Eurotrash Motorsports

As part of my prep for my first auto-x event of the year in Picton, I decided to install my GTspec Lower Tie Bar. The bar connects the two front control arms and is designed to provide added stiffness, decrease wheel-hop, and provide better turn-in feel.

The install was fairly straight forward and the prep for the install actually had more drama than the work itself.

Here’s a lesson in safety kids, Rhino Ramps on an inclined driveway don’t work out so well. While trying to put my car on ramps, my driver’s side wheel spun and launched the ramp under my car leaving the protege 3-wheeling. I had to jack the car up, place the ramp back under the tire, and lower the car back down. The rest of the work was performed on the street at the bottom of my driveway with the car on jack stands.

As I mentioned, the process for installing the bar is fairly straight forward. Before starting any work on the car, it wouldn’t hurt to spray down the two bolts on your lower control arms with either WD-40 or breakaway spray either the night before or a couple of hours before starting.

Tools you’ll need:

• 17mm wrench
• 17mm socket
• breaker bar
• jack and jack stands

Start by jacking the front of the car up and placing it on the stands. Next, locate the main bolt on each of the control arms. The bolts thread into a welded nut on the opposite side of the control arm. This is where the wrench comes in. If your car is 11 years old and fighting a losing battle with rust like mine there’s a chance that the welds on those nuts may break. Place the wrench over the nut to make sure it doesn’t move. Using the 17 mm socket and a breaker bar, remove the bolts.

Once the bolts are out, it’s just a case of holding the bar up in place, putting the bolts back in, and tightening everything up. Note: The nuts should be torqued with the wheels loaded otherwise you’ll get a clunk.

Check out the gallery for all the pictures and stay tuned for more work

It’s a new season with a new car which means a new round of regular maintenance needs to be followed. First up, new plugs and wires.

I’m a little ashamed to admit it but in the 6 years that I’ve owned the car, I’ve never replaced any of the plugs or the wires so this maintenance may have been a little overdue – better late than never right?

When it came to choosing a brand of plugs and wires, there were a few brands to choose from but after doing some reading and talking to my parts guy, I decided on some NGK V-Power plugs and NGK wires.

The V-power plugs lower ignition system voltage requirements and offer overall superior performance and reliability over the standard OEM replacement plug. At just over 3$ a plug they aren’t going to break your budget either.

The install is fairly easy and only requires the appropriately sized spark plug socket and a spark plug gaping tool. Before installing your plugs, make sure to check your service manual or the spark plug manufacturer’s website for the proper gap specs.

The scariest part of the install was when I went to remove the plug from cylinder 3 and found that it was SIGNIFICANTLY less torqued than the first two plugs. I wonder if I was loosing any compression there?

Check out the gallery for pictures.

Well this is exciting! My 2010 motorsports season kicks off tomorrow at Shannonville Motorsports Park and I will be driving my “new” race car.

Before taking the protege out on the track there are a few things that need work, the most important being the brakes.

Unlike the BMW the protege has front discs and rear drums which makes finding performance parts a little harder. Some would say that upgrading the rear shoes isn’t a high priority and that upgrading the shoes may make the car a little twitchy but I figured it would be a worthwhile experience either way.

After doing some research online, I came across CARBOTECH Performance Brakes. Not only do they make upgraded performance pads for disc brakes but they also make performance shoes for drum brake applications. Before making the investment I wanted to make sure I had all the information I needed and Mike Jr. at CARBOTECH definitely helped me out. In fact, he himself had once owned a protege and provided a lot of useful information and even offered to honor their SCCA discount since the MCO is a CASC affiliated club which is basically the Canadian equivalent of the SCCA.

Satisfied with the information I was given and the customer service I experienced I decided to pick up a set of AX6 pads for the front brakes and some 913 shoes for the rear.

I would definitely recommend talking to Mike Jr. at Carbotech before making your next brake purchase.

The Install

When it came to the install, I have to admit I was a little nervous. I have changed disc brakes a number of times but drums were still a foreign concept to me. Now that’s it’s done though, I have to say that it’s not that bad. The hardest part was stretching the springs into place.

A word of advice, jack the entire rear end up in the air, remove both tires, and remove both drum covers at the same time. This way you can use one drum for reference while you work on the other.

Check out the gallery for pictures of the work.

Allow me to re-introduce myself…..*queue the Jay-z track.

After having amazing season last year sharing the BMW, Shawn and I decided it would be fun to find a second car so that we wouldn’t have to split our track time. Initially the idea was to find another BMW since we had learned so much and we knew the platform was a solid starting point. After missing out on a great sale, I shifted my focus to a Mazda Miata. The thought was that the miata has extensive auto-x background and great aftermarket support at prices that would be lower than those for the BMW.

Eventually though my dad had to step in and provide some fatherly advice. After pointing out that spending money on a car I am unfamiliar with when I had a great car already in my possession that I absolutely did not want to sell, I decided that I didn’t have to look any further, I already had my car – my 1999 Mazda Protege.

Project Background

I’ve owned the car for 6 years. In those 6 years I’ve put a bit of work into making it “my” car. I’ll post some pictures in the gallery section but here’s a quick run down of the work.

• Custom MAZDASPEED body kit ( P5 sideskirts, ’03 MSP rear lip, 01+ mazda lip, autoexe replica grill)
• Black housing headlights
• Black housing corner lights
• Tokico HP Blue struts
• Evotion lowering springs (1.5 inch drop all around)
• CosmoRacing cold air intake
• B&M replica short shifter
• Ractive Strutbar
• Tsudo 4-1 Header
• MAZDASPEED mid-pipe and axleback

I’ve put a little bit of work into the car already this year and I’m sure I’ll be putting more in as the season continues. Stay tuned!