This is my Midnight Mica Blue 2000 Protege ES. I bought this car over its competitors because of it styling, engine performance, build quality, and superior handling all at a price below the others. While I was perfectly happy with the car stock, I wanted to stand out from the crowd a little more. Thats when the search for JDM parts began. My Mazda Protege would soon become a Sport 20 Familia "sedan".
Although it was a bit pricey, I was able to get the JDM Sport 20 front bumper, grille, fenders, headlights, foglights, sidemarkers, sideskirts and all the JDM badging (trunk and door.)
I love the neat little city-lights that came stock on the JDM lights!!!
The Autoexe front lip is a JDM mod that was hard to get ahold of. I was in love with it the first time I saw it on a Japanese website.
Due to the fact that the JDM Sport 20 is a wagon/hatch-back in Japan I couldn't swap the rear bumper. Thats where a MP3 rear skirt came into play.
Once the exterior mods were complete I decided that the stock U.S. 1.8L 122hp engine needed to be swapped for the more powerful JDM FS-ZE 2.0L 163hp powerplant. To aid the new engines breathing I added a HKS Super Mega Flow intake and Thermal Research and developemant 2 1/4 in cat-back (now a Racing Beat cat-back) Other details I added to the engine compartment are a polished exhaust manifold cover and color-matched valve-cover.
The only things that are different on my engine is the location of the coil-packs (my car = external) vs. (JDM = under the valvecover cover) and the stock exhaust manifolds. U.S. has the restrictive catalytic converter under the heatshield whereas the Japanese car doesn't. Thats the reasons for the exhaust manifold/heat-sheild looking different
I just recently added the A.W.R racing header. It's a nicely made piece. Installation was fairly easy. Just be sure you take the 2 radiator fans out (requires the removal of 4 screws).
All these mods are riding atop a newly installed MP3 suspension including the front and rear sway bars, struts, rear crossmember and B+G 1.3in drop sport springs. 17 X 7in Racing Hart C5 3-piece wheels with 205/40/17 Kumho Ecsta put all these goodies in contact with the pavement.
