What Could’ve Been No.1: Mazda 323F Lantis (BTCC)
What Could’ve Been is a series of articles looking at cars from touring car history that never got the chance to race in period. Whether they were scrapped in the development process or right before they took to the track, these are the stories of the cars that fell through the cracks.
During the manufacturer boom of the BTCC’s Super Touring era, plenty of different brands managed to achieve great success. Some, like BMW or Ford, already had long histories in the series, while others – Volvo, Nissan, and Renault to name a few – contributed to the BTCC history books in a major way for the first time. Mazda fell somewhere in the middle of these groups; the manufacturer had enjoyed a thoroughly impressive start to the 1980s with Win Percy at the wheel of his TWR-prepared first-generation RX-7, but had largely faded from relevance in the years since.
This was also true of Mazda in a wider touring car context. After the RX-7’s extremely successful career ended, it seemed the company didn’t have much interest in continuing in the discipline. Other than the odd locally backed or independent entry, it took until the Super Touring era for Mazda’s interest to return. Perhaps hoping to test the waters before committing to a full-scale programme, Mazda backed a single car factory team for the 1992 season.
Roger Dowson Engineering was the team chosen to run the project, in large part as they already had a relationship with Mazda having prepared the cars for the UK MX-5 Cup. They were tasked with turning a 323F (Astina) into a Super Tourer, which was a slightly left-field choice of car. Essentially the fastback variant of the standard 323 hatch, the 323F didn’t really fit the traditional three-box saloon car mould that the bulk of the field consisted of.
The team’s debut campaign in 1992 was relatively uneventful, though was certainly far from a disaster. Patrick Watts was recruited to race the 323F, having enjoyed remarkable success in one-make championships – including the MX-5 Cup – in the years prior. 18th in the standings out of 33 reflected the car’s position as somewhat competitive, but clearly some way off the top contenders. A fifth place at Knockhill was the standout result, albeit on a weekend with an especially high rate of attrition.
Mazda stuck with a single-car entry for 1993, but backed the team to build a new car. The result was the striking Xedos 6, which if nothing else definitely looked the part. Watts was retained on driving duties, and though the championship placing was similar, 15th of 33 this time, there were far more standout moments. In only the third race with the new car, Watts claimed his first and only BTCC pole position.
A trio of fourth place finishes, one at Donington and two at Knockhill, along with a fastest lap at Silverstone were the other major highlights. Evidently the Xedos 6 had potential, so for 1994 the team partnered with Team Dynamics and expanded to a two-car operation. What should have been a breakthrough year turned into something of a nightmare, and by the ninth round of the season the team had dropped off the grid.
It only took until the fourth round for the proverbial to hit the fan. The team’s two drivers, Matt Neal and David Leslie, were involved in a battle at Silverstone with a group of other cars. Coming out of the first corner, Leslie and Neal sandwiched Chris Goodwin’s Vauxhall Cavalier: the resulting contact fired Neal sideways and into a dramatic barrel roll. The extent of the damage to the car saw it shelved, and the team reverted to a single-car operation with Leslie. This didn’t last either however, as the team was forced to withdraw around two-thirds of the way into the season with financial issues.
Given this was the third year of the project and limited success had been achieved, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Mazda pulled its support for the team at this point. In a last-ditch attempt to draw Mazda back to the championship, the team set about fitting the usable parts from Neal’s wrecked car to a new chassis. This time they returned to a 323F, though a Lantis generation model instead. Having just about completed the car in time, it was entered in the FIA Touring Car World Cup event at Donington towards the end of 1994.
It wasn’t an especially promising debut for the car, with Neal finishing well down the order in 22nd place. That same weekend the 323F was also entered in the TOCA Shootout, but it didn’t leave much of an impression in that event either. Now, given this series of articles is about cars that didn’t make it, you might be wondering what the deal is here. While an extremely short career, this 323F did race twice. That’s correct; however the real focal point of this story is the evolution of this car that was set to race in 1995.
Although the 323F hadn’t shown much potential in its two outings, Roger Dowson Engineering opted to build a fresh car for the updated Super Touring regulations in 1995. This season saw the addition of wings to the cars, following the controversy in 1994 primarily centred around Alfa Romeo and their 155. With the new aero package fitted the car looked brilliant, and the retention of its 2.0 V6 helped further set the car apart from the competition.
Former F1 driver Slim Borgudd, who had raced with the team previously in the Nordic Touring Car Championship, was pencilled in to race the car in the 1995 BTCC. An entry was submitted, but late in the day sponsor funding fell through and the project had to be shelved. Despite attempts to find a pay driver or to sell the car, nothing materialised: as such, the 323F was left to sit under a cover in a corner of the team’s workshop for the rest of the decade.
Thankfully though, unlike many classic touring cars both of the Roger Dowson Engineering 323Fs still exist to this day. According to Super Touring Register the ’94 car raced in Belgium later in the 90s before spending the next 20 years in Greece; although at the time of writing it’s currently up for sale, if you have a spare €75,000. Meanwhile the ’95 car is still in the UK, having initially been sold by the team around 2000. It’s been through a few owners since, but has fairly consistently popped up in club and historic racing events ever since, including recently at the Super Touring Power event at Brands Hatch in 2023.
It's difficult to say if the 323F would have been competitive had it made it onto the grid. This was the beginning of the period where manufacturer spending was getting seriously out of hand, so it’s hard to imagine an independent team on a limited budget holding their own. Over in JTCC this generation of 323F made very little impression during its career, which isn’t a promising sign. However there was a fair amount of optimism from team boss Roger Dowson, and those who tested the car were impressed by the standard of the car’s preparation.
Given how different it was compared to its intended opposition, and how endearing the prospect of a proper independent-built entry in this era is, it’s a real shame we never got to see the 323F have a crack at taking on the heavy hitters of Super Touring in period.
Note: This is a rewritten and updated version of an article I published on DriveTribe back in 2018, which is unavailable due to that site’s restructuring.
