1989 Mercury Tracer from North America - Comments

I recieved the car as a hand-me-down from my parents, and they abused it. Ran the brake pads down to metal, hardly ever changed the oil or ATF, let it sit unused for months at a time, etc. After fixing the neglected things, the only problem has been an exhaust rattle that is due to a bad catalytic converter. I think the shop just put in a used one, so it wasn't the car's fault.

I run autocrosses with this car and find that it works fairly well other than the excessive stock body roll and anemic off-the-line performance (about 11 sec 0-60 with AT). All it costs to keep running is gas (and it gets about 30-35 mpg anyway). The lack of aftermarket performance parts is somewhat frustrating.

Hi I have been trying to modify my 89 tracer hatchback with manual tranny for some time...do you know anyone who makes anything for the car or at least some good upgrades or other cars that have universal parts with this one?

Let me know

sincerely

DJ

youturnthescrews@aol.com.

I have a 1989 Tracer 4dr Hatchback. My dad bought the car in 1997. It has had five owners (the 5th one being me). The first owner was a man that lived down the street from us, the second owner my dad, the third owner my youngest sister, the fourth my oldest sister, the fifth me. My second sister was driving home from Chicago to Detroit and it over heated in Jackson and my dad had to put $2,000 dollars to get it back up and running. That was in 2000. Now every great once in awhile it will give out then you just leave it for a day then it will start right back up and keep on going. It is very fun to drive because it is a manual. And it is very good on gas.

They make all sorts of after market heads and cams 4 the 323. The mazda also came witha turbo option so a competent mechanic could do the swap. It's a bit of work tho since you will have to change the wiring harness and computer, but well worth it... the turbo car has 130hp STOCK, not to mention that just about any turbo parts from the larger 626 turbo will fit. The car with factory parts can easily do a 14 or 15 sec quarter mile while not incurring too many penalties for modifications so you can still run in the stock category.