Mazda Protege 5 Track car project : Front End Overhaul / Upgrades and Road Atlanta Crash again…

I have been wanting to install the Mazdaspeed Protege Racing beat front sway bar on the P5.  This requires you to either remove or lower the subframe.

Bushing are original from 2002, so they were not doing much…

I had gotten a low mileage subframe from Mazmart about a year ago, so swapping it out was made sense at the time.

Bushings were still fresh, but no reason not to upgrade while there were accessible.  So I went with some 25mm Energy suspension bushings.

Cleaned up and ready to go back in…

These are the subframe and control arm bolts.  These bolts were in pretty rough condition, no way I could put these back in.

I had to wait a few days to get them from Mazda, but the piece of mind was worth the $40 in bolts..

Bolts in…

Subframe tucked back in..

I have also had this Corksport shifter bushing for a long time… but never installed it.  Probably because its kind of annoying to get the old one out.  The only way to remove it seems to be to trim the edges and press it out, simple process just annoying..

While the car was down, I wanted to get the header wrap off the car, and have it properly cerakoted.  The header is a cheap no name brand, but it has held together and gotten the job done.  2 years ago Icoated it with some sort of heat paint, and wrapped it.  I am surprised it hasnt rusted through.

Once again my good friend assisted me with stripping the header in the sand blaster, and cerakoting it..

Once cured, it looked much better, and that crusty wrap was gone…

The heat dramatically decreased from before.  The header was not cool enough to touch, but the heat wasn’t overwhelming in the engine bay.  And it looked a million times better..

I hadnt gotten the VTCS to work properly on the FSZE intake manifold so while the intake manifold was out to access the rear engine mount bolts.  I removed the VTCS and plugged the holes.  Typically its good to have it in for lower end torque.. but not working it was better to just remove it rather then have the restriction..

Late Subday afternoon after having the header done, I could not resist with putting a little coat of paint on the manifold while it was apart..

Much nicer…

Also while everything was out the way, I took some time to clean up some wiring from the jdm harness.  I this point I had removed emissions and only had 3 sensors going to the intake mainfold and the rest were crank sensor, coil packs, temps sensor, o2 sensor and a few grounds.  So i wanted to simplify things..

wrapped the harness in Tessa tape ..

Everything back in.  Im working on the coil on plug conversion, and converting the power steering lines to AN fittings just because it looks way nicer..

So back out at Road Atlanta, my biggest fear with Road Atlanta is the sway bars making the rear too stiff, and the car being sketchy at high speeds during turn-in.  Which is why I had to upgrade the front sway bar to match the rear.  My first session the car was super neutral and it didnt too much of anything unless I wanted it to.  I experimented with Turn 1 by braking early and downshifting and powering up the hill.  It worked, but coming down the front straight and braking hard I felt like I was losing so much speed to prepare just to accelerate up the hill. And if I waited to late I can feel the rear get a little light.  So I started to hold 4th at a slightly higher speed and turn in early, and push out to the outer apex.  It gave the car much more speed up the hill, but I had a small window to hit it right before it pushed me out too far.  But the car felt much more stable. I did manage to get a new personal best of 1:54.1 early in the day.  

I am sure I would have gotten it down more later, but after lunch I lost my power steering belt , and it was a workout on a some of the longer turns.  So before it started to rain I never got a chance to get any good laps in..

Speaking of rain…around 2pm it started to rain pretty steady.  Usually I dont have much trouble in the rain, and it allows me to keep up with some of the faster cars.  And its a bit fun as long as I am careful.  Well I had been out for about 3 laps.  And decided to take one more lap.  And I came around turn 3 and lost traction in the rear and the car spun around, and pancaked the tire wall.  By the time I hit the wall I could not have been going but 10-15mph at the most.  I was uninjured, and the car drove the same, but was a bit bruised as you can see…

The car drove back home fine, and did not feel out of the ordinary.. I can maybe salvage the front bumper, but the side loops that held it up did break.. so that maybe an issue.

Did not realize that I was missing my side skirt until I got home.  But the doors are dented pretty bad.  Glass held up..

The worst part is the rear quarter panel, which can not be bolted on and off.  Once the other panels are replaced I may see how much of it can be pulled and or repaired..just so its not as ugly.  

With every big milestone, I like to take nice photos with the camera as a memory of the journey.  I cant lie it sucks to see the car get damaged.  But I am glad its still able to keep going.  Next stop is Barber Motorsports park in August, lets see how much I can get repaired by then…