New Member - Autocrosser
 

We're the proud owners of a 2003 Protege DX, 5-speed, black, 42,000 miles. It's in great shape! The main reason we bought it is that our 1999 Miata 10AE's wheels/tires will bolt right on to it. We've been autocrossing the Miata for quite a while now and the Protege will be autocrossed once in a while in H-stock. The only legal modifications for stock are cat-back exhaust, shocks, front swaybar, brake pads, and tires on stock size rims.

So here's my questions:

1. Best cat-back exhaust? Needs to be lightweight.

2. Brake pads? Maybe just upgrade the rear shoes? Porterfield?

3. Shocks? (I'm really bummed that Koni's aren't available)

4. Fluids? What's best for the transmission? Redline? Weight?

5. Front swaybar? Racing Beat?

6. Anything problem areas we should watch out for?

We're going to switch to Mobil One for the engine. Probably get some Magnacore wires and a K&N drop-in filter.

Thanks!

Welcome to the board.
I know what I like, but not being an auto-x'r myself I'll leave your questions to the x-perts.

You should take the oil pan off and hand make you a baful (?) in it. These cars like the miatas tend to blow do to oil starvation. I have heard its mostly on the turbos for both the cars but there have been some NA cars blown for the same reason.

Sway bars, RB is ok but they come stock on the MSP and people are always up grading them. I road in a friends MSP and with its suspention and the Eiback springs it felt wicked!

1. Borla makes a great Cat-back

2. Can't remember the name-brand but there are some great kevlar ones on ebay

3. I assume you mean struts. Tokico Illumina 5 way adjustables are awesome for auto-x

4. Royal Purple

5. Racing beat,however, not recommended for auto-x without the rear,otherwise more than likely you will accentuate the understeer

6. The oil starvation is an issue.

The wires are useless. The K & N may net you about 3whp

Hey there Mitch! Welcome to di site mon!
If that's your Miata in your avatar...you should post up some pics for us. She sure looks sharp!
Good luck on the new Protege too buddy!
:evilgrin:
-Phil

Thanks for all the great replys! Especially about the oil starvation. I'll definatly keep an eye on that. Unfortunatly, baffles are illegal for stock class. :(

Here's a link to some photos of my Miata (sorry, I know this is a Protege forum!)

http://webpages.charter.net/mitchlewis/Miata_10AE/

I think the swaybar is going to be the tricky part. It really sucks that you can't add a rear bar in the stock classes. :(

Thanks again!

Mazda is Mazda man...ppl haven't given me any flack for posting up pics of my DSMs...so you'll be ok! But, then again, my Eclipse didn't have a huge wing and fugly bodykit....lol.
You're Miata looks great!
Great shot here:
http://webpages.charter.net/mitchlew...233%20(03).jpg
:wewant:
-Phil

Mitch what region are you Autocrossing with.....If you are in a region like Las Vegas , read 65-100 car at a given event you can win your class with no mods. If you're attending San Fran region read , 300 cars 15 National Champs then nothing but all out stock class prep is worth serious consedration.

I'd leave the engine stock unless you just wnat to mod it for fun. Tokico's are very good dampers, they are on my Datsun I road race as well as an old MR2 we have. Poterfiled pads work well but I always recommend against race pads for street cars...on my old Showroom Stock Miata racer the race pads ate rotors rather quickly. Redline oil is great but be careful what redline you use some of it is not meant for street cars.

As said adding a sway bar to the front only will likely just cuase understeer or worse cause the inside wheel to lift resulting in wheel spin....a softer set-up is usaully faster than the ricky racer rock hard suspension settings....lets the wheels stay planted to the tarmac.

Tom ,Las Vegas Region SCCA

I auto-x my MSP. Toss it around lots...LOL

I am running 5w30 Mobile 1 (new engine formula) synthetic and I have never run into any problems with oil starvation.

I am also a avid reader on www.msprotege.com and I have never seen a thread in there on oil starvation and auto-xing.

You aren't reading enough then, and you haven't blown your engine so of course you haven't experienced oil starvation

Ya, you don't read enough. I spent a week on this subject not to long ago. If you don't believe me I don't care, its not my car. You could go to that site and ask. Or you can take it from people on a forum that is known for giving GOOD advise!

Thanks for all the great advice! (and complements on the Miata) I was hoping for a basic Protege setup to start with. Anyone wanna share?

Sorry, but I should have said that I've been autocrossing for 17+ years now. Won my share of major events (never Nationals though)

SWAYBAR
Running a stiffer front bar doesn't always mean more oversteer. Just ask any Miata autocrosser. The increased roll stiffness reduces camber loss in the corners (keeps the front tires flatter to the ground). I think I'll try and get something that's got a lot of adjustment holes and play around.

Does the car even have a rear bar? I haven't looked?

SHOCKS
I'm trying to decide between the Mazdaspeed (revalved KYB's?) and Tokiko Illumina's. The problem with the Illumina's is that you can't adjust rebound/compression independently. Koni's only adjust rebound. I notice that Moton makes double adjustables for the Protege, but I don't have $3500 laying around! Sheesh! :)

BRAKE PADS
I've been running the Porterfield R4S pads for quite a while now. They are very popular with the National level autocrossers. They're easy on the rotors and last forever! Only problem is that they are expensive and create a fair amount of dust. Anyone have other suggestions? (I'm not running Hawk blue's....they EAT rotors. Mainly for road racing $$$$) I'm thinking of running Portfields only in the rear to help get the car to rotate entering corners.

BUSHINGS (must be OEM in stock class)
When do the suspension bushings start to go? I've got 42,000 on the car and I'm thinking of replacing them if I start autocrossing the car a lot. Advice?

ALIGNMENT
I've heard you can only get 1 degree negative in the front (not good). What about the rear? Can you make any adjustments to the rear at all? Shims? Etc... Too bad Mazda doesn't specify crash bolts for their cars. That would help a lot! :)

OIL STARVATION
I doubt autocross will create a oil starvation problem. But road racing....I could see that. In autocross, the back and forth transitions are much more frequent than road racing. Also, you're normally on course for less than a minute. IMHO, if you're not circling a skid pad, I doubt you're going to have problems. But I'm DEFINATLY going to switch to synthetic ASAP. What weight do you run in the tranny? (No I'm not going to run Redline's Shock Proof stuff)

SHIFTER
Anyone have a OEM fix for stiffening up the shifter? It's a little sloppy now with 42,000 miles.

PARTS
Any good sources for OEM parts (shift knobs, interior parts, etc...). Mazda Motorsports won't sell that stuff. :)

Thanks for all the great advice! What a great resource!

One last thing on the oil thing. During hard right turns is when it happens. No its not right away. But there is plenty of people that auto cross these cars because they handle so well and it is and could be a problem. If it is allowed I would sujest a good oil pressure gauge and just keep an eye on it. If 1 out of 100 blow I would hate to be that one! Good luck with the Pro and post pics of it when you get it ready to race.

The shifter is fixed with a kartboy bushing and/or shifter assy.

The bushing alone has been adequate for me...

The differance with the bigger Miata front bar is it is RWD......my experiance with FWD has been that this seems to increase wheel spin and how did you know I was talking Hawk Blue pad!!!! Wish I could say one way or the other on the oil baffling but I just got my Protege as well. I just remembered this..have you tried SCCAforums.com for set up info , also I could ask my buddy Dave , he's F125 National Champ but spent most of the last 15 yrs in FWD cars.

Tom