Southrnfresh Mazda Protege 5 Track car project: Jzilla Track day at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Since our last post we have since done 3 track days in the Protege 5 and we have a good bit of changes and updates to the car.  In the last post I had a track day at Road Atlanta and the car did very well, so we did not need to do much more to get it ready for Charlotte Motor Speedway at the end of July.  

The rear bumper on the Protege had a lot of deep scratches on the top from the previous owner, and the exhaust cut out was widened to fit the Mazdaspeed muffler tip.  So I had played with the idea of cutting out the bottom section.  I had already gotten a new bumper from pull a part in case I did not like it.  

Pretty straight forward once you get the bumper off, mainly because the foam already has a line to follow to make the clean cut.  

Same with the bumper.. 

The bumper material heats up with the dremel and melts where the area is cut.  But if you go back over it with a light buff tool it will smooth it all out.  

The end result was alright, I am still debating if I want to install the new bumper on it .  I may wait until I redo the exhaust to make a final decision, because the muffler looks odd at some angles with the cut.  

I had the pleasure of getting my car taken on our trailer for no other reason but it being available.  I am sure the car would have made the 5 hour trip just fine, but the trailer made the P5 look like a real race car.. haha.  

Arrived and setup with the Atlanta Speed Company team.

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a Nascar track, and 70% of the track is high speed banks.  So naturally it did not favor the Proteges 130hp..

The biggest thing with a track like this was coming off the high speed banks and slowing down for the bus stop at the end.  As the day went on, I pushed the braking the most at this spot to hold as much speed back into the infield. 

Gong on the Nascar banks was intimidating to say the least.  I thought I would just floor it through it all and glide through it since the car doesn’t have much power.  But I found myself backing down and keeping it at 100-105mph when I hit the banks.  

 When you get on the banks you immediately start thinking about, your tires, wheels, tie rods, transmission, lug nuts, and air pressure.  Wondering if you forgot to check something, listening for sounds, or trying to remember if your wheels are properly torqued , as you are at a 24 degree angle flying by a concrete wall at triple digit speeds.  

Besides the bank, the rest of the track was a learning experience.  It was the first time I feel like the car got a serious workout.  I could smell the brakes, hear the tires squeal in the infield.  The more laps I did, the more I was able to utilize trail braking in the infield to keep as much speed as possible.  I have always heard the term in the past from other drivers, but never really used it or experienced.  But being front wheel drive under steer is the enemy, so the counter to that is to tap the brake to shift the weight, and it magically rotates the car to where you need it.  It took a toll on my rear tires, but helped me significantly to keep control through hard corners in the infield.  It also helped me get a better idea of how the car feels and how to make it do what I want.  

This time I made sure to log some of the lap times and speeds throughout the day.  So at the beginning of the day I ran a 1:54, and by the end of the day on the last lap of the last session at night, I got it down to a 1:45.  

I had a lot of video footage , and a lot of it was me doing point bys to everyone on the straights.  But in the late afternoon I got some action with 2 drivers, wasn’t much but it was a good feeling to give a point by, and get it back the next lap from far more capable cars.  

Thanks for reading..next stop back to Atlanta Motosports Park..