Hello! I am happy to found a new virtual home! I have long been a mazda guy and have had a 95 protege since it was brand new.( it now has 187,000mi. on it and still runs great!!) I have lowered it, tinted the windows, put wheels and tires on it, put a good system in it, color matched the mirrors,etc. My only complaint is the lack of horsepower. Got any tips? BTW I hate turbo lag!!!

 

first things first...........go for an intake and exhaust system.....

 

Thanks guys. I am a total noob to all this. Until now my project/toy has been my mazda truck.
Anyone got any suggestions on brands of products? And who is CAI?

 

CAI stands for "Cold Air Intake"..........the more cold air that you get the better performance gains there are....
as for brands of products.....I am not that familiar with what's out there for the 2nd gen Protege, as I own a 1st gen myself, but I am pretty sure that you'll find some products for your car on the net....
check out

www.corksport.com
www.nopionline.com

good websites with a lot of stuff for our cars....

 

Duh!! Boy do I feel stupid!! Thanks for the tips. How much of a horsepower increase can I expect from these upgrades. I have the 1.5L.
Anyone around here running the weapon r or the ground control coilovers? My struts are shot, anyone got any recomendations for a good inexpensive ones? I am definately gonna be lowering my ride more. It is only 1 3/4 in from stock right now.

 

Power gains from an intake and exhaust system would not be that much.......intake gives you a boost in the higher rpm range...
if you get a catback exhaust, you'll feel a difference as well and it makes your car sound better.............that's if you gen an aftermarket exhaust......

as for lowering your car, do a search on the forum.....search button is somewhere on top of the page if I remeber correctly...

I am sure that what you're asking for has been discussed in great detail, so do a search and you'll find the answers of what you're looking into....

 

www.members.tripod.com/protosportracing

also you can get a ractive intake for about a 100 bucks, from www.autotoys.com
Bruce

 

Bruce,

Thanks for the links. Aside from the squeaking you talked about in another thread, was there another reason why you took off the weapon r coilovers? Are they good quality?

 

they were nice on smooth roads , like florida style roads , or california style roads , but innew york , it was just a joke... anyhow they ended up killing my shocks , I mean wearing them down to the point that there rebound and compression was useless... so I decieded to take them off and order a set of BG springs , wich did not drop the car like I expected , but I am living with it . after these were installed I realized that I needed to install a set of better shocks , but this time , I wanted something extra , something better , and I knew it had to be the mazdaspeeds . So I saved up , worked my *** off and paid that 720 for them and let me tell you , the car may not corner as flat as the it did with the weapon R's , but with a change in the roll bar soon , it will corner a lot flatter .. You will learn that lowering your car to the ground is more for show, and you have to raise it up to get better handling , as I once read this somewhere about a dropped civic.. anyway if you were to buy either of the two , I would get the ground controls , but then i would not even get those I would just look for a set of good springs , that will lower my car as much as possible ...
Bruce

 

Yeah I really like the super low look. I guess I will just have to see about the coilovers. You mentioned that the BG are on your car now. Do they really drop it a full 2.5 inches. You seem to be alluding that they don't.