you won't gain anything over just changing to a better pad. that being said, the OEM mazda pads are actually pretty good for daily driver use, too. these comments go especially well since you are staying with stock suspension. save your money on the brakes, and put it towards engine maintenance, since that's the protege's actual weakest link.
They are bigger, which means more effective breaking.
proper lowering springs/sport dampers and better tires for sure make a huge difference.
you can upgrade brakes, but doing a larger rotor only makes sense if your trying stop a larger wheel and tire. you cant really go bigger than 17x7 and 215/45/17 without running into problems with the speedo and abs, so might as well stick to factory size and just get better rotors and pads.
i have stoptech rotors and hawk pads on my msp and that thing will lock no problem at any speed with my summer tires.. or winter tires in summer lol.. NO problem.
msp brakes are a tiny bit bigger obviously, but the parallal is there. compound make a big difference.
cai is a pretty big waste of money if not used as part of a system. ie, a full exhaust, header ect ect. if i had to buy anything to give a little more power, it would probably be a jpipe back exhaust. this car 2 or 3 cats and you could easily delete the midpipe cats for a nice performance boost without being really dirty. alternately, a ebay header would free up some power without changing the exhaust. factory exhaust is pretty good overall just lots of cats lol.
another thing to consider is the mp3 ecu flash. that is realatively cheap and smoothes the car out quite a lot.
if i had never owned an msp, id probably love my p5 just fine. its so much more plush than the msp and comfortable. i want a little more out of it, but still civil heh.
MP3 flash is easily the best mod for an na setup. 5-10 whp gain depending on other mods. Better fuel and timing maps and better gas milage
The stock motor sucks for performance. If anyone wants a straight line or dyno queen car they should run away from the protege
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There are 2 cats just like every other modern day car. Deleting the precat will allow better top end performance. Deleting both of them will make it sound like s*** and lose low end power and torque across the board. You need back preassure for a na setup. Not to mention you will get a cel
MP3 flash is easily the best mod for an na setup. 5-10 whp gain depending on other mods. Better fuel and timing maps and better gas milage
The stock motor sucks for performance. If anyone wants a straight line or dyno queen car they should run away from the protege
Tell me more about this flash that gives better fuel mileage. What type of scanner tool is needed and where does the data come from?
Thats not what im looking for, I have a 62 Buick with 500 ftlbs of torque for having fun on the Dyno. I just want to have a good little car.