Quote:
Originally Posted by Basketcase
I had 3 Mazdaspeed Proteges... a yellow and two orange. From full show car/built engine/custom turbo kit builds, to tube chassis drag car builds, and the last one I left as a DD (which turned into my autoX/track car on the weekends since my other two were under construction for most of their lives). Man, those were great cars back then! What gave me the bug, and what got me into my first e46 M3... since then I haven't looked back! Except the one time I owned an S4 for 7 weeks... but I don't like to talk about that much...  |
This is awesome!!! You were deep into it the MS Protege. I didn't finish my story above but I did end up trading in the base Protege for the Mazdaspeed version. It was the dark gray with the darker silver wheels, and I think it had the mid-cycle refresh spoiler as well. Thinking back I think the first MS Protege's that came out shared the same spoiler as the MP3.
I did all the bolt-ons: FMIC, air intake, blow off valve, turbo back exhaust, lowering springs, boost controller, etc. At peak power it was something like 215 wheel HP up from around 150 from a stock dyno run. This was the car that got me interested in the tuning and sports car world. I sold it in 2010 and then didn't get back into a sports car until 2021 with my M240i, and then onto the current M2.
So many good memories but I wonder if there are any out there that are not rusting away in a junkyard.