Macs Protege

I have an opportunity to pick up a low milage Mazdaspeed Protege 03.5 and trade in my 02 P5. I use my P5 to race autocross stock and am becoming very competitive. I also use it for my daily driver and have already put 42K miles on it. There are no mods to the car except tires, and drop in K&N filter.

What would any of you do? Is a MSP worth it if I have to wait about a year to add any mods to my P5?

Let me know,
Thanks

Topher

trade...your warranty is about it...OR invest in a turbo kit and spank a mazdaspeed...your choice!

Roddimus Prime

agreed....get the mazdaspeed and plan on spending a chunk of change to make it run right like mazda SHOULD'VE done from the factory...I suggest you buy the MSP suspension and sink a little more cash into your P5....they look so good.

JHew84

hm, where in michigan is this MSP? i am desperatly looking for one and haven't found one close, if you dont end up getting it would you mind throwin the deal my way?

Macs Protege

It seems to me you would sink more money into a P5 than into an MSP because you are further from performance bankrupcy. I agree with you on the looks of the P5 especialy since it's yellow and loaded. But how much would the MSP suspension cost and I have also heard that problems arise in the transmission when a turbo is added to the P5.

The mods I was planning on doing to my P5 were entirely autocross related, which would include:

Rota Slipstream 16's/ Falken or Hoosier tires
Tokiko adjustable shocks, keep the stock springs
Cat back exhaust
and anything else I can do to the car that would increase performance but keep me in stock class.

Any advise other than this would be greatly appreciated.

If I picked up the MSP I would only get a new set of wheels and tires just for racing. The races around here are relatively small (100-200 cars) so placing high isn't to much of an issue.

Aslo to Topher, yes if this deal does not go through I'll pass the deal to you. PM me your name and info and I'll give it to my buddy at the dealership.

If any one has any advise on autocrossing MP's please fill me in. I'm new to it but I'm getting really good and I would like to get even better.

Thanks

Roddimus Prime

the MSP is amazing for autocross if you could do something about the horrible ecu tuning. By the MSP and invest in some sort of standalone fuel management. It will be a screamer then.

Macs Protege

What would be the first thing you would do to the MSP suspension besides wheel/tire upgrade to make it handle even better?

Roddimus Prime

nothing to the suspension....the MSP is the worlds fastest production FWD ever made. why mess with that. Your driver skill isn't up to the stock vehicles capabilities. Max out the stock car first then worry about upgrades....I would suggest some 15" or 16" wheels (something as light as possibly) and at LEAST 7" wide. smaller, lighter wheels will help out your acceleration until you build boost and a good r-compound tire will decimate all!

pr5guy

look into the corksport catback exhaust for the MSP, it sounds awesome

Macs Protege

Picking the car up today. Drove it yesterday and couldn't believe the difference in the two cars. I loved my P5 but the MSP is so nice. I'll even get to test it out on the autocross courses this weekend.

Thanks for your advise guys and I'll post some pics when I get it and also pick your brains on some mods.

Thanks

JHew84

sweet, congrats on the purchase, where in michigan are you? when i get my speed we'll have to meet up and do some track days and stuff, i found a couple more, 1 in michigan, hopefully i'll be able to pick it up pretty soon...

Racing Beat

hey hey another michigander here, IM in MO now but am up in the state whenever I get the chance, always around GR or whitehall (by Muskegon)

JHew84

sweet, we will all have to get togther and have a lil protege meet (the michigan probe owners club is HUGE and we have large meets quite often), so i'm always up for meeting other enthusiasts ...

i'm in lansing, so its not terribly far from GR...

Macs Protege

I had to wait untill last night to pick up the car because they still had to inspect it and clean it. But now that I've driven it today I'm pissed because I found a whole lot wrong with it. This is the list:

(1)They had to replace the windshield because it was cracked when it was traded in, but after they installed it it's not sealed properly so air is coming in somewhere so it sounds like my a/c is kicking full blast constantly.

(2)They put new tires on the front and didn't match the Bridgestones, they used Continental with a lot higher treadwhere. I told them to leave them after thinking about all the horror stories about the stock tires slipping around in the winter. In the spring I'll put all new tires on the car(sticky ones). Also they forgot to balance the new tires because the stearing wheel shakes like crazy about 70mph.

(3)They were supposed to turn the rotors but didn't and the car pulsates whenever I stop. I'm also concerned about the pad wear.

(4)The throttle hesitates or the turbo does. I think you guys told me I need to get the ECU flashed. Would you recomend a reprogram and Dyno on the ECU?

(5)This one really makes me mad. I finaly got to play around with the stereo and I noticed there was little bass for a system with an 8" sub. So I took a look at the Kenwood box in the trunk and the 8" driver was missing. I couldn't believe it! I'm sure the previous owner either blew it or took it for his next car and the dealership didn't catch it.

The Dealership is taking it in for the day tomorrow and fixing everything that's screwed up. I'm very dissapointed in the attention to detail the dealership did not practice and I'm also dissapointed that I didn't catch this stuff before I left last night with the car. I was way to busy trying to talk my wife into letting me buy the car and also getting the dealer to drop the price. I ended up getting a really good deal and coming out on top instead of the other. But now I'm afraid the dealership is going to give me a hard time on all this stuff and say "well we gave you a deal on the car so you should just bend over and take it up the tale pipe."

I'm definately interested in hooking up with you Michigan guys. I live in Auburn Hills and try to make most ofthe South East Solo2 races. My next event will be at the Great Lakes Crossing on September 12th. It's an MSSC event and there is a good turnout. So far I have been the only Protege driver in this area. I did come across an MSP at the SCCA Silverdome race on Sunday. He's a Saginaw Valley member and races up there most the time.

Later,
Brian

JHew84

ya, there is another MSP owner that goes to HOPE college, he has a 2003.5 titanium, its a pretty slick car, if i had a car worth auto-xing right now i would be all over that, but my fun car is leaking PS fluid everywhere, and my daily i'm sure wouldn't be to much fun with an original clutch at 180K miles :P...