from http://www.virtualroadtest.com/2001/MazdaProtegeMP3/mazdaprotegemp3.htm
2001 Mazda Protege MP3
by Mark Ewing
A dozen years ago, Mazdas were for guys who liked performance, with an image that rivalled BMW's for sporting excellence. Hondas were for geeks who counted fuel mileage. That has been turned on its head over the past decade. "Sport Compact" cars are both the sports cars and hot rods of people under the age of 30. Because it has the best four-cylinder engines sold in North America, Honda has dominated this niche since I drove my first Mugen Honda back in 1986. Any kid in a greasy tee shirt can buy a used Honda Civic, order an outrageously powerful and totally illegal "crate" motor from an engine tuner in Japan for a few thousand dollars, and have a Sport Compact rocket that will leave Corvettes and Mustangs for dead.
Mazda wants to regain its lost mantle of sporting excellence, but progress is slow. Right now, Mazda has aspiration, but no hardware to sell.
Hence, the Mazda Proteg MP3, which is a quick-time first step on the long journey to performance rebirth. In another year, a 200 horsepower Miata will arrive, and a rotary-powered RX-8 will come a year after that. Within three or four years, Mazda will have it together.
Created in part by Racing Beat, an aftermarket hot rod firm that has long specialized in Mazdas, the MP3 is primarily a suspension kit, with a few body pieces and a stereo tossed in. The MP3 is not the be-all and end-all, but it's a start. Lucky for Mazda, it also arrives a year before the Ford SVT Focus, which will cost the same and deliver an extra 30 horsepower. MP3 is a stopgap measure that must be followed up with more serious hardware.
Our test car stickered for just over $18,000.
The Powertrain
For the MP3, Mazda uses the 2.0-liter twin-cam four cylinder also found in the Proteg ES and Proteg5 sport wagon. Mazda has modified the air filter and upper intake, added a Racing Beat exhaust, and tweaked the computer engine controls to add a wishful 10 horsepower. Frankly, you can't tell the difference, though the MP3 motor has a nice exhaust burble.
This is an old-style four-cylinder, not a high-revving Honda VTEC motor. Torque and horsepower curves make for a balanced package, but there isn't enough punch to match the suspension's abilities. Throw the MP3 into a corner, where it will stick like glue, and one ends up screaming out loud for more power. There's far more suspension than engine in this car, which frustrates.
MP3's five-speed manual transmission has well-chosen ratios that make the most of this engine's strength. The shift action is accurate, with a slight trace of gumminess. The shifter has been "cut down," but without driving it back-to-back with a Proteg ES, it's hard to tell if there's any significant benefit.
Torque steer is only evident under a few conditions in first gear, and the movement of the steering wheel is so slight as to be hardly noticeable for most drivers.
The MP3 was hurried through development to meet a tight goal set by Mazda North America's management. It therefore has no great enhancements to its engine. Developing a performance variant of an engine takes at least 18 months, 24 months better still. That's why you're waiting so long for an SVT Focus, which will have real horsepower. A factory-built performance motor just can't be done any quicker without enormous costs or significant risk for cobby performance. So Mazda focused on what could be done quickly and easily without much cost. Don't expect brilliance from the engine; it ain't there.
Styling & Design
To give the MP3 that Sport Compact look, Mazda turned to aftermarket companies, adding a lower body kit and rear wing. The 17 x 7 in. RacingHart alloy wheels are the most distinctive visual feature on the MP3, and they are stunning bits of modern sculpture. Making them even more alluring are the enormous Dunlop 9000 tires wrapped around them, which feature unidirectional treads that look and feel like gummy tendrils. The visual message of these very soft, single-purpose performance tires tells the whole story of the MP3. Subtle badging and a special exhaust tip complete the transformation.
As on all Protegs, build quality and finish on the MP3 is fairly high, and only well trained critics will perceive flaws.
The Interior
All Protg's have logical, neatly tailored interiors. For the MP3, a fair amount of dress-up has been added. The MP3 interior combines dark charcoal cloth with kinky silver accents on the seats, doors, console, steering wheel and shifter. A dash of faux carbon-fiber is also evident. The main instrument pod features pale-parchment gauges with black numbers, which reverse to black with orange numbers at night. A three-spoke Nardi steering wheel, Kenwood MP3 stereo receiver, and MazdaSpeed alloy pedals are the final bits of window dressing.
Materials quality is high, every bit the equal of a Honda or Toyota. Switchgear is logically placed and clearly labeled.
The front seats have excellent lateral bolstering, for both hips and ribs. They also provide adequate under-thigh support. The front seats remain comfortable on long drives, yet are also well suited to commuting and around-town duties. The black cloth breathes well, and adds to the seats' grip. Our test car featured optional front seat side-impact airbags.
Front passengers well over six feet tall will find ample foot, leg, shoulder and head room. Even with a tall driver and front passenger, equally tall rear-seat passengers will have adequate foot and leg room for drives lasting an hour or so. Rear passengers will also have excellent head room. If all four passengers are adults of average height, rear passengers will be comfortable for drives of several hours.
The trunk is big enough to accommodate a couple's luggage for a weekend, even with that massive sub-woofer taking up space. Lift-over height is reasonable for loading heavy bags.
The real star of this vehicle's interior, for which it is named, is the Kenwood MP3 stereo. The in-dash 280-watt Kenwood Excelon Z919 receiver mates to a four-channel system with four speakers, anchored by a 10-inch, trunk-mounted 100-watt sub-woofer. The system allows customers to listen to standard AM/FM radio stations or play conventional CDs and MP3-encoded CDs. There's a remote control for the receiver. Open the trunk and the sight of that big bazooka tube sub-woofer will make grown men giggle like naughty schoolboys.
Ride & Handling
If the MP3's engine is mostly smoke and mirrors, its suspension is not. The MP3 has one of the sharpest handling, best sorted suspensions available on a front-drive compact sedan. On a strip of asphalt that wrinkles over a hillside or through a forest, the MP3 has nearly ideal suspension calibration. At the driver's whim, it will ride through a corner on rails, dead neutral; or its tail will step out in a totally controllable slide; or if the corner is taken too quickly, the front end can be used to scuff off speed. Simple changes have transformed the already competent Proteg suspension into a sharp-edged tool.
All this competence should come at a price, but the MP3 has a fairly supple highway ride, too. In fact, its highway ride is superior to that of its brother, the Proteg5 sport wagon, which has nowhere near the sporting competency of the MP3. The MP3's suspension engineers deserve gold stars on their next corporate report cards.
A big part of the car's handling is attributable to that sexy wheel/tire package. The 205/45ZR17 Dunlop SP9000 tires are soft as chewing gum, expensive, and short-lived, but they make the MP3 stick. We had two MP3s in, the second equipped with a slightly harder Pirelli P-Zero. Why? Ah, because the MP3 is not equipped with ABS brakes and every journalist in Southern California committed the same error: stomp on the brakes and wait for the ABS to kick in. Ooops, there goes a lovely set of Dunlops, flat-spotted beyond recognition. Romantic as the absence of ABS might sound, it was a stupid choice for a car that will likely never see a racetrack. ABS brakes calibrated for road use are a disaster on a race course. While working with Ford SVT during the development of the 1995 Mustang Cobra R, I learned through the complaints of racers that road-calibrated ABS just doesn't work on a race track. But the MP3 is a Sport Compact road car, and Mazda should have opted for ABS because it makes for a much safer road car.
Steering is nicely weighted and predictable, benefiting from a Euro-spec steering gear. Still, it seems slightly out of sync with the extreme sharpness of the suspension. Same goes for brake pedal feel and action. This is the price of rushing a car to market to achieve some internal corporate goal and also gain a little publicity.
For those who really need to know, the changes are as follows. Chassis and handling refinements on the MP3 were developed in conjunction with Racing Beat of Anaheim, California. These modifications include retuned Tokico shocks, increased spring rates (up 16 percent and 19 percent, front and rear), larger anti-roll bars (25 mm front/21 mm rear) combined with additional chassis reinforcements. Previously mentioned steering refinements include a European-spec steering gear.
note: the rest of the story is on their website...this thread was too long and I had to cut some text. http://www.virtualroadtest.com/2001/MazdaProtegeMP3/mazdaprotegemp3.htm
2001 Mazda Protege MP3
by Mark Ewing
A dozen years ago, Mazdas were for guys who liked performance, with an image that rivalled BMW's for sporting excellence. Hondas were for geeks who counted fuel mileage. That has been turned on its head over the past decade. "Sport Compact" cars are both the sports cars and hot rods of people under the age of 30. Because it has the best four-cylinder engines sold in North America, Honda has dominated this niche since I drove my first Mugen Honda back in 1986. Any kid in a greasy tee shirt can buy a used Honda Civic, order an outrageously powerful and totally illegal "crate" motor from an engine tuner in Japan for a few thousand dollars, and have a Sport Compact rocket that will leave Corvettes and Mustangs for dead.
Mazda wants to regain its lost mantle of sporting excellence, but progress is slow. Right now, Mazda has aspiration, but no hardware to sell.
Hence, the Mazda Proteg MP3, which is a quick-time first step on the long journey to performance rebirth. In another year, a 200 horsepower Miata will arrive, and a rotary-powered RX-8 will come a year after that. Within three or four years, Mazda will have it together.
Created in part by Racing Beat, an aftermarket hot rod firm that has long specialized in Mazdas, the MP3 is primarily a suspension kit, with a few body pieces and a stereo tossed in. The MP3 is not the be-all and end-all, but it's a start. Lucky for Mazda, it also arrives a year before the Ford SVT Focus, which will cost the same and deliver an extra 30 horsepower. MP3 is a stopgap measure that must be followed up with more serious hardware.
Our test car stickered for just over $18,000.
The Powertrain
For the MP3, Mazda uses the 2.0-liter twin-cam four cylinder also found in the Proteg ES and Proteg5 sport wagon. Mazda has modified the air filter and upper intake, added a Racing Beat exhaust, and tweaked the computer engine controls to add a wishful 10 horsepower. Frankly, you can't tell the difference, though the MP3 motor has a nice exhaust burble.
This is an old-style four-cylinder, not a high-revving Honda VTEC motor. Torque and horsepower curves make for a balanced package, but there isn't enough punch to match the suspension's abilities. Throw the MP3 into a corner, where it will stick like glue, and one ends up screaming out loud for more power. There's far more suspension than engine in this car, which frustrates.
MP3's five-speed manual transmission has well-chosen ratios that make the most of this engine's strength. The shift action is accurate, with a slight trace of gumminess. The shifter has been "cut down," but without driving it back-to-back with a Proteg ES, it's hard to tell if there's any significant benefit.
Torque steer is only evident under a few conditions in first gear, and the movement of the steering wheel is so slight as to be hardly noticeable for most drivers.
The MP3 was hurried through development to meet a tight goal set by Mazda North America's management. It therefore has no great enhancements to its engine. Developing a performance variant of an engine takes at least 18 months, 24 months better still. That's why you're waiting so long for an SVT Focus, which will have real horsepower. A factory-built performance motor just can't be done any quicker without enormous costs or significant risk for cobby performance. So Mazda focused on what could be done quickly and easily without much cost. Don't expect brilliance from the engine; it ain't there.
Styling & Design
To give the MP3 that Sport Compact look, Mazda turned to aftermarket companies, adding a lower body kit and rear wing. The 17 x 7 in. RacingHart alloy wheels are the most distinctive visual feature on the MP3, and they are stunning bits of modern sculpture. Making them even more alluring are the enormous Dunlop 9000 tires wrapped around them, which feature unidirectional treads that look and feel like gummy tendrils. The visual message of these very soft, single-purpose performance tires tells the whole story of the MP3. Subtle badging and a special exhaust tip complete the transformation.
As on all Protegs, build quality and finish on the MP3 is fairly high, and only well trained critics will perceive flaws.
The Interior
All Protg's have logical, neatly tailored interiors. For the MP3, a fair amount of dress-up has been added. The MP3 interior combines dark charcoal cloth with kinky silver accents on the seats, doors, console, steering wheel and shifter. A dash of faux carbon-fiber is also evident. The main instrument pod features pale-parchment gauges with black numbers, which reverse to black with orange numbers at night. A three-spoke Nardi steering wheel, Kenwood MP3 stereo receiver, and MazdaSpeed alloy pedals are the final bits of window dressing.
Materials quality is high, every bit the equal of a Honda or Toyota. Switchgear is logically placed and clearly labeled.
The front seats have excellent lateral bolstering, for both hips and ribs. They also provide adequate under-thigh support. The front seats remain comfortable on long drives, yet are also well suited to commuting and around-town duties. The black cloth breathes well, and adds to the seats' grip. Our test car featured optional front seat side-impact airbags.
Front passengers well over six feet tall will find ample foot, leg, shoulder and head room. Even with a tall driver and front passenger, equally tall rear-seat passengers will have adequate foot and leg room for drives lasting an hour or so. Rear passengers will also have excellent head room. If all four passengers are adults of average height, rear passengers will be comfortable for drives of several hours.
The trunk is big enough to accommodate a couple's luggage for a weekend, even with that massive sub-woofer taking up space. Lift-over height is reasonable for loading heavy bags.
The real star of this vehicle's interior, for which it is named, is the Kenwood MP3 stereo. The in-dash 280-watt Kenwood Excelon Z919 receiver mates to a four-channel system with four speakers, anchored by a 10-inch, trunk-mounted 100-watt sub-woofer. The system allows customers to listen to standard AM/FM radio stations or play conventional CDs and MP3-encoded CDs. There's a remote control for the receiver. Open the trunk and the sight of that big bazooka tube sub-woofer will make grown men giggle like naughty schoolboys.
Ride & Handling
If the MP3's engine is mostly smoke and mirrors, its suspension is not. The MP3 has one of the sharpest handling, best sorted suspensions available on a front-drive compact sedan. On a strip of asphalt that wrinkles over a hillside or through a forest, the MP3 has nearly ideal suspension calibration. At the driver's whim, it will ride through a corner on rails, dead neutral; or its tail will step out in a totally controllable slide; or if the corner is taken too quickly, the front end can be used to scuff off speed. Simple changes have transformed the already competent Proteg suspension into a sharp-edged tool.
All this competence should come at a price, but the MP3 has a fairly supple highway ride, too. In fact, its highway ride is superior to that of its brother, the Proteg5 sport wagon, which has nowhere near the sporting competency of the MP3. The MP3's suspension engineers deserve gold stars on their next corporate report cards.
A big part of the car's handling is attributable to that sexy wheel/tire package. The 205/45ZR17 Dunlop SP9000 tires are soft as chewing gum, expensive, and short-lived, but they make the MP3 stick. We had two MP3s in, the second equipped with a slightly harder Pirelli P-Zero. Why? Ah, because the MP3 is not equipped with ABS brakes and every journalist in Southern California committed the same error: stomp on the brakes and wait for the ABS to kick in. Ooops, there goes a lovely set of Dunlops, flat-spotted beyond recognition. Romantic as the absence of ABS might sound, it was a stupid choice for a car that will likely never see a racetrack. ABS brakes calibrated for road use are a disaster on a race course. While working with Ford SVT during the development of the 1995 Mustang Cobra R, I learned through the complaints of racers that road-calibrated ABS just doesn't work on a race track. But the MP3 is a Sport Compact road car, and Mazda should have opted for ABS because it makes for a much safer road car.
Steering is nicely weighted and predictable, benefiting from a Euro-spec steering gear. Still, it seems slightly out of sync with the extreme sharpness of the suspension. Same goes for brake pedal feel and action. This is the price of rushing a car to market to achieve some internal corporate goal and also gain a little publicity.
For those who really need to know, the changes are as follows. Chassis and handling refinements on the MP3 were developed in conjunction with Racing Beat of Anaheim, California. These modifications include retuned Tokico shocks, increased spring rates (up 16 percent and 19 percent, front and rear), larger anti-roll bars (25 mm front/21 mm rear) combined with additional chassis reinforcements. Previously mentioned steering refinements include a European-spec steering gear.
note: the rest of the story is on their website...this thread was too long and I had to cut some text. http://www.virtualroadtest.com/2001/MazdaProtegeMP3/mazdaprotegemp3.htm
.
those were the good ole days! Stupid MSP owners =)
