Mazda Protege 5 Track car project : More parts, and more track time…

I had the honor of being asked to help the Jzilla Trackday team instruct this event.  I dont consider myself a pro, and I treat every event as a learning experience.  But I was really humbled to be asked to instruct new students to the group.

I had 2 students, one with a STi, and another in a Audi S5.  I felt bad, that these guys had to follow me around the track in my ole P5.  But the key to any trackday is to have fun and be safe.  So its part of the process.

On the second day, only one of my students was able to make it.  So it let me focus more time with one student.  My student had done a few track days, and had plenty of experience on track, so at this point we were just going over things to be sure he was ready for his ride-along for the solo group.  Being my first time instructing it was a great experience.  I am not a professional by any means, but I am thankful for the team at Jzilla for trusting me with the task of doing so.

My personal track day was pretty good, no real complaints except for the weather.  And with the big hole in the sunroof it made it far more complicated.  But I took advantage of the wet conditions and did a few sessions in the rain.  At first the idea of the challenge was fun… but Road Atlanta tends to create puddles in the worst areas during hard rains.  And with the R888Rs it was sketchy at times. But this video above was one of my most fun runs in the rain.  Being wet on track, it gave me the advantage a little and helped me keep up with some of the quicker cars in the run group.

I ended up leaving during the last session to get ahead of another round of storms.  But I managed to run right into it on my way home.  Besides the foggy windows, it wasnt too bad.  And if I kept a decent speed I would not get wet.

I made a stop for some food….and the weather had made a full turn to sunny skies…

A good friend of mine, sent me a craigslist ad for a Free Protege 5.  I honestly was not looking for one, but it was semi- complete and had a engine and transmission in it.

Upon further inspection I found out that the car was owned by Paul of Mazmart for many many years and had spun a bearing and had been sitting at Mazmart for years before someone got it for parts.  And the guy had gotten all he wanted off it.  So it was my turn….

The main thing that I wanted was the transmission out of it as a spare for future build / upgrade.  The car was full of random protege parts, but at this point I had plenty of spare parts.  So besides the engine harness , engine , trans most of it remained.  And it was sent off to the scrap yard…

I also took the time and upgraded the passenger side engine mount to the newer Hydra Motorsports Billet Engine Mount .

The AWR Engine Mount I originally had was absolutely fine, and worked well.  But I got it used, when I first put the car together and it was time to get something fresh in there.

The engine mount fit like a glove, but in order for it to be installed , you will need to cut and or remove the top timing belt cover.  The difference was crazy, the engine went from slight movement to no movement.

It was time to get back on Atlanta Motorsports Park, this was my first time there with my new seat.  And I was so excited to finally be able to be secure in the seat and focus on driving. But I had been struggling all day with grip.  I had initially thought it was because the track was cold earlier in the day.  But as the day it never went away, and I was fighting with the car in the turns, and it just didnt have the grip it normally had.  You can see how much effort it was to make the turns, and how noisy the tires were in the carousel..

After the event, I looked over the car and noticed that my tires were done, and I put the car back on the alignment rack, and my alignment had been all out of wack.  In the past I tried to re-align the car before every event, but I had gotten away from it this year, and this is the results.  This ended up being the last event of the year for me.  As I decided not to spend the money on tires for one event.  And I did want to look into changing wheel/ tires setups again next year.  So back in the garage for the winter, and some updates…