Any hints on FWD autox setup?

Anyone have an tips on setting up a 96 protege for autoX? Trying to keep the budget as low as possible, not worried about class' right now just want to go as fast as possible. I love corners. So Junkyard parts are a plus, swapabilty between generations on struts, springs etc?

BTW I think this car is the red headed step child of the mazda world there doesn't seem to be a whole lot in the way of upgrades for this generation protege. Guess it's time to break out the welder and cutting torch.

huge rear sway bar

add lightness...its the cheapest and most effective way to go faster...until the law of diminishing returns starts to rear it's ugly head.

Is this the BG chassis with the BP motor?

cxhb wrote: huge rear sway bar

+1

Sticky tires, sticky tires, sticky tires, huge rear sway bar, sticky tires.

I think the Ford ZX2 SR struts are a good, cheap upgrade?

pinchvalve wrote: Sticky tires, sticky tires, negative front camber, huge rear sway bar, sticky tires.

Slight typo you had there...

Left foot braking also makes a FWD car understeer less if done properly, helps rotation.

Car - Loose is fast.
You - Seat time is way more important than any part you can buy.

93celicaGT2 wrote: Is this the BG chassis with the BP motor?

BHA chassis with a bp motor, at least I think it's a bp motor, lx twin cam, looks like a miata engine with a funky intake, and a distributor instead of a DIS.

In the process of adding lightness. Big rear bar, and negative front camber, gonna have to look into. left foot braking I will have to find somewhere to practice that one.

Soft in the front, stiff in the back. The cars had a couple of SCCA Showroom Stock National Championship wins, so they must not handle too badly.. Don't know why they didn't catch on.

instead of the huge sway bar in the rear, id up the rates...a lot.

Spinout007 wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: Is this the BG chassis with the BP motor?

BHA chassis with a bp motor, at least I think it's a bp motor, lx twin cam, looks like a miata engine with a funky intake, and a distributor instead of a DIS. In the process of adding lightness. Big rear bar, and negative front camber, gonna have to look into. left foot braking I will have to find somewhere to practice that one.

the easiest way is to get hold of an automatic and use only your left foot for braking for several days... the touch/feel will become second nature

the easiest way is to get hold of an automatic and use only your left foot for braking for several days... the touch/feel will become second nature

Automatic??? what's that? oh yeah that thing my mom drives.....hmm wonder if I can borrow it, I feel like an idiot every time I get in it to take her somewhere, my left foot goes hunting for the clutch pedal to start the car.

I would pick a class 1st and then choose the parts. Stock would be the cheapest class as you can be competitive in just about anything. The higher the class the more mods and more expensive.

Stay in stock, get some Koni Yellow Sports and some DOT R tires and you are done.

In reply to CivicSiRacer: stock is cheeper only up front... those DOT R tires are a recurring expense ... read that as expensive.... do the mods for street touring .... a one time money outlay, and your tires are ~ 1/2 the cost of R-comps, you can drive them to the auto-x, they work in the rain, last 2 - 3 - 4 times as long... the mods can be pricey but then you are through.

Tires only last as much as you use them and take care of them. My 1st set of R tires lasted 2 years. I had the Yokohama A032Rs. Maybe some of the newer Hoosiers and Kumhos do not. I haven't purchased R tires since 2002.

But remember to have fun 1st :)

yep, it's a new ballgame now w/ r-comps. a single-driver car can maybe get a season out of a set of A6s, even on light cars. half a season if you have a co-driver.

which trim level of the Protege is it? if it's an ES, you got the 1.8L twin-cam BP. if it's an LX, you likely have the base 1.5L...in which case i'm sorry. mazda switched the trim nomenclature around after the first gen (i.e., after '94); ES (rather than LX) became the high-level trim.

you're right; there isn't a ton of stuff out there specifically for the 2nd gen. but most of the suspension stuff is interchangeable or close between all three generations...one guy is running a first-gen car in FSP w/ the engine and suspension from his former FSP car, a Protege5. the suspension stuff should fit w/ only minor modifications. Most similar-year Escort bits should fit as well.

ask around on the protege boards (try mazdas247.com or protegeclub.com); there are people who can answer a lot of questions.

personally, i think ST or SP are better spots than Stock for the Protege, but if you're just starting out it doesn't matter.

In reply to Buzz Killington:

clubprotege.com will probably work better than protegeclub.com

CivicSiRacer wrote: I would pick a class 1st and then choose the parts. Stock would be the cheapest class as you can be competitive in just about anything. The higher the class the more mods and more expensive. Stay in stock, get some Koni Yellow Sports and some DOT R tires and you are done.

Well, almost done. Don't think Koni Yellows are available for that car, but Tokico Blues are. Need as much negative camber as you can get, even if you have to go to crash bolts to get it. A little bit of toe out, about 1/8" on both front and rear, helps a bunch. If it has the same rear suspension setup as my Escort GT did, rear toe should be easily adjustable. My Escort had a bunch of body lean; a bigger front sway bar would also help.

cghstang wrote: In reply to Buzz Killington: clubprotege.com will probably work better than protegeclub.com

d'oh...you're right. shows you how long it's been since i had my last protege.

On my ZX2/SR which has the Eiback Pro Kit springs and the especially calibrated Tokico struts, 22 mm rear bar. 2.5 degrees negative camber and all the caster I can get. Toe is zero front and rear. I have tried a little toe front, couldn'y see a difference. The car has very little lean and I can steer it with the throttle in certain corners. Of course the usual FWD thing, power on" understeer,power off'oversteer. A little known fact: The top strut mount can be turned so that the little pointer is pointed at the firewall. This increases caster. Don't know if this works on the Mazda.

Koni Yellows

Good rubber

Big rear sway