History of the MP3
The Mazda MP3 was one of the first factory tuned cars, and the first car to come with a MP3 player from the factory. 1500 of the cars were made for North America, 1000 Laser blue and 500 Vivid Yellow. The MP3 was a project of love from a small group of people at Mazda's North American R&D studio in Irvine, CA that took 12 months from begining to end.
The tuning house that the guys at Mazda approched for the job of modifing the protege was Racing Beat, a small company that had done a lot of work with previous Mazdas for racing. Racing Beat tried multiple proformance upgrades from the engine bay to the suspension. Most of the changes ended up in the suspension with Tokico shocks, Racing Beat swaybars, and new 45-series low-profile Dunlop rubber on 17in Racing Harts. They also made a Stainless Steel Muffler, and short shifter which was about 1in shorter that the origonal.
Racing Beat proformance parts
- Stainless Steel Muffler
- Front and rear sway bars
- Front strut-tower brace
| Protege | MP3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine | 1.6L I4 | 2.0L I4 | 2.0L I4 |
| Horsepower | 103 @ 5500 RPM | 130 @ 5500 RPM | 140 @ 6000 RPM |
| Torque (lb-ft) | 106 @ 4000 RPM | 127 @ 4000 RPM | 133 @ 4800 RPM |