hey whats up
well i've been thinking and doing some research and from what i've been reading im not to big on the idea of turboing the protege anymore, for various reasons number 1 being that if i do knowing myself i'll want to race constantly and with the job i have i can't screw up my driving record or bye bye job....also all the little irritating problems that our cars seem to have with turbos....lol
so what i will probably be doing is just basic bolt ons...header, cam gears, short shifter, motor mounts and some suspension work i'm going to focus more on the looks of the car
heres an idea i had while driving at work today lol

1. get this lip thats coming out as well as the rest of the msp.mp3 kit


2. get these rims...color may change but i really like the red


3.paint the car a very dark gunmetal color kinda of like the titanium msp's but darker.

4. get the oem grill again with the chrome insert on the top aswell as the canadian spec chrome rear license plate garnish(like the one on negatize' car)

5. possibly have interior done in all black with suede red racing seats (haven't decided which company yet)

6. new oem tailights tinted (not as dark as now)

7. H.I.D kit

another idea i was playing around with as i was driving was working on a projector headlight .....i'll make another thread for that idea tho...lol

i've got a few more ideas but i'm still thinking them over these are the more "definate" ways i'd like to go with the look, i want sporty yet classy kinda like a little audi a4 or something along those lines...i dunno, what do you guys think of this? i'm going for a more "grown up look now" lol i took my canards off yesterday and i'm starting the process of making the car less "teenager esque" lol just looking for some input......please feel free to put down any ideas you have...color schemes, parts etc.....i'd love to hear what you have to say
peace
dante

 

I like every thing but those red wheels lol. Sorry man but those things are ugly. But I'm with you on the rest!

 

^ lol yeah i think they are a bit out of the theme i'm going for i'll prob stick with bronze i think gunmetal with bronze would look sweet

 

that lip looks great. is that an oem lip kit? looks like the msp lip and a DG lip added to it. I like it.

I don't know anything about cosmetics but I can help you with the engine stuff. Right now I'm also doing some NA mods to my p5 since the supercharger will only enhance them. Currently I'm sending off my head to a honda race shop to be ported and polished and rebuilt with the mazdaspeed motorsports cams and eibach valve springs. Based on previous owners and claims from the machine shop I'm expecting 25-30whp all motor. This will cost me $920+shipping and then the labor to have the head re-installed plus the head gasket kit (about $140). I expect my total for everything on this one little project to be right at $1500. 30whp = $1500 is a lot of money to spend but I feel it's a great gain for what I'm going to be doing. This will give me right at 200whp on the same 4.5psi I dyno'd earlier and with tuning most likely 215-220whp. Thats a BIG jump from the 100whp I put out stock.

If you're looking to do NA modding Headwork and cams are going to be your biggest gain. Also, don't forget that you can run the Mazdaspeed pistons 10.2:1 or so and that will be a nice little bump (maybe 10whp). Just be sure to run premium gas. Also, track down an MP3 ecu or have yours re-flashed. Cams, headwork, header, intake and mp3 ecu will get you a decent gain. You'll be happy with it. If after all that you're not, let me know and I'll sell you a supercharger that won't require you to change ANY of that! Just add to it!

 

hmmmmm sounds good yeah i was thinking to start off i'm going to go with a header and adjustable cam gears because i want to basically move my power band up a lil bit because i hate this cars mid and high end power i want to play around with that for awhile and see how i like it and then i'll try everything else h/c pistons i was also looking into i think awr has some? maybe it was somewhere else but either way the i was thinking of getting those also any ideas on around how much installing new pistons would cost?

 

actually its an auto exe knockoff lol for the dx/lx/es cars

 

I personally think the cam gears are a big waste. You have no idea the work that goes into adding cam gears to stock cams....the gain would be SO small. Your best bet is to buy the Mazdaspeed cams and if you're feeling frisky THEN buy the gears and install them all at the same time. The gain on gears is not worth the labor. If you wanna go all out do it ALL at once...thats what I'm doing.

 

I really like that lip. I say the guys post on msprotege and it looks pretty sweet, if I ever decide to do exterior mods I'd probably get that too! About the color scheme, I really like your bronze rims, I've never really seen bronze rims before, they're really unique. I also love a good dark, almost slate metallic grey paint job, and I think the bronze rims would look REALLY good with a good paintjob of that color! And than for interior just stick with some simple grey seats and stuff.

 

Where is that lip available at? *Details plz*

 

oh really? so by mazdaspeed cams i'm guessing your not talking about the mazdaspeed protege? or are you? with the cam gears i'm just looking mainly to push the powerband up a lil bit ...if that makes sense? basically i want the power to be mostly in the mid to highend basically so that when say i'm cruising on the highway and i need to move i can because at this point i'm totally unimpressed by this car when on the highway i've heard a header will help this car alot so i'm going to get one also i was told by people that i could use the cam gears to "move" the power band up...does that make sense or did i misunderstand what they meant?

thanks! yeah i've been thinking that too the only thing i'm thinking is i'd like a set of 16 inch rims at max now because the 17's are heavy and while they grip the road a thousand times better than the stock 15's the ride with the 15's was much nicer so i figure i'll go with a 16 that way i can have the thicker tires like on the 15's but they are bigger like the 17's so its a happy medium basically i'll prob end up selling these rims and then buy another set and just paint em the same as i painted these.

[QUOTE]Where is that lip available at? *Details plz*[QUOTE]

there's a thread at msprotege.com in the 3rd gen appearance section call new sedan front lip all the info is in there!

peace
dante

 

Those wheels just scream "Civic Hatch" to me...but it's your call really!

 

I think it depends on what the rest of the car looks like

 

Dante, the mazdaspeed cams I'm refering to are from the mazda motorsports catalog. These are different from the FS-ZE (j-spec) cams. These are easiet to get from www.srmotorsports.com I paid $450 shipped for them. The cam gears are about $350 iirc. Thats a lot to spend for just cams. I'm taking $400-500 and putting it towards my port and polish job instead of gears. I think it'll be a much better gain for the money.

As for your power request. You have no idea how much the OBX header will boost your mid-top end. It's night and day different. I dont think I've ever downshifted on the interstate to pass even at 80+mph. It pulls much harder than I would've thought.


My personal opinion would be for you to buy the OBX header and immediatly send it off to Jet Coat for coating.... It's about another $200 on top of the cost of the header but it will look hot, keep heat out from under the hood, increase exhaust gas velocity and did I mention look good?! I've been studying up a lot on the process and I'm very impressed.

 

[/QUOTE] for your power request. You have no idea how much the OBX header will boost your mid-top end. It's night and day different. I dont think I've ever downshifted on the interstate to pass even at 80+mph. It pulls much harder than I would've thought. [QUOTE]

ahhhh yes now this sounds good! is yours jet coated or do you have any pics of one thats jet coated? i've heard of this but never really looked into what it actually is....also would you recomend that spark plug non fouler trick or the mil eliminator when i get the header?

 

lol yea your right ...i just love those stripped down japanese looking rims tho