Just purchased my 1st protege
 

2 weeks ago I traded my ford escort zx2 in for a 2003 2.0L mazda protege dx. The protege is 10x better than the zx2 and much more composed on the mountains where i currently live. Still i want to produce more power for autocrossing and possible stay under warrenty, not that that is super essential. I saw that mazda sells some exhaust and minor engine upgrades on their site and mazdaspeed won't sell you anything unless you race. Any suggestions?
The other thing i noticed was that the previous owner shredded a pair of front tires in the one year he owned it. Is this a problem anyone else has had or was the guy just stupid? Is there anyway to keep the wheels gripping under an autocross style clutch dump? Any suggestions would be awsome.

shreaded the tires how? if the car is in need of an alignment that could wear through tires pretty quickly, or do you just think he spun the tires to much? i'm not sure how mazda's warranty's are, but most of the ones i've heard of through friends are pretty strict about modifications, if something were to go wrong, and could even remotely be linked to any aftermarket parts on the vehicle, i'm sure they would most likely deny any warranty work...

congrats on the new purchase tho :)