Patrick’s Mazda Protege:
“Passion”

Updates from 2005:

In January 2005, Corbeau signed on with me for sponsorship, I decided on the beautiful black A4 seats with yellow harnesses.

January 8, 2005: Corbeau seats just arrived!

It was like Christmas all over... kinda funny.

January 10, 2005: Decided to purchase the MAM built block! It will take the majority of the winter to get it machined, parts ordered, etc. In the mean time, I decided to enter my car into the Grand Rapids Autorama at the Devos Place.

Went to AutoRama January 13-15 at the DeVos Place and took home a Honorable Mention in the Import Class and also took home an Import Tuner Xtreme Street Award. Not too much to see considering its in Grand Rapids- lots of domestics and classics, not much else. Just an amazing 500hp+ Evolution, a 240SX, and a Impreza that shared the same booth as me. Pics:
Preparing for the show @ Grand Olds and Downtown at the DeVos Place:

Out on the floor making final preparations:

Pictures of the older First Gen Turbo Setup from MAM

Pictures taken just before leaving the DeVos Place on the last Sunday of viewing:

Got a couple awards!

Got the car out for 2005!

SPRING BREAK 05 ARIZONA: Tons of stuff done!

The first week in March, I took Spring Break and went to Tempe, Arizona, to visit my sponsor, Mental Addiction Motorsports, and to install my brand new completely build motor that took all winter to build and machine. The stock motor on my Protege can't handle much more than 250whp on stock rods, so to rememdy this, my sponsor worked with me to build the first installed Mental Addiction Motorsports Protege Built Blocks. And to think I left the winter weather behind in Michigan for my Spring Break? Turns out there wasn't such bad road conditions, but it got us worried, nonetheless. This was in Arizona believe it or not:

A look at the block as it sits after machining at the Machine Shop in Mesa, Arizona in March of 2005:

It's completely machined (exactly what is my secret), and will run crazy horsepower numbers! Thanks to the folks 15 minutes away from me, Oliver Competition Rods for the billet rods. Also, can't forget the 8.5:1 Compression CP Pistons! At this time, this motor is sucking in 17psi! The GT2871R turbo is wanting more power. It also has an upgraded Spec clutch to handle the power being thrown at it. We'll see how long the stock 5-speed transmission lasts! Here are a handful of engine pics before we installed it:

Check out the crank and the new Oliver Billet Rods! The setup will take wicked amounts of power!

Getting ready for head assembly here, the new bottom end paired up with my original stock head.

Here are some pictures from the engine install in Arizona:
Again, thanks to Ryan, and Jamie, but also to Beau. Couldn't have gotten this car as fast as it is without their invaluable install help. Thanks to LinuxRacr for the Haltech help at the start when I wasn't as familiar with it as he was (helped me learn to where I am today)

Uninstallation of the engine took about 4-5 hours. It wasn't too bad, and thankfully Ryan was able to help me (he also took out his stock motor)

Its loose! Just need to get the picker to pull the rest of the motor out, very carefully!

After about 10 minutes of lifting the picker up, the motor was just about at the right height to move it over the front of the car, into the building to be diassembled!

Nice heavy stock block, comin thru! Amazing how much stuff sits on the engine.

Only took about 6 hours to get the engine completely out of the bay:

Ok, new engine getting all the accessories from the old block! All misc stuff too! Like timing it! Ooh fun! Also check out the port on the intake! Thanks to Ryan for his mittenach port skillz!

With the new engine all timed and ready to go into the block, the delivery guy showed up with all the beautiful jet hot coated and powder coated piping!! The kit you are now seeing is the REVISED STREET SLEEPER KIT Note the change in manifold, the 3" downpipe, and the other parts! Spec Stage 3 Hybrid is holding daily, but on long highway trips (when the car is fully hot) it starts to chatter in higher gears with full load, so keep that in mind when you decide which clutch to get!

Custom 3" Downpipe! Yeah baby! However, I think I've gotten more comments on Beau's manifold than any other part under the hood. Its an awesome piece with a lot of work into it. Remember, that was the first bull horn Protege manifold he built, and its perfect. No flaws!

Time to put the GT2871R turbo together:

After a VERY short nights rest (I'm talking 2 hours), we got up to finish installing the new Revised Street Sleeper Kit on my car! We had barely started to break the engine in at this point, maybe about 100 miles if that.

I just can't get enough pics of the shiny manifold before the heat dulls the shine a little.

As you can see in the picture on the right, we got some Protege Power to come down and help for the Dyno day- You can see 505zoom's Mazdaspeed Protege BEAST there (Black Protege) who is making a TON of power on the stock block (I forget what he's upto these days- around 275whp?) also, another built Protege- LinuxRacr made the trek from DFW, Texas! Another awesome car that has a very similar setup to mine.

Check out that beautiful 3" downpipe and bull horn manifold. It'll help with faster spool up!

Doesn't it look awesome! If you are interested in these parts, be SURE to check out the link at the top to Mental Addition Motorsports Homepage! Also check out their forums and image gallery! Not to forget an EMS to tune this! Unfortunately for me, the AEM EMS was just way too out of my price range, so I opted for the proven Haltech E6X instead. I also decided on some Ford green top 440cc injectors, because the stock 280's just wouldn't make anything over 200hp.

Used these parts:

Then in May I headed down to work in Sandusky, Ohio @ Cedar Point. My car has been in Arizona getting worked on since Sprice Break in March, and in June (June 17, 2005) I finally made it down to pick her up! Pics from the trip down to AZ: