Hi, we believe my mum has an ultra rare 323 Sportif GLX special edition, it seems to be the only one in the UK and the details she knows about it are very sketchy. Basically it looks like no other 323 Sportif GLX of the same age. She bought it direct from a Mazda dealer new and they said it was from Japan (possibly an import) and they used it as a demo car for a while. It has every possible optional extra going, came with Yokohama semi-slick tyres, and was driven around for a while by no other than Athlete Sally Gunnell! It's a 1.5i DOHC automatic on a M-plate (1995).

Here are some images of the car and a pick of the plate in the door panel. We are struggling to find any information on the internet so if anyone has any pointers, or clues or can even identify how rare this car is in the UK, please get in touch.
Many thanks!
Sezza

 

Hi Sezza, and welcome to Mazdaforum!!
Pretty neat lookin' car you've got there, but I am not sure how to read the door sticker... especially for European models.
The GLX certainly indicates it to be the top of the line trim level in that model, so that would explain that part.
It seems to be a "B" chassis, which indicates a 3 series car. The "C" would likely stand for the coupe body, but when I did a search for BC5K all I got were pages in Hungarian and Russian? And nothing when I added the BAB suffix.
My guess is that your mothers dealer is correct and that it was a special import. In this country it would likely be considered a "gray-market" car.

AH!! I just found a parts page online from somewhere in Russia. Have a look at the drawing of the car in this pic. It seems to be a rendering of your car: http://translate.google.com/translat...z%3D1I7GGIT_en

 

Ahhh thanks a lot for the info! Really appreciate it!
Someone else on pistonheads.co.uk has suggested it's a Mazda Familia Neo (the pictures on the link they sent show it to be the same) but I'm still no further as to how one of these ended up in UK as a special import or how rare they are in the UK.
Obviously it's too long ago now to ask the original dealership.
If anyone has an ideas, be great to hear!
Thanks

 

here is an additional interpretation, for what it's worth. not sure if it will help you a lot.

it is definitely produced for distribution in europe. that doesn't sound like it helps much, but that clarifies that it was not intended for japanese or north american consumers. europe is the only continent that doesn't require a production date on the door. also, the bc5k is the body of the car. here in the states, we had BG, BHA, and BJ as our protege bodies. your BC defines the body and the 5K likely describes either the drive type or an extension on the body (ie, hatch, coupe, wagon, etc.).

the car resembles an american mx-3 to me. it definitely looks much more aggressive than the mx-3, however. this is all speculation though, since mazda has extremely hazy records before 98. they can't tell you how many of any of their cars before those years were produced, no matter the rarity.

it seems to me that the car was not produced for the UK, but is definitely legal there because of the european specs. congrats, you have a one in a million apparently.

 

You mean like these: http://images.google.com/images?q=Ma...N&hl=en&tab=wi

One clue is that it was built as a RHD car, which should narrow your search down a bit too.
As far as how it got to the UK... back in the '80's there was a fairly big market here in the US for Euro/Italian cars, that were not necessarily produced for the US market, as the "real ones" were far too expensive to buy from a dealer here. So, some industrious (re: greedy, opportunists) decided that they might import some euro-spec cars, get them through DOT/EPA regulations and sell them cheaper, but at a profit for themselves. (See the film, Rain Man.)
Moral of the story: If you have the clout, ambition or the money, one can accomplish practically anything... even if it is found out for the scam it is and is short-lived.

 

I also have this model of 323 (1995), although mine has the 1.3 engine. From what i can remember from the dealership only 175 (ish) were imported to the UK as a trial so it is quite rare, I've only ever seen roughly 5 on the road in the past 15 years.