Mazda Protege 5 Track car project : Final stretch to 2021 Track Season
After getting the calipers seals removed, I was able to get some help from my good friend at LLOYDS . He powder coats for a living, and he let me come over and give it a shot. First step was to strip the calipers to strip them and ready to be sand blasted. This is a photo of them fresh out of the stripper.
Second step was to sandblast, that gets the surface rust off and the remaining paint and or impurities off and and ready for the powder..
I decided to go with a basic silver and alot of flake, and I added a hint of green just to see what would happen.
Spraying the powder…
Final Bake with the clear coat…
Final product…
New seals, and slide pins
Rebuilding the calipers is pretty simple, but the trickiest part is re-installing the pistons back into the calipers. Initially I laid the seal on the piston and tried to press the piston in with the seal on it, and wrap the seal.
It was very difficult and I ended up damaging the seals trying to put the seals on the ridges of the caliper.
I watched a Youtube video, and found a easier method. Place the seal around the caliper, and then press in the piston into the caliper, and the seal goes right in place with minimal effort….
Much easier….
Everything fresh and new ready!
I was initially gonna re-use my Hawk HPS pads. Because I have been trying to find a harder compound, So I wanted to give the EBC yellows a chance. G-Loc makes a pad combo for the Mazda 6 calipers and P5 calipers in the rear.. but I was running low on time
The one thing about EBC is that they have a very intricate break-in period. The initial break-in period is 200 miles, and it continues on up to 1000 miles. But that 200 mile period will have it ready for use..
Everything installed…
Final step for the brakes, was to get some fresh RBF 600.
Initially I wanted to sell the Work wheels, and get a set of RPF1s for the weight savings, and go down to a 16×7 from the 16×8. After a month they did not sell, and I didnt want to spend the money on a set of wheels if I didnt need to, so they are going back on. I went down in size from a 225/45R16 R888R to a 215/45R16 in the new Falken RT660 from Atlanta Speed Company . The R888R did well, but I have heard great reviews about the RT660s,and wanted to give them a try.
After powder coating the brake calipers, I was so addicted transforming things, I decided to get the Strut bar done.
Before after sand blasting..
We made a plan to start a transformation with everything and this is the main color choice with it all..
Right now it doesn’t match what so ever, but when its all done it will make sense!
I was finally able to source a long discontinued GT Spec rear trunk brace from a a Protege group member guy in Hawaii. Great upgrade from the Megan Racing strut bar..
Installed…
It was finally time to get rid of the huge stock size battery. I found this kit on Ebay , the Odyssey battery is 12lbs, a huge weight savings of 30lbs…
I had to drill out the mounting holes to mound it in the trunk.
Much better… hopefully I will be able to get the trunk cage refinished…
So the results of the diet over the winter, the car was down to 2186lbs from 2482lbs the previous year..
Finally done and ready to roll and get back on track in 2 days. Last minute I decided to add the Southrnfresh lower banner on the car. It came out pretty well from a distance, but up close its pretty rough. But it works…
Finally after months and months of wrenching Jzilla track season was officially back . The first track day is always the most nerve wrecking because you are finally putting to use all the changes and updates to the test. I spent a lot of time this winter trying to make things a little better with the car. And just improving things over just adding parts to the car. It was a lot of trial and error and trying out things so I was nervous that I had forgotten to bolt something and or just over looked something. But the drive to Atlanta Motorsports Park was smooth, which usually translates to a smooth track day.
My student for the day was in a Mazdaspeed 3, so some of my personal tips were pretty useful to him out on track.
The Falken RT660s were really good. They seemed really consistent throughout the day. From the cool start until the end of the day when it warmed up, they never felt unstable even in the tire killer carousels. The true test will be the summer time track days and the hot days that I will be doing later in the year.
So my Sony camera stopped holding a charge the night before the event, so I had to resort to using my cell phone to record sessions. This video is of me attempting to keep up with Joe Ippolito of 2J Racing . I first met Joe many years ago at Road Atlanta, when he was competing in his VQpowered Sentra Spec V. Amongst all the big power cars and usual track cars it was cool to see something unique out on track and being competitive. We kept in touch and I have seen Joe at many events in many different cars through out the years. But the original VQ Sentra still sits at his shop collecting dust. And every time I see Joe I bug him about the old VQ Sentra..
So it was a personal achievement to be able to get out on track with Joe and attempt to keep up. The video is me trying to keep up as he goes through the traffic in his bolt-on Spec V that he has just purchased. By this time I was all in with the car and was having a blast.
Since I started to track the car I had a issue with locking up one wheel under hard braking. And pulling under hard braking, and just abnormal habits from the brakes. The car stopped great, but it wasnt perfect. I had gotten used to it so now having it working properly took some getting used to. The EBC brakes were perfect, and the car stopped evenly, and the pedal was much more firm and exactly how I wanted it to be. I wish had timed myself because I am sure I would have set a new personal record and gotten under 1:40…
To keep with the tradition I took a minute to celebrate the new look and the start of the season with a fresh set of photos to start the year. I was uneasy about removing the mazdaspeed front lip, but I think it looks pretty simple and clean without it. The side Southrnfresh vinvyl is growing on me. I am usually not a huge decal guy, but I wanted to make the car look much more official.. haha
Not much changed from this angle. I may or may not redo the exhaust this year, but the mazdaspeed rear axle back works really well and sounds good..
AS mentioned before I was hoping to be able to go with different wheels but I did not get a chance to. As seen sometimes the car rubs in hard high speed turns, and I thought it was because of the 225/45s so I figured it would stop with the 215/45s but apparently not. Its not a big deal I will try and roll the rear fenders a little more.
The best improvement over the winter was improving the power band and making the 135hp useful with the matching FSZE JDM ECU and harness. That change was felt dramatically, I have a set of adjustable cam gears that I need to install and a toyota coil on plug kit as well. So once that is done I will take it back to the dyno and see how much more power I can squeeze out of it…
Crazy to look back at all the transitions from stock to current. The car has came so far from being a 288k mile $1200 Protege 5 with a bad wheel bearing to what it is now. We still have plenty work to do!
