Replaced my DD!

[float_6969]

So, my DD has been a 92 Civic DX for the last 5 years or so. It's been a good car, minimal maintainence, very reliable. But it was old and rusty and looked like poo. My father in law had a 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege that he wanted to sell as it's been sitting in his garage for the last 2 years, basically collecting dust (he'd drive it every now and then and kept the fluids changed, etc). So I bought it!






It's a 2L turbo, makes 176hp stock. Runs fine, but the stock tune SUCKS. Mazda put some n00b in a room with the stock Protege ECU and said, "you have 1 hr to make this work with a turbo" and called it good. It stays in closed loop till 4K rpm, even in boost, so it has a bad habit of blowing the stock motor up at around 3-4K because the AFR's get around 17:1 sometimes. Then it goes SUPER rich (10:1+) till around 6K, and then finally leans out to a reasonable 12:1. Stock SMIC is too small and in a bad place, so it heat soaks after about 10 min. The inlet for the air filter is right by the hot side of the intercooler, and needless to say, that's not a great place for it.

Luckily there is a decent amount of aftermarket support, and some nearly PnP piggy backs that will fix the stock ECU's tuning issues. Pretty easy to get to 200whp with bolt on's. It's the DD, so I won't get too crazy with it, but it'll be fun to have a new toy to play around with.

[nissangirl74]

That's awesome! Congrats!

[themadscientist]

On my short list of newer cars in the U.S. market I would consider. Nice choice!

[Jesda]

Love it! MS Protege is a seriously underrated car.

[Bubba1]

nice ride. Enjoy.

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Cool ride. I totally forgot about these. Don't see too many around anymore.

[RicerX]

Two mods joined the turbo Mazda club this week! HA! Congrats on the new ride! Perfect color, too!

[300ZXttZMAN]

Very nice! Congrads on the purchase.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Two mods joined the turbo Mazda club this week!

Now if I could just get my block back from the machine shop, we'd be up to 3

That's a good looking ride. I agree with Jesda... seriously underrated car.

[Mr1der]

those are very fun cars. I remember my friend having a black one. I wanna say they have an odd buck when the gas gets low though...it was apparently a common issue on them. Maybe even discussed in the owners manual?

[float_6969]

Thanks guys (and gal), LOL! Yea, I do think it's pretty underrated. If Mazda had put a little more effort into the engine/tuning, this would be an awesome car. The handling is AWESOME. It's a blast to drive.

Mr1der, no issues with bucking on low gas, and I've had the light on once? Maybe it was in the 03's and they fixed it in the 03.5's?

[frapjap]

Nice grab! A friend had one of those in college when they were new. It was pretty quick (after a tune) and handled very well. We installed a cold air intake in the college parking lot, too. Inspired me to buy my uninspiring Protege ES. God, I hated that car.

[Mr1der]

Thanks guys (and gal), LOL! Yea, I do think it's pretty underrated. If Mazda had put a little more effort into the engine/tuning, this would be an awesome car. The handling is AWESOME. It's a blast to drive.

Mr1der, no issues with bucking on low gas, and I've had the light on once? Maybe it was in the 03's and they fixed it in the 03.5's?

it's possible. it was quite silly.

car was fine if it had more than a quarter of a tank.

[Looneybomber]

Is this the car in question that you keep calling me about? For some reason, I was picturing an SUV?

4dr Mazdaspeed. I am jealous. I would love to retire my wife's altima for something with forced induction...or v8

[float_6969]

Yup! This is the car. I've got the sub in the garage. Just need to get some time to put it in the stock box, remove the speakers from the rear deck-lid that someone installed, and then enjoy the beauty of a properly balanced sound system, LOL!

[Mr1der]

The best part of the Speed is the suspension though.

Racing Beat did those and the MP3 Protege's right. Fun little cars.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Like a lot of Mazdas, they're really quite gutless, but the chassis will make you smile ALL day long. And the styling's quite good for a compact car. I wish they'd done a Speed Protege5, but...

When I was about 19 the manager at the Pizza Hut I worked at bought a blue one. Pretty much everything boost-related (including engine management) was upgraded. It was a lot of fun. STILL gutless, but less so. They're damn practical for funmobiles, too.

[float_6969]

The suspension setup is pretty amazing for the class of car it is. I couldn't believe that it came from Mazda that way. I honestly don't know what you could do to improve it unless you were going to make it a full on race car. For a street/strip setup, it couldn't be any better.

[Mr1der]

nope. The stock protege itself as well as the first gen 6 had well shorted chassis though. The Speed and the MP3 Protege got a fair amount of Racing Beat parts added on. Very well done. I wouldn't mind an MP3 Protege if I was looking for a good looking, fun car to use as a gas saver. Hell, I was when I was actually at a Mazda lot looking at Proteges when I got my Civic...

[float_6969]

Well I've got the first part coming to modify it. I bought a Split Second Air/Fuel Controller. They make a model specific for these Mazda Speed Protege's. It's basically like an Apex SAFC, but it has a function that fools the ECU into thinking it's in closed loop when it goes into boost so you can richen it up, and then it leans out the area where it's too rich. Looking forward to a nice smooth power curve.

[dasoupdude]

That is awesome, I've never seen that color before. Epic potential!