They interface with the road through 17-inch cast aluminum Racing Hart wheels encased in 205/45ZR-17 Dunlop SP Sport 9000 rubber, and with the driver through a leather-bound Nardi three-spoke wheel. Helping out the firmer springs and thicker roll bars are Tokico shocks and stiffer control-arm bushings. Co-founder Jim Mederer and his crew had helped put together the original MPS show car for last year's SEMA aftermarket-parts show and have delivered a production version virtually unchanged. They include mild engine and suspension upgrades for which Mazda relied on tuner Racing Beat in Anaheim, California, an established company carrying street credibility with the slammed-Civic set. Particularly since the miniature controls require a degree in enigmatology - the hand-held remote is thankfully simpler - and the display vanishes like Brigadoon in direct sunlight.įortunately, the MP3 has some other noteworthy tweaks that bump the roadability value above the more pedestrian Protegé models. The sumptuous sound from this radio and its 10-inch cochlea-compressing subwoofer seems as good as most bookshelf systems, but its presence alone isn't quite enough to get the resident rev heads here salivating. Hence, the name of this car and a big chunk of its $2230 premium over a similarly equipped Protegé ES manual. It accepts regular store-bought discs or self-burned jobs encoded with MP3 digital audio computer files. The MP3's 280-watt Kenwood Excelon Z919 head unit has a multicolor LCD that, when off, is populated by marine life and when on routinely performs a perfect imitation of Tokyo's Ginza district at midnight.įlip down the motorized faceplate (after locating the appropriate tiny button with an electron microscope), and a CD slot appears.
It may sound as though we've snorted the whole bag of nutmeg, but not this time. Should you heed the message and put power to the stereo, a blazing iridescent quasar vaporizes Flipper and begins pulsing in a spectral orgy to the thump of the giant subwoofer. Their little pixilated bodies duck and weave across the dashboard reminding you that your ears are going to waste. The Mazda Protegé MP3 is inhabited by dolphins.
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