would be surprised what tuners where actually doing on small cars like this back in the day. RE Amemiya built a 286ps Turbo Demio for example, or some 1 off builds used SC12 MR2 superchargers as custom kits to make what they called B-Spec Demio’s. If you’re on a sub 9-11k budget there is a few interesting but forgotten about FF cars that we could import at the time of writing still over looked by most. I would tip them to go up in value over time so if you can live without RWD but still want something fun to tune drop us a line to get some ideas on what we can import you ex Japan. I have owned plenty of MR, FWD, RWD classics and enjoy a mix simply because it requires a whole new skill set to drive each layout on the limit.
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