In 2016 just after I had re painted my rear fenders for the 2nd time, there was a flooding incident where the car had to briefly drive through water deep enough that is was coming up over the hood and splitting on the window.
I got out as soon as I could, I had to keep moving so the motor wouldn’t bog. Under a minute driving in that depth of water but it wreaked havoc. Ruined a whole bunch of shit including both my rear fenders, lips, side sills, etc.
The flood ripped out my old OE front fender liners, and since I don’t like debris and water flying around in there I made complete custom fender liners that double as an intake air diversion system. They stay out of the way so they don’t have any rub issues. The front portions are fixed to the chassis, they fill the shape of the bumper completely but are mounted separately so that the bumper is still quickly removable. The drivers side also acts as an air diversion panel up into the intake. The front bumper fog deletes let air flow directly at the panel, which then feeds air into an air ram tube aimed at the intake. The air ram has a hydro shield to stop any water or particles. Hurricane proof.
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Axle bind has always been an issue on this car, I could never be low enough and have enough negative camber without the axles binding while turning, especially under load.
Because of all the geometry changes from a significant drop and excessive camber the axles were under pressure by being pushed inward.
Since I actually want more negative front camber, the best solution was to create longer Front Lower Control Arms. I ended up extending and boxing oem FLCAs 15mm, relieving the inward axle pressure and giving me a few more degrees of camber. Which I think suits this chassis well, especially once I make some adjustments.
They are reinforced all around and then boxed in on the bottom. Not light or pretty, but strong.
I’ll be doing some slight height adjustments and making the rear camber match the front soon, just enjoying this look for a minute
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Headlights are a huge aspect of a car’s appearance. The goal was to update the look of them to a higher end standard, make them clean, and one of a kind, but while not making them too ridiculous or too far outside the realm of OEM+
Most the of the inner pieces of the headlights started out chrome and then were tinted to different levels so that the headlight still has depth and interest but is way more aggressive looking than stock. The housing bezel is satin black to match the kit, the inner side reflector is shaved and tinted, the reflector bowls and projector shroud are tinted, even the top of the switchback turn signal is tinted.
Each separate light (HID’s, LED Halos, Switchbacks, and side markers) inside them is individually wired to it’s own retrofitted oem button in the interior, so I have a bunch of combinations of light setups I can run depending on mood and time of day.
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Suspension is my favourite aspect of modifying a car.
I’m obsessed with the visual aspect of cars, and obviously a car’s stance has a huge impact on it’s appearance. I love how the lines of the car come out and become more noticeable when you bring them closer to the ground.
Overall the car handles super well, like I mentioned before these cars can be super fun. Turn in and cornering grip was amazing around -3 degrees of camber in the front, but at -7 it’s obviously beyond functional spec. If I enter a corner with too much speed the front end will push more than it should, but isn’t nearly as bad as some might assume. It’s predictable and avoidable, I can still take corners pretty aggressively.
With all the geometry changes it actually has very little torque steer and basically zero bump steer, less than a stock protege which is impressive. With all the negative camber at the wheels it does follow road camber, but overall it’s super stable, I could take my hands off the wheel on the highway and it would track great.
I haven’t really been happy with its stance until recently. I’m not finished with the fitment yet but it’s finally getting there. I recently built FLCA’s and solved my axle bind issue while finally giving it enough front negative camber for my tastes. I will be making some height and fitment adjustments, and making the rear camber match the front soon.
More in part 2
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With this car I’ve always wanted balance, I need it to look good in my eyes, but also be able to throughly enjoy spirited driving and twisty roads with out any rubbing or lame shit.
I’ve had countless different stance and fitment setups on this car over the last 5 years. For various reasons I haven’t had many setups last longer than a few weeks.
It can be frustrating putting so many hours into small adjustments or creating custom components that are only changing things by the millimetre. But that’s the game when you’re modifying a vehicle to operate so far out of oem spec, and every moving part is millimetres away from the next. Always a balance between achieving the desired look and creating clearances for that setup to be functional enough.
I’ve been through multiple sets of struts, countless spring rate and height setups, and a plethora of small adjustments, setting changes and minor chassis modifications, to find a balanced setup that I like. After years of trying different looks, fitting wheels, adjusting ride height, and slowly changing out parts to achieve different things, I now have fully custom spec suspension. Every component is custom spec, self fabricated, or modified in some way.
Custom spec BC Racing BR series Coilovers
F:11 / R:13kg/mm 152mm Swift Springs
Shorter struts, custom spec body length, stroke, and shaft length, valved to 10k
Fly Slotted BC front camber plates
Front notched strut towers
Fly Slotted Ksport rear camber plates w/ Custom Spring Perches and pillowball mount washers
Modified Megan Racing adjustable Rear Lower Control Arms (shortened)
Modified OEM Front Lower Control Arms (Extended 15mm)
Custom rear hub-strut mount position washers
Whiteline adjustable endlinks with modified mounting brackets
Mazda 6 Fusion Front Brake Calipers
Euro spec rear Brake Calipers
Powerslot Slotted Brake Rotors
Hawk Pads
Current Wheels are Work Emotion CR-Kai 17x9 +17
And tires are Yoko S.drive’s 215/35R17
I don’t have many photos of suspension components but threw a couple in.
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Inside I aimed to make the interior subtle and clean, within the realm of oem but with cleaner, updated touches and then a contrasting wood wheel. I chose to keep the seats for now because of their rarity in this condition.
Kenwood headunit to match the factory Kenwood sound system
Sparco horn button to match the factory Sparco shift knob and pedals
AEM Wideband o2 sensor
NRG steering hub adapter
Custom horn connection mechanism
Custom turn signal engaging mechanism
Custom steering wheel spacer and column bezels
350mm Mahogany steering wheel (beater wheel til I get a deepcorn Nardi)
Rare af dual gauge pod/surround
Interior bezels wrapped matte metallic charcoal
Outer Dash strips are brushed steel with custom printed tint on top
Wiper arm delete with alarm light
One off shift boot, perforated leather with orange stitching, to match the seats and knob
I’m going to make a custom handbrake handle eventually. For now it’s just raw, the factory handle was way too ugly lol
#stillsteezy #mazdafitment #sparco #mazda #interior #msp #mazdaspeedprotege
I lit the engine bay like this so you can’t see how dirty it is lol
Performance modifications wise my idea with this car has been to focus on making the OEM systems work better. Being so low in production numbers these cars have a lot of systems that were decent ideas, but were questionably executed from factory. I might explain more in a later post, but basically I just wanted to find the right balance between enjoyability and the motor spontaneously combusting
This motor and transmission are mechanically pretty weak sadly, so it was never a goal of mine to attempt making real power as no amount of boost is really considered safe on this motor. And the investment to power gains ratio is slightly embarrassing, so I drew a line of how much I’d invest in performance modifications.
When the ECU’s not being a bitch it makes roughly 210 ft lbs of torque at the wheels, at 8 psi, which considering the car weighs under 2700lbs isn’t that bad, it’s just, not fast.
Visually the engine bay is just functional, it has a very slight wire tuck, a few deletes and general bay tidy up, as well as:
ETS Side Mount Intercooler
Modified hard piping: Hot pipe & Intake pipe modified w/ Custom 1" BPV fittings
Modified Cold pipe & MAF relocation all w/ Vibrant couplers
HKS Power Flow intake filter
Ultra rare BoostSciences Reflex Diverter Valve
Split Second air/fuel controller v2
NGK Plugs - one step colder
RPE Short Shift kit w/ custom metal bushings and thread extender
CorkSport Bronze oil solid shifter bushings
Nyloil shifter-tranny brace bushing
Custom coolant bottle relocation bracket
CR3 Motorsports ADP
Eventually a swap may happen or I might do something brash down the road, but for now with all the previously mentioned intentions of keeping the car somewhat original due to it’s rarity, I’m keeping this setup.
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